Question about Kindergarten, please read

[aprilgail2]

I doubt very much that they could keep a kid back for not meeting those goals in MA because kindergarten isn't even mandatory. It wouldn't be fair to keep some back while others aren't even attending. .

Kindergartne is not mandatory in NY either which is why I don't think they can have standards in NY for kindergarten that they have to meet for something that is not even mandatory.

 

[jacksonsmom]

I feel for the OP, I really do because my son has the SAME schedule except he goes M & W and every other Friday. I hate it!!!!!!!!
I do feel he is being cheated out of some education.

They can not do all day, every day K because of classroom size. There are currently 7 K teachers and about 240 Kindergarteners in my son's school.
Half-days are out because of bus funding, so the all day, every other day is what they say works right now.

I know a lot of parents hate it. I know I do. I feel my son isn't being challenged enough and K is really just a preschool in disguise.

They are talking about building a new school and the 1st graders would go in the same building with the 2nd-5th graders. Right now my son's school only houses K & 1st graders. If they build a new school (got to pass first, that is a BIG step) then the current K & 1st school would house only K's and it would be an all day every day program once they hire more K teachers.

Of course none of that would affect my son's K year, so since I can't change it I do work with him at home on his off days.
We don't sit down all day and work but we will read books together and work on letter sounds and work on some math problems. Sometimes we will just play board games like Sorry! or Uno where he has to following directions and work with numbers.

The way I see it is my son mainly goes to school for art, music, gym and computer class. Classroom time they are working on writing letters, which my son learned all that in preschool. At home I am teaching him how to read, which he is picking up pretty good.

Not the ideal K year I want for my son but I am trying to make the best of it.

GOOD LUCK OP!!! I know how you feel

 

[Daxx]

Kindergartne is not mandatory in NY either which is why I don't think they can have standards in NY for kindergarten that they have to meet for something that is not even mandatory.

It's the SCHOOL who makes it mandatory, not the State. My SCHOOL requires the child to read in order to enter first grade. So, even if you aren't coming to our school from a Kdg. program (or have never been to Kdg.), you still have to be able to sound out words in order to get into first grade. This is in MY SCHOOL ONLY! I know it isn't that way in the public schools and don't know about other parochial schools and what their demands are.

Please don't rake me over the coals on this. It's not NY State (b/c I checked in my curriculum yesterday) that's forcing it and it's certainly not me that's forcing it -- it's the SCHOOL. I have no say in school policies. However, I will add that I've had questionable readers passed on to 1st grade. By questionable, I mean the ones that I thought were struggling and might not pass.

 

[delilah]

When my son was in Kindergarten, he had standard 1/2 day classes first term, then second term, it was full day 5 days per week. I agree that the OP schedule is weird for Kindergarten. Our public school is doing something weird here, too. (My son goes to Catholic school). They are starting late on Wednesdays to allow teachers prep time. I'm not sure how late, but that would create major chaos for my family--I am so glad he goes where he does. Another factor in favor of saving up to send him to Catholic high school, also.

 

[disneymom3]

I totally agree with the OP that this is a stupid schedule. When Dd was in K, our district switched to all day every other day K, BUT they made it even worse! She didn't just go T/Th and e/o Friday, No no no! One week she went MWF, the next week she went TTh. BUT if there was a holiday, then she went two weeks in a row of TTh or vice versa. It was a nightmare! The months of Feb and March, she had 6 and 7 days of school respectively! In the entire month! Plus the poor thing couldn't figure out if she was going to school that day or not. The teachers even said that weekly they had kids show up on days they were not supposed to be there. It was a nightmare and yet four years later, they are still running the same schedule. It is because of the money for bussing.

We pay A LOT in property taxes for schools in our district, our school board is a mess with members calling each other names in the local paper and two members just quit midterm--literally walked out of the school board meeting and the superintendant resigned mid year. It is a mess and you can bet I am not voting for any more school levies until they get straightened out. I can't afford for my taxes to go up any more.

 

[PaulaSue]

Wow, intersting, I am glad our schools don't do that. I can't imagine they learn half of what our Kindergarteners learn going full time 5 days a week.

 

[graygables]

I knew this schedule wasn't good for them. I guess I'm going to have to make up some of what they are missing here at home. I'm not a teacher though and don't know how. I mean how do you take a child who knows very little school work wise and begin to teach them how to read?
I wouldn't even know where to begin.

There is a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". It sounds kind of strange, but if you follow the "script", it really is easy and it works very well. I have 2 DDs that I homeschool (4th and 2nd grades) and both have reading difficulties. This book has been VERY helpful in teaching them. We also use "Handwriting Without Tears" for both print and cursive and that has been good, too. BTW, just b/c you are "not a teacher" does NOT mean you don't know how to teach your children. You taught them pretty much everything up until now, so don't sell yourself short!

 

[mommaU4]

I just found this thread again because I wasn't around yesterday.

