Do you think full-day Kindergarten is expensive babysitting or a good investment in our young children?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Serap
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I think it is neither expensive baby sitting, **nor **a good investment in young children. I think it is part of the trend to push academics at earlier and earlier ages at the expensive of other things more age appropriate. It takes away from children’s exploration of the world around them, which might effect creativity and understanding of nature. Many children enjoy academics and school work, but others are simply not developementally ready for academics at that young of an age.
 
All of our area public and Catholic schools have full day kindergarten now. So many families have both parents working now, so the kids have already been in daycare for many years, and even those who have a parent at home, the kids have usually already been attending preschool for a few half days per week before kindergarten, so most of them are more than ready for it. Plus, kids are learning to read and do math in kindergarten now, whereas when I was a kid (I’m 42), all we did was learn our abc’s, listen to stories, color, have a snack and take a nap. We learned the stuff my kids learned/are learning (I have a kindergartener now, and 3 others who are past kindergarten) in kindergarten when I was in 1st grade.

In Christ,
Ellen
 
Polycarp1 said:
An interesting and recent study showed that once the children get to grade five there is no academic difference between the kids who went to kindergarten and those who didn’t. This would seem to indicate that while it may be convenient for parents that ultimately it is largely a waste of time and money from an education standpoint.
Click to expand...
Well, how do they do in grades 1-4??? I’m not sure how that works out to mean Kinder doesn’t matter. If it takes 4 years for those kids to catch up, that seems really bad to me.
 
Serap said:
I was asking b/c my boss told me that full-day kindergarten is a waste of tax dollars and it has no value and is just expensive babysitting.
Click to expand...
I have seen full-day programs where he would be exactly right. When it first was introduced in my area, it pretty much was just that - because they had no full day curriculum for it. My second oldest had a standard half day of learning, then basically unstructured play time for the rest of the day. (This was over a decade ago).

Now however, it is a half day of academics and a half day of enrichment (art/music/gym/lunch/recess). Which for me, personally, would be a waste because I’d rather do those things at home with my own child, so I was fortunate enough to still have a half day option available when my youngest went a couple years ago. Now it’s all full-day with no half day choices.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m fine with full day kindergarten as it has evolved and continues to evolve into a more complete education experience 🙂 I’m just pointing out where he may have been coming from. 🤷
 
Our three oldest kids all went to full day kindergarten. I think it was definitely worth it and far better than Pre-K ($350/month for a half day of Sesame Street and coloring). I don’t know that we’ll do Pre-K with the youngest, but they’ll definitely have the full day kindergarten.
 
Serap said:
My son begins full-day kindergarten here in Canada this September. Some people think that full-day kindergarten is hogwash and just another form of babysitting.

What do you think? Is it a good investment in your opinion?

I feel very blessed that my son will be in full-day kindergarten this year. It’s a great opportunity for him to learn while his mind is still a huge sponge.
Click to expand...
Where do you live? Ontario? Me too, more specifically, Ottawa 🙂

My boy is goinh to in full-day junior kindergarten.
 
red85 said:
A professor of philosophy once expressed to me that young children shouldn’t leave the home. Maybe at 9 or 10, they could go to school. That’s his opinion, but he’s thinking that the parents should be the sole educators of the children in the most formative years of their life.
Click to expand...
I started school when I was 7. I was at home until then and was bored out of my mind. I craved interaction with other children and to do interesting things. What I was getting at home just wasn’t enough. I don’t think I was a genius but my needs weren’t met. Therefore I completely disagree with such a view. Little brains need a lot of stimulation and having companions to play with is very important. When my children are a bit older they will definitely go full time. Just 4 hours a day have done wonders for my toddler, so I imagine that a more challenging programme will benefit him as he develops.
 
Contra_Mundum said:
I started school when I was 7. I was at home until then and was bored out of my mind. I craved interaction with other children and to do interesting things. What I was getting at home just wasn’t enough. I don’t think I was a genius but my needs weren’t met. Therefore I completely disagree with such a view. Little brains need a lot of stimulation and having companions to play with is very important. When my children are a bit older they will definitely go full time. Just 4 hours a day have done wonders for my toddler, so I imagine that a more challenging programme will benefit him as he develops.
Click to expand...
In culture where the vast majority of young children, even toddlers, are not in the home during working hours, it is more difficult for those who are at home to experience the level of community and social interaction that they would experience if staying home until __ age was the norm. That’s not to say it is impossible to provide an enriching and socially active life for kids that age, but it is more difficult.

This is a subjective question. A lot has to do with the family environment and schedule, the community that you are surrounded by, and the alternatives that you have to the option in question.

Full day Kindergarten - for that matter, ALL elementary school - has an element of babysitting to it. A family with parents who both work full time needs the child care anyway, so the question is what environment will be the most enriching for the development of a child. Whether full day kindergarten should be called “glorified babysitting” or “killing two birds with one stone” depends on the program. A poor full-day kindergarten might offer little more than day care, and a good day care may provide as much enrichment (academic or otherwise) as a child could hope for.

