I figured she'd be use to it by now but shes not. She did have 2 years of preschool but only 3 half days per week. Our district has full day kindergarten.
Added: My kids are in bed by 8 (sometimes 7:30). They don't get a nap time in class. She hasn't napped in years anyway (since she was 2). The work is not too hard for her, she is ahead academic wise. I also shorten her day a bit by picking her up rather than taking the extra hour long bus ride home. She is just exhausted from such a long day. I'm just surprised she isn't use to it by now. I thought that by Nov she'd be fine.
We have full day kindergarten here and she seems to be doing ok with it. BUT she comes home STARVING every day, lol.
She did go to full day preschool for about a year and a half before starting kindergarten, maybe that helped.
my daughter went to 3 full days during last school year and then family watched her during the summer so it was a big adjustment going from that to 5 full days with before and after but shes handled it beautifully as long as she gets to sleep by 8...sometimes she doesnt til 9 and then waking up is tough for her or eating breakfast
He seems ok, but he has been sick nearly nonstop since september, in spite of having his immune system "strengthened" in the first 3 months of pre-school. My guess he is more worn out then he looks.
My daughter had to be in bed by 7 to deal with school hours. It's exhausting! And your a great Mom for picking her up at the end of the day!
My son seems to be doing great, but I will second what Just M said about bedtime. Last night I had a meeting, so my husband was to get him to bed by 8:00. I arrived home at 9:00 pm to find our son sitting on the couch watching tv. Daddy knew he was in trouble.
This morning was not fun, to say the least. He would not get dressed. I'm pretty sure my husband learned his lesson this time.
Our son gets up at 6:30, so he needs to be in bed by 8:00 or 8:30, at the latest. He usually conks out pretty quickly. I think part of the problem last night was that he was just overtired.
It can't hurt to ask her teacher how she's doing at school. She might be doing better than you think.
My daughter had full day Kindergarten and then went to a babysitter's. Yes she was exhausted in the evenings all year. My sons dealt with it better, I think they were better sleepers.
My daughter is pretty tired, getting a little more used to it, but part of what makes her tired is the constant negotiation with kids. When she comes home, she wants down time. I do lights out at 7pm and leave the room by 7:25. She said she falls asleep right away after I leave the room. Its possibly she still needs more sleep.
My son never did.
Our full days were 8.5 hours long, and they only had 30 minutes of recess/lunch.
He was bored to tears and utterly exhausted for the entire year.
He's an active kid, and he's ADHD-c. Having to sit still for 8 hours a day and pay attention to things he'd done when he was 2 or 3 (our K class did 1 letter per week) just tore him to shreds.
All districts are different. Ours had VERY long days, almost no play time / active time, and a mediocre curriculum (addition/subtraction was not introduced until 3rd grade if that tells you anything... yes 1+1=2 not until 3rd). He used up every single bit of self control during the schoolday (teachers loved him) and then just fell apart when coming home.
My son was coming from 4 days 5-6 hours a day of preschool and came out of it reading, doing arithmatic, science, history... he LOVED learning/school... and had a LOT of playtime/active time. To go from that to the public system where we lived just killed him. ((It's why we started homeschooling... I moved every 2 years, and districts are very very very different from each other. We were in a very tedious district when it came time for my son to enter school. One of my only real and lasting regrets was not pulling him sooner. Instead, by xmas break when I KNEW it wasn't working, I diddled around looking and applying to private schools for next year, researched homeschooling, and "let him finish the year". Big mistake n my part.))
Having moved so much... it's not just full day/ half day... but also what is happening DURING the day.
The same kid who was falling apart during an 8.5 hour day at the public school can EASILY handle and love a really intense 10 hour academic day camp. When the material was interesting, and the kids had a lot of playtime / active time/ and were fed regularly (his k-class lunch half hour was 2 hours into the 8.5 hour day, and some kids didn't have their lunch time until 2 hours until the end)... he did GREAT. Came home bouncing and with energy to spare and in a great mood.
So look at how the day is SET UP. What are they learning? (above or below the level she's at?) How much playtime do they have and what kind? When are they being fed and how often?
Some days really are easier than others for sure. My kindergartener doesn't seem to be nearly as exhausted as he was when he started. However, we have had a couple of illnesses along the way...in fact today is the first day of school that he has actually missed.
What I did find was that the lack of a naptime (they only get about 30 minutes) really made a difference. I found that I really had to move his bedtime to about a half hour earlier to compensate. SO, instead of starting the night routine at 8:30 p.m., we now start at 8:00 p.m.