I want to say thanks again to everyone who posted, especially jacksonsmom and powellrj for letting me know that at least my girls aren't alone with this wacky schedule.

Thanks to graygables for the info on those books. I will be checking them out.

And a special thanks to Daxx for taking the time and consideration to PM me with some very useful and helpful info for my girls.

I did some figuring hour wise and my older two who had a 5 day a week half day schedule went from 8:30-11:30 so about 15 hours a week.

My girls go 2 days a week from 9:00-4:00 so that's about 14 hours a week then when it's their Friday that jumps to 21 hours a week.

So hour wise I guess it's the same. It's just the holidays, snow days, teacher inservice days, conferences, and any vacations we choose to take that sort of mess with the schedule.

One thing I've learned from this thread is no schedule is without it's pros and cons and I plan to follow all the great advice I've been given here to make sure the girls do just fine.

Thanks everyone.

 

[PaulaSue]

Thanks for the book ideas too!

My almost 5 year old is so ready to read and I am clueless how to get her the next step.

 

[SRUAlmn]

I knew there were a lot of Kdg. teachers and parents of Kindergarteners on here so I thought I'd post it here rather than starting a new thread. At Dollar Tree stores they have 9 piece foam puzzles with Disney characters and numbers 1-9. They are not huge, each of the 9 squares is about the size of the largest post it notes. They have one set with Pooh characters and one set with Princesses. I got one of each for my classroom last week and the kids went nuts for them. I went back today and got them each one for their Christmas gift. Not too pricey, educational, and DISNEY! What could be better

 

[lvs_eeyore]

I cant get over the weird K schedules I have seen in posts recently. Both my kids went to Kindergarten Monday through Friday all day. In fact because they were/are in a magnet school they actually went an hour longer than most public schools in the area. If we had anything like the schedules I have seen posted the kids would never pass the things that they need to be promoted to the next grade.

 

[Skylarr29]

I have never heard of this sched every. I think you should just try to do as much as possible with your children to try and make sure they are on tract.

 

[Sleeping~Beauty]

We have the half day kindergarten here five days per week, and I'm so happy about that. It works out really well because it eases the transition from a few days a week pre-school, to half-day kindergarten, to the full day first grade.

 

[aprilgail2]

We have the half day kindergarten here five days per week, and I'm so happy about that. It works out really well because it eases the transition from a few days a week pre-school, to half-day kindergarten, to the full day first grade.

Around here that is what we use preschool for....my daughter went 2 days a week to 2 year old preschool,. 3 days a week to 3 year old preschool and then 4 days a week to 4 year old preschool so by the time kindergarten comes they are used to it.....they also have one day a week of Pre-K in the grade school that the kids go to when they are 4..they learn how to del wit hkindergarten..where to put their folder when they come in, where to hang their backpacks..they go to gym, art, library, they learn how to buy hot lunch and just get used to the school...that one day was a lifesaver! The kid who did not go to that are the ones that cried the first day of school- "Kevin the cryer" who cried the first month of school would have benefited greatly from that if his parents had sent him....

 

[Sleeping~Beauty]

Aprilgail, I am so happy that our district doesn't do it that way. From my degree in ece and teaching in it, I may have a different perspective. Going to school at two years old isn't the answer to me, and some young children still cry first days of school, even with years of pre-school and all, ymmv.

 

[KAMLEM]

Around here that is what we use preschool for....my daughter went 2 days a week to 2 year old preschool,. 3 days a week to 3 year old preschool and then 4 days a week to 4 year old preschool

2 years old seems so young to go to school. Around here nobody goes to preschool that young. A lot of kids aren't even potty trained at 2.

 

[aprilgail2]

2 years old seems so young to go to school. Around here nobody goes to preschool that young. A lot of kids aren't even potty trained at 2.

At the school I sent her to they didn't have to be potty trained for the 2 or 3 year old preschool....only the 4 year old one. My daughter was actually not even 2 when she went...she was born in Nov and the cut off around here is Dec 1st so she was really only about 22 months when she wetn...but she already was speaking in paragraphs, knew her ABC's etc so she fit right in. She carried her backpack (a mini one) by herself and her snack....they only went for 2 hours each time so it was not a big deal....I wouldn't have sent her if it was any longer than that each time but it was a good break in start to schooling and she had a lot of fun there...they did mostly fun things that they worked on in a group, not really educational stuff, they did some ABC stuff but that was about it and she couldn't wait to go every time.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

My son also went to preschool as a 2yo. Same kind of program--2 1/2 hours, twice a week. He was an older 2yo and could have actually gone into the 3yo program, but I knew that our county was going to change the kindergarten cut-off age, so went ahead an started him in preschool with the age group that he'd be going to K with.

Our 3yo preschool was the same hours, and the 4yo was 3 times a week. There were some longer options at that particular preschool, but all were true preschool hours, nothing full time.