OTOH, if the child can be with their parent for a few more hours of the day, then half-day kindergarten would be the better choice in my opinion. Of course this would assume that the home is a functional place and the parent can be somewhat attentive to the child’s needs. The amount of academic work that even a rigorous first grade curriculum would require as a prerequisite is not particularly time consuming - homeschoolers typically spend between 2 and 6 hours per week total on K work with their child, depending on curriculum rigor and the child’s abilities. Certainly things go more slowly in a class situation, and other things than academics happen at kindergarten. But if there were more academics needed that a half day kindergarten couldn’t quite fit in, the amount of work a parent would need to do to catch up would still be much less than the extra 3 hours that a full-day kindergarten would take to do it. I’d rather have a little homework and time for a nap or a playdate than 3 hours (or more) less of my child every day.

Whether or not it is a good use of tax dollars is a whole other question that only partly has to do with how valuable the Kindergarten is to the child’s education/development.
 
If it’s a choice between full day kindergarten and daycare, I might choose kindergarten, but it depends on the daycare.

If it’s a choice between full day kindergarten and being home with mom, I would choose being home with mom.

In my opinion, kids are under too much pressure to perform academically at too young an age.
 
Kindergarten has really changed. Our state recently changed the laws and all children are to go to all day Kindergarten. When I was young we colored, sang songs, and played. Now they read, do math, have computer, art, music, and gym class. It’s very educational…much more than when we were children. I think it’s been a great learning foundation for next year! Best of luck to you 🙂
 
MarisaJean said:
Kindergarten has really changed. Our state recently changed the laws and all children are to go to all day Kindergarten. When I was young we colored, sang songs, and played. Now they read, do math, have computer, art, music, and gym class. It’s very educational…much more than when we were children. I think it’s been a great learning foundation for next year! Best of luck to you 🙂
Click to expand...
Thanks! My daughter’s teacher also told us that kindergarten is now what grade 1 used to be when I was young

I grew up in England where we began the equivalent of grade 1 at age 5 also.

They eliminated grade 13 here (18 year olds) in Ontario Canada and as a result, they have added more to the kindergarten curriculum.
 
My youngest turned 4 recently.

He will be going to pre-k in September. He’ll be going 3 days a week, about three hours a day.

He’ll start kindergarten the following year, and it will be full time (minus snack and nap time. :)). He’ll be 5 and about 8 months.
 
In my personal opinion, it’s just expensive babysitting (Not worth it!). My scenario. First child attended preschool and preK, was very expensive and barely learned basic skills. Second child attended part-time preschool just 2x a week a few hours. Again, expensive and rushed through most activities. Third child has been homeschooled her whole life. This has been the most motivated learner of all my children. She didn’t get as sick and was not a pressured environment to take tests or rush thru crafts and activities. She is a self learner, has plenty of friendships and activities.

For more info on the philosophy of NOT pushing your children too soon. Read “Better late Than Early” (New approach to your child’s education) by Raymond S. Moore/Dorothy N. Moore.

Also one of the best books to read about compulsory schooling form a former New York State Teacher of the Year “Dumbing US Down” John Taylor Gatto
 
Hi,
I’m coming at this question not as a parent, but as a teacher. As a grade one teacher, and having several students who did not attend kindergarten, as it’s not mandatory in our province, I think that kindergarten can be a very positive thing. Students learn a lot of the reading, writing, and math basics (that aren’t really taught at a daycare), but to me, more imortantly, is that they are learning school behaviours. Lining up, raising hand, moving within a classroom/school, personal boundaries in a group setting, etc. This is the part that makes teaching young grade one students who never went to kinder the most challenging, I find.
However, that being said, is the program full-day, five days a week? That can be a bit much for some kids at that age.
Also, is your child an only child? If so, do they get to interact with other children on a regular basis?
Honestly, if the options are kindergarten or daycare, I’d go for kindergarten. However, if it’s between daycare and at home with you, definitely home.
 
gardenswithkids said:
I think it is neither expensive baby sitting, **nor **a good investment in young children. I think it is part of the trend to push academics at earlier and earlier ages at the expensive of other things more age appropriate. It takes away from children’s exploration of the world around them, which might effect creativity and understanding of nature. Many children enjoy academics and school work, but others are simply not developmentally ready for academics at that young of an age.
Click to expand...
AMEN!

Some children (mostly girls) are ready at an early age, but not most. By pushing academics down so early, we are creating a divide - kids who are able to do academics at a young age and who thrive throughout thier academic career because of the strong base, and kids who aren’t ready for the academics and are turned off and feel like failures from their first experiences.

We are becoming more and more desperate trying to compete on the world stage, and instead of listening to educators and phasing in things when everyone can be successful, we are following the politicians and pushing academics lower and lower.
 
I am all for. My son’s Kindergarten was first-class, even with a crummy teacher that took over the last half. He learned not only a lot of foundational stuff, but he also learned how to learn and go to school before actual grades kick in.

Even the negatives provide excellent opportunity for life lessons.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top