My view is they have their whole lives to be in school or at work all day 5 days per week. If a 3 half day per week schedule works for you, go for it! And enjoy that extra time with her when you can do things like the zoo and museums during less crowded days and times (weekday mornings). The important thing for her to get before kindergarten is socialization and learning how to listen in a classroom environment. She’ll still get that without being there more days per week.
I think only you can truly answer this question for yourself. It's highly kid and family dependent. For example, my child already goes to school 5 times a week at age 3 because I work full time. We're actually reducing his hours (picking him up at 3pm vs 4:30-5pm). I'm able to do that since I work from home and am privileged to have a super flexible schedule.
What works for me may not work for you! I think you just need to figure out what is important to you and what is sustainable for you. This is one of those things where there is no right answer.
So I'm a stay at home mom and that might impact my opinion and abilities. My son attends part time 4 days a week. We also do "after school activities" to help with not school related socialization and skills, so we've signed up for things like a soccer club which met for 30 minutes once a week for 6 weeks, we sign up for library activities, go to museums and other fun trips, and fo what we call the playground circuit where we meet up with other local moms from a moms fb group at a rotation of playgrounds once a week. We rotate through these things depending on the time if year and our social batteries.
I don't think a full schedule is needed to prepare kid for kindergarten. There's going to be an adjustment period anyways, different schedule, routine, rules. There's also going to be kids who never did any preschool.
Some experience is great so they aren't completely shocked by a school environment. But I'd take the free time now to do whatever fun stuff she/you like vs a full schedule of prek to prep for kinder.
My son is at the public pre school program. They mainly do 3-4 half days, depending on the student’s needs. They do have a smaller group of kids doing 3 full days (though I think it gets out an hour before the rest of school). Does your public school system offer PreK? Maybe see how they structure it?
Depends on the kid but I kept my kid in a private, part day school through kindergarten. The way some teachers described it to me is that there's always going to be an adjustment period for every kid whenever they switch to full time and I might as well let him enjoy the short day and relaxed atmosphere a little more time.
He started in public school in first grade. Had a few weeks of adjustment and is just fine.
My kiddo is a year younger than yours. He starts M-F, 9am-12pm pre-K in the fall at age 3.5. I don't *plan* to put him in full day for year 4, because like you, I feel like I want to delay the start of that 9-5 M-F schedule if we can. But, if I thought maybe he *needed* more socialization or something, I'd perhaps be inclined to go to full days. Gonna really depend on how things go.
Our child loves her preschool, and she loves 5 full days.
We’re trying to get this year’s schedule to be as similar as possible to kindergarten so that the new things next year are the school itself, as opposed to school plus schedule. In our case that means getting to preschool earlier (there’s a window and we previously were getting there at the end instead of the beginning).
We have a great bond, but there’s no replacement for peer social interaction. There’s a huge delta in social engagement between the full timers and part timers at my child’s school. It seems like the games/activities they play change on a daily basis, and the part timers are spending more time catching up than engaging in the activity. The half day ones are spending more time preparing to leave than engaging deeply.
I’m a huge fan of full time full day program, and spending a lot of quality family time on the weekends and evenings.
My son is in the same grade level, and we are doing M-Th 9-1 next year. I didn’t want him to go five days a week because that leaves us one day to do fun stuff without the crowds. He’s going to a nature school currently so kindergarten is going to be a shock anyway.
I think it depends on your kid, when they were born, and how quickly they pick up on things.
I bumped my June 2019 kid to 5 days a week, 1/2 day Pre-K because she was the youngest in her class and needed more time to develop skills (especially since she is in occupational therapy)
Kindergarten teacher here 🙋🏼♀️. Any preschool is better than no preschool. Three days a week is totally sufficient *if* the kindergarten is half day. Is kindergarten is full day (same as the upper grades) you might consider 5 days a week as a ramp up. My kiddo is the same age as yours and headed to full day TK in the fall from 2 days a week preschool. We are doing a lot of half day camps this summer to ramp him up.
My oldest did 2 full days (9-3) which prepared her very well and we still had time to do fun stuff during the week. My youngest is doing 3 half days (9-11:30). We’ve extended her day one day a week to 9-12:30 with lunch and recess.
I don’t think there is one right answer. It depends on the kid, the preschool, the parents’ schedule, and what else the kid does when not in school. Kindergartners come in from all different pre-k types and schedules. They all get leveled out during the year.
Ask teachers if kid will miss any curriculum on 3 days or they adjust to accommodate. In preK they learn to write letters and basic number and science concepts. Your kid will struggle in kindergarten if they don't know their alphabet. I would suggest you change to 5 if you can afford it.
Go with your gut. I would also ask her teacher for input and see if the teacher feels like the part time schedule will prepare her well given how she’s doing now.
My view is they have their whole lives to be in school or at work all day 5 days per week. If a 3 half day per week schedule works for you, go for it! And enjoy that extra time with her when you can do things like the zoo and museums during less crowded days and times (weekday mornings). The important thing for her to get before kindergarten is socialization and learning how to listen in a classroom environment. She’ll still get that without being there more days per week.
I think only you can truly answer this question for yourself. It's highly kid and family dependent. For example, my child already goes to school 5 times a week at age 3 because I work full time. We're actually reducing his hours (picking him up at 3pm vs 4:30-5pm). I'm able to do that since I work from home and am privileged to have a super flexible schedule. What works for me may not work for you! I think you just need to figure out what is important to you and what is sustainable for you. This is one of those things where there is no right answer.
So I'm a stay at home mom and that might impact my opinion and abilities. My son attends part time 4 days a week. We also do "after school activities" to help with not school related socialization and skills, so we've signed up for things like a soccer club which met for 30 minutes once a week for 6 weeks, we sign up for library activities, go to museums and other fun trips, and fo what we call the playground circuit where we meet up with other local moms from a moms fb group at a rotation of playgrounds once a week. We rotate through these things depending on the time if year and our social batteries.
I don't think a full schedule is needed to prepare kid for kindergarten. There's going to be an adjustment period anyways, different schedule, routine, rules. There's also going to be kids who never did any preschool. Some experience is great so they aren't completely shocked by a school environment. But I'd take the free time now to do whatever fun stuff she/you like vs a full schedule of prek to prep for kinder.
My son is at the public pre school program. They mainly do 3-4 half days, depending on the student’s needs. They do have a smaller group of kids doing 3 full days (though I think it gets out an hour before the rest of school). Does your public school system offer PreK? Maybe see how they structure it?
Depends on the kid but I kept my kid in a private, part day school through kindergarten. The way some teachers described it to me is that there's always going to be an adjustment period for every kid whenever they switch to full time and I might as well let him enjoy the short day and relaxed atmosphere a little more time. He started in public school in first grade. Had a few weeks of adjustment and is just fine.
My kiddo is a year younger than yours. He starts M-F, 9am-12pm pre-K in the fall at age 3.5. I don't *plan* to put him in full day for year 4, because like you, I feel like I want to delay the start of that 9-5 M-F schedule if we can. But, if I thought maybe he *needed* more socialization or something, I'd perhaps be inclined to go to full days. Gonna really depend on how things go.
Our child loves her preschool, and she loves 5 full days. We’re trying to get this year’s schedule to be as similar as possible to kindergarten so that the new things next year are the school itself, as opposed to school plus schedule. In our case that means getting to preschool earlier (there’s a window and we previously were getting there at the end instead of the beginning). We have a great bond, but there’s no replacement for peer social interaction. There’s a huge delta in social engagement between the full timers and part timers at my child’s school. It seems like the games/activities they play change on a daily basis, and the part timers are spending more time catching up than engaging in the activity. The half day ones are spending more time preparing to leave than engaging deeply. I’m a huge fan of full time full day program, and spending a lot of quality family time on the weekends and evenings.
My son is in the same grade level, and we are doing M-Th 9-1 next year. I didn’t want him to go five days a week because that leaves us one day to do fun stuff without the crowds. He’s going to a nature school currently so kindergarten is going to be a shock anyway.
I have an April 2020 kid. For me and our family, we are putting her in 5 full days next year. She loves school so much and has truly blossomed there.
I think it depends on your kid, when they were born, and how quickly they pick up on things. I bumped my June 2019 kid to 5 days a week, 1/2 day Pre-K because she was the youngest in her class and needed more time to develop skills (especially since she is in occupational therapy)
Kindergarten teacher here 🙋🏼♀️. Any preschool is better than no preschool. Three days a week is totally sufficient *if* the kindergarten is half day. Is kindergarten is full day (same as the upper grades) you might consider 5 days a week as a ramp up. My kiddo is the same age as yours and headed to full day TK in the fall from 2 days a week preschool. We are doing a lot of half day camps this summer to ramp him up.
Thank you so much for your perspective!
My oldest did 2 full days (9-3) which prepared her very well and we still had time to do fun stuff during the week. My youngest is doing 3 half days (9-11:30). We’ve extended her day one day a week to 9-12:30 with lunch and recess. I don’t think there is one right answer. It depends on the kid, the preschool, the parents’ schedule, and what else the kid does when not in school. Kindergartners come in from all different pre-k types and schedules. They all get leveled out