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7.04.2008

Full Day Kindergarten

I think I'm in favour of this... The government is considering making Kindergarten full days, and introducing Pre-school to the current curriculum.

What it comes down to is that in today's economy, two wages earners are necessary for most families, and daycare is sorely underfunded. What surprises me is that they would consider increasing the school curriculum rather than increasing daycare funding (I'm surprised simply because it's a solution that I actually agree with!)

There are people out there who say: "Let kids be kids!! Why start them in school even earlier?"

I wonder if those people have children currently in Preschool or Kindergarten. Frankly, my kids have as much fun, if not more, in Kindergarten and Preschool as they do at home. With all the new friends, crafts, games, field trips, play time, singing, classroom pets, recess and gym time that they enjoy at school, it's hard to imagine them NOT wanting to be there.

Currently, studies show that one quarter of kids who enter Kindergarten are not developmentally ready (WOW). Clearly Daycare is not bridging this developmental gap in a society where both parents are too busy earning wages to put food on the table to be prepping their kids for school.

Then there is the theory (supported by studies) that early intervention prevents social problems later on, making the cost of a lengthened school curriculum economically beneficial.

With all of this in mind, it's hard to imagine why anyone would be resistant to a lengthened school curriculum which includes preschool and full day Kindergarten. It will be interesting to see if it is actually put into practice.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

HI :) Thanks for your comment today. You are a busy blogger! I think there is nothing wrong with a regular day for kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten it was a regular day, I'm not sure when it changed. My daughter went from going to a full day at a Montessori preschool to half days at kindergarten, it almost felt like a step backwards. I wish there could be a good balance for those who are ready for kindergarten full days and those who maybe need a little more pre-school time.

Jeanne Elle said...

Hi and thanks for visiting my blog :-)

(LOL, I'm a new blogger, so let's see how long I actually keep up this pace!!)

A friend of mine is in the same boat as you - her son was in a four hour per day preschool, and now he's "stepping backward" to 2 1/2 hour Kindergarten.

(Now that you mention it, we had nap time when I was in Kindergarten, so ours must have been full days as well.)

Hopefully they'll switch back, because it seems like the advantages outweight the disadvantages.

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