Full Time Kindergarten vs Part Time Kindergarten ?

My son goes to full day kindergarten and does fine. I think it will better prepair him for the grade ahead. He also attended a full day preschool before starting kindergarten and I feel benifited him, oh and dispite what another poster said all kids can benifit from a preschool not just low income children. I know I have taught pre-k for 3 years now.

Since she is on the older side and is used to going to school and daycare
I would opt for the full day K. The first month, she will be tired but they
adapt quickly.

The kindergarten program at our elementary school is structured very well. The children have a lot of time with hands on play, learning, etc but also down time, recess, and a rest period. I think if she'll be 6 and you feel she is ready for K then the full day would be fine..........based on the program in our district.

Kindergarten.
7:30-7:45 arrival
7:45-9 morning calender, morning stations (rotations which involve computer, teacher table, independent work at desk and activity).
9-9:30 snack time/ Dear (Drop Everything and Read) time.
9:30-11 Language arts time, again with stations which involve teacher table, computer, reading, activity
11-11:30 recess outside
11:30-12:30 scheduled indoor activities... blocks, kitchen, art easels, play.. all themed for the letter of the week.
12:30-1 lunch
1-1:30 recess outside
1:30-2 everyone rests on their towel/mat
2-2:30, art, music, PE... each class has 1 of these activities
2:30 pack up

Just FYI on how ours works.

GOod luck

I'm homeschool, but here is my opinion: children should not be in school full time till they are at least 7 years old. All the evidence shows that PLAY is more beneficial than a structured academic curriculum. Evidence for the benefits of preschool only apply to low-income children. And all the benefits are erased by the age of 7. So kids that read early, know their ABCs first etc..their peers all catch up to them around 7.

Your child has the rest of her life to feel the drain of long work days. Why start is so young? When will she get to be a kid?

My son turned 6 in October. I wanted him in full day kindergarten because of my work and school schedules. Our school only has one full day class so it wasn't really my choice in the end. The school chose the kids with the lowest test scores, plus a few with higher test scores to be "examples". What I ended up doing was to move my son to a school that is within walking distance of a good day care. Now it doesn't matter when I work or have class or whether or not my son gets out early. I drop him off at the day care and pick him up at the day care. The day care makes sure he gets to school on time. The school only had an opening in the afternoon class and that was hard on my son for a few weeks because he too was still taking occasional afternoon naps. A couple times he curled up in the stuffed animal pile at school and fell asleep. Once the school even sent him back to the day care for a nap. It was no problem. Eventually he got the hang of it and is fine now with no nap except one sometimes on the weekend. In the beginning of the school year, my son was sad about how little time he got to spend at home with his family and just playing with his siblings. Once he made friends at the day care (several of them walk to school with him from day care) that wasn't a problem any more. Good luck with your decision!

My daughter is in half day PM kindergarden this year.. she is the oldest for her grade.. (bday is 20 days past the cut off). She was absolutely exhasusted after 3 hours of kindergarten. By Thursday she was so tired she might come right home and go to her bed adn take a nap. After Christmas break.. 4 full months into the shcool year she adjusted and now she isnt so worn out after a school day. I am so so glad she is half day.. It is absolutely the right place for her.

Next year our district is only offering full day. The shcool day is 9-4. My younger child will have to go full day. I am very upset about this. He is a boy adn he will only be 5years and 3 months when it starts. I think it will be too much for him and overwhelming. I imagine picking up tired cranky kids at school at 4 pm.. feeding them dinner as quick as I can bath and betime by 645. Not much time to play or have fun with that schedule.

The educational goals for half day and full day are exactly the same inour district.. the kids cover the same material in half day and full day. The full day kids get 2 recesses in the afternoon, a nap and an extra special class (gym art music etc) -- I was told (by a teacher) taht the great thing about full day kinder is they kids have time to play.. This made me even madder.. My child can play at home..

I would not do full day kinder.. give her one more year to learn and grow and have fun with you and her siblings..

If you go with the MWF school.. plan some fun things for T Th.. go to the zoo.. sign up for a music class. some enrichment activity.. Yes she could get bored if you stay home all day T Thu.. but you can find lots of fun things to do.

Each child is different, so I can only discuss what we chose for my son, but he is in full day Pre-K, and is absolutely thriving. They have play time and outside time twice per day, but what has been the best for him is the overall structure of the program.

Good Luck with whatever you choose!

My youngest would nap at his desk in 1st grade and I didn't even send him to Kindergarten until he was 6. I think that where your daughter goes to preschool 2 days a week in the afternoon, she is going to be ok after summer break on the no nap. I would send her to the all day because changing schools after making friends isn't an easy thing to do. The first few weeks may be a little rough but I bet she will do just fine.

My daughter is in the same boat as yours. She turms 6 in September too. Our district only offers full day. She naps some times too. Maybe you should look at it this way...if your daughter was 6 a few days earlier she would be in first grade this year and she would be in school all day. Also, school starts about 7 months from now at that time she may not nap. I don't think it is too long for her to be in school. Some kindergartens do have a rest time, at least, in the beginning part of the year. If I had the choice I would put ther in the full day. Ultimately the decision is yours and you need to do what you see fit with your child.

I am a preschool teacher located in a school which also has all day k and half day k. Our 4/5 year olds are in school with us doing curriculum/Phy Ed/music,etc. all day. The children in our class are used to being in school all day everyday so all day kindergarten doesn't sound so intimidating when it's time to choose all day or half. We also have a lottery system in our dist. so not everyone gets their first choice.

Every child is different, but kids are very resilient. Usually the children in our program are acclimated in our program after a month or so. Most all day k programs have rest time, also the teachers take into consideration the age and abilities of the children they teach. That is why all day works for most kids. I understand your worries about your child spending a full day at school, but I'm sure she'll get used to the schedule quickly. I think it would be more difficult having to switch schools after she's made relationships at her current one. I hope this helps. Good luck!

Send her to full-time. She has to break the nap habit sooner or later. My son is full-time, they do not have nap time. Start to break her of it slowly before school starts. She will most likely be too busy, having fun & may not need a nap. My son was never a napper so it works fine for him.

Good luck!

My son started kindergarten this year and had turned six in August. He had already had two year of preschool then one year a five day a week pre-k(part time). I felt that he would benefit more from full day kindy. He needed the interaction and the enrichment activities(pe, music, art, library) we're built in. He has done so well this year and loves it. I think he would have been bored staying home with me and little sister. I would definitely not chose the other school. It would be too confusing to switch to your neighborhood school the following year. It also makes playdates harder. I did that with my oldest and regret it. He is somewhat of an outsider because of it. Just my opinion. Of course do what you think is best for your child and family! GL!

My daughter was 5 when she started full day and it is great. She was already going to Pre-K everyday for 3 hours and bored the rest of the time she was home. This was the natural progression for us and she loves it! She hadn't need a nap in a couple years either, so that makes a difference. She will adjust to the schedule. Plus she would be in daycare anyway for three of those days, two extra won't hurt and it's probably cheaper than daycare.

All the states I have lived in (we are military) only offer full-day kindergarten. My son was a young kindergartner (July birthday) and did just fine. His preschool was M/W/F mornings. It's totally up to you--but I bet she could do it:)

I have had children in half-day kindergarten and children in all day kindergarten depending on what was provided by the district we were living in. Like you, I was worried when the first one went to all day, because she still took naps, too. I was worried that it was a very long day. She had to be at school by 8 and didn't get home until 3:20.

I will say that what she learned by then end of all day kindergarten was amazing. She was reading books and writing sentences. She learned SO MUCH. She really didn't have a problem with losing the naps like I thought she would.

It makes sense, because half days in our old district were 9 to 11:30. There isn't a whole lot you can learn in 2 1/2 hours when you still made time for snack and centers. In full day, there was still snack and centers and lunch and recess and PE and art. She got the full experience and she loved it. I have learned that I would prefer my kids to go full day.

You are fortunate to have all these choices; in most school districts the decision is made for you and the schedule set for you - no choice between half- or full.

You know your own child best. She will be older than most K students and that could work for or against her: If she is in K full day she may find that more stimulating and be ready for it. But she could have the opposite reaction --she may find it boring and stifling if she already knows things they are doing in K and has to sit through full days of letters and numbers and other things she can already do.

So ask yourself: Where is she on her learning? Would she get a lot out of being there full day --both socially and academically -- or would she be spending time doing things she may already know and thus would be bored?

Investigate now, not next fall; find out what they cover in the curriculum of full day versus half day. Sometimes full day is really just a half-day worth of actual curriculum learning with more play, a nap time and snack tacked on, frankly; in other cases it's much more learning going on. But I suspect that if your district offers both options, it's the former situation, and that would make me question whether she will really get more learning time in a full day or just more socialization time. Nothing wrong with socialization and play -- just investigate and think about what would work best for her.

My child was in the last year of half-day K at her school; virtually the entire school district went to (mandatory) full-day after that. I was glad she was in half-day because it gave us lots of time together and she wasn't napping at that point but did need her "down time." She was five and then turned six in her K year. But if you have other kids to juggle and a job, you may find that full day does work best. If you choose half-day you may want to do more activities with her on those days she's at home -- kids' science experiments, reading at the library, kids' book clubs (many libraries have them now), math at the grocery store as she helps you total stuff -- things like that.

They take naps in kindergarten usually until at least Christmas break is over. I would go with the full day.

In my area we don't have the buses but that does sound too late. I guess they go to school 9-4? That's really odd hours to me but if it's what your district does.....in Oklahoma most schools are around 8am to 3pm. It may be off by a few minutes like 8:15 to 3:15 or something like that but not as late as yours. Probably due to the harsh winters and the roads being a bit better a little while later in the morning.