which do you think is better; all day, am, or afternoon and why? Our new school district offers an all day K class and then am and an afternoon and we can pick which one to send our ds to this fall. I'm still thinking 1/2 day though, which is what it would have been had we stayed in our current district. I know each child is different and some might not do well in all day and some might. I just wanted to know your pros and cons, from your experience. My ds will start this fall and turn 6 in Nov. He went to daycare for 3 1/2 yrs and part of that was considered the pre-school program. He does well meeting new people/making friends and playing well with other children but I'm not sure if he would be ready for all day yet, even though he is used to teachers and sitting in a class like setting during daycare/pre-school. TIA for any input! I think the school secretary said something about the all day being more for kids needing more help socially and academically, but I'm not 100% sure if that is what she met!

I didn't realize they still did half day kindergarten. DD is in half day pre-k but will be full day K. I think she will do good with full day. She really enjoys school and with everything they are throwing at them at such a young age, I think it takes a full day to get through it.

My oldest is in all day and I love it. Most importantly, so does he! He's blossomed so much. He's never been too shy, but it's brought him even more out of his shell....he's happy to have the social interaction with the other kids, he's reading at a 1st grade level already. All day has been wonderful for him. Of course he already had the patience to sit as much as he needs to for school, so that probably helps, too.

Our regular Kindergarten is either am or pm. My ds is am and I purposely chose that as I think it will help him transition into 1st grade and getting up in the morning. We also have an all day program but parents have to pay for that and it was an outrageous amout...I wanna say $2400. It is considered "child-care" but unlike the latch key program they continue to do educational activities. I think the majority of the people who have their kids in the all day are for academic reasons. Meaning they are ready/needing more of a challenge in school as opposed to just 3 hours a day. My son would never survive in all day kindergarten...he thinks it's boring as it is....but my daughter loves school and when she goes to Kindergarten I may consider it for her.

My kids were always in a half day. IF I send Julia to Kindergarden( I might homeschool her) I would only send her half a day. I did have to send my girls when they were 3 and 4 to a full day of Headstart one year, but I worked then. So I guess my answer is, if you are home anyway, I would only send them a half day. You still get a little time to yourself, and you wont have to take them out of school for doctors appointments.
If you work, then it would save money on daycare.

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"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."

-- St. Francis of Assisi

Well, my oldest is in Kindergarten right now and it is all day. His elementary and 1 other elementarty school are the only 2 in our district with all day. This is out of 9 elementaries.I am ALL for all day. I really hope they have it next year so my dd has all day.
Now, like you said...not all kids can handle all day K. I have a friend whose dd is in am K...she is litteraly bouncing off the walls by the time she gets home!!
For my ds, the 1st 2 weeks of school, he was only going in the morning. Then they started the all day program. He had a tough time with it at first,but got used to being their all day. It took about 2 weeks for him to be ok with it. At first, he said he wanted to be in half-day,but he stuck it out and now he loves it!!! He was 5 when school started,turning 6 in Nov as well!
My personal opinion of all day is that you have to go all day in first grade, why not start them getting used to it in Kindergarten? Does that make sense? What also helped uswas talking to a cousin of mine. She teaches all day K in WI and she told ds what kind of things they do in her class.
I HTH. I think I am all over the place here.

This was the case in our old district. Full day was pushed HEAVILY to the parents, so much so that the PT conferences were all about what your child wasn't learning since they weren't in FT. However, they also had 32 kids in my DD's PT class, and no helper.

As far as learning I would check into the schedule of what they learn in those extra hours. The FT kids went for 3.25 hour more than the PT kids (2.75 hrs) but in that extra time they allowed for...
Lunch - 25 min
Recess - 20 min
Resting - 20 min
Free Choice - 30 min
Milk break - 15 min
Gym - 25 min
Clean up/wind down/story time - 15 min
These are important I understand but acedemically they only had an extra 45 min.

Now in the district we are in they only have FT kindergarten.

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my dd is in 1st grade this year and she was in 1/2 day last year! and my other dd who will be in kindy in the fall will do 1/2 day next year!! (WE would have to pay 350$ a month and well I wouldnt even make theat much working part time
I also feel that dd will be in school soo long lets let her be a kid for a while longer!!

our district only offers all day.. but my son who's b-day was in may was ready(at 5) he does not nap(if the kids seem tired teacher will give them rest time a nap mat was on the school list) he quit napping at 2 so i think that made a difference. they only had a few naps in the early months of school now he says they never have them(wich he likes lol) i think this in the end will have helped him going into 1rst grade he did half days in his pre-kindergarten program so i think this was just a natural progresson. i also have a set rule in bed no later than 7:45-8pm on school night so he is getting enough sleep..
follow your heart you will do the right thing.

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'The will of God will never take you where the
Grace of God will not protect you.'

I wish my DD's school had a full day Kindergarten. 3 hours and 10 minutes just isn't much. I notice the day has to be rushed because of the time limitations.

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~ Jessica