Adjusting to full day kindergarten

[Caleb's Mom]

Age is a such a tough thing at this point in their little lives. (8 months difference means so much.) His b-day is April 29 so he'll be 6 just a month before the kindergarten school year ends - then you look at those kids who are already turning 6 now in Sept. and Oct. and it's a big difference -- physically and socially. His best friend I'd say has 4-5" on him in height. My son is smart as a whip (I'm his mom, I'm allowed to say that!) but socially he's just not as daring or brave.

 

[talie95]

I totally agree with you. I really think they should be at least 5 1/2 before they start kindergarten. I would never send a 4 year old to school no matter if they made the cut off or now. Even if they do fine in school, I believe they would do better held back a year.

The states really need to standardize the cut off dates. I think those Oct-Dec cut off dates are insane....I am for full day kindergarten, but sending a 4 year old off to full day...NO WAY!!

I think that like OP said, we need to consider the whole child. I don't think we can really say that all 4 year olds should wait to enter K. My dd just makes the cuttoff and has just started K and is doing great, whereas there were kids in her preschool class last year who are 6-8 mo older than her and staying back a year because they are not ready in other aspects, whether socially or for maturity reasons.

 

[MATTERHORN]

My DD also was young, she just started first grade last week and doesn't turn 6 until September 17th. I agree that you need to evealuate the whole child, not just the age. She never went to daycare or preschool and she is doing so well with everything. I just having half days last year in K was perfect for her to adjust to a school lifestyle. She loved going and I would have cried with her if I had no choice but to send her to full day and she hated it.

I am glad that I did not hold her back though! I was 4 also with a September 11th birthday and never had any problems either. She was more than ready and I would have done her a disservice to keep her home another year. She has blossomed the past year and is reading on her own and writing well and had an overall great year. I don't think waiting another year would have helped her, but for some kids it would make a world of difference. You have to make the call based on each child, whether they are 4, 5 or 6.


Andrea

 

[JMLBrats]

I too did not read all the posts, so sorry if I repeat anything similar that was already said.

All kids are so different aren't they? My DS who turns 6 on 9/27 will be going into first grade and had a full day of K last year-got picked up at about 8:10 and came home at about 3:40-talk about a long day! But he absolutely loved it! A couple of times I picked him up at school a few minutes early and he got mad at me . Anyway, this was the first time that our school had incorporated the full day K and a lot of parents were very worried that it would be too much for their kids, but from what I understand overall the kids did excellent at adjusting. When my niece started first grade (which was her first time in school full time),her & my SIL had a heck of a time-I think it took her until about half way through the school year to adjust to going full time, but she finally did and was doing really well by the end of the year.
One thing is that the teachers seem to be able to get much much more accomplished with the full day-my DS is reading at 4th grade level now and I know a lot of that is just him, but I do give a lot of credit to the school as well because they had a specific reading assistant that spent a lot of time with him as well as placing him in some kind of "gifted" type of program, where he was pulled out of the classroom and given special attention.
A good friend's DD who lives in another town where they have 1/2 day K was very disappointed in the lack of academic work that was done and her DD definetly could've done a full day easy. Sooo, what I'm trying to say is I really believe that full day is a good choice for most K kids-he will probably adjust fine-maybe you can pull him out early sometimes to make the transition a little easier. I do feel for you as I'm dreading how it's going to be next year when my DD starts K, she's totally opposite DS in every way and I can't see her lasting a full day....so here's a

 

[JMLBrats]

Your poor little guy. As a former first grade teacher (of kids who were going to school full day for the first time) I too know he will adjust to full day but it may take a while. Each year I always had a few kids who had difficutly with the longer day. I think food and sleep play a big role. I instituted snack time which was not a school wide thing for my class. I think young bodies need nourishment throughout the day. After snack time I would also do a quick energy boost whole body motion song or some type of game to break the school work and get the energy going.

Does your son have a snack time? My DD just started K this past week and I was so relieved when the teacher sent home a notice on the first day that K is doing snack this year. (they did not last year) The kids can also bring a water sports bottle. How her class is doing snack is every child and parent takes a turn making snack bags for the entire class (something nutritional and they gave us a list). On their appointed day they bring them in to share. The kids eat their snack while on centers so not alot of activity/instructional time lost.

I was just going back and reading some posts and just wanted to say how much I agree w/ this. I sent tons of extra snacks w/DS and I think it helped a lot. And even still, he was usually hungry when he got off the bus. BTW, I can't even imagine a full time K that didn't have at least 1 snack time in addition to lunch break-snacks throughout the day are crucial for young kids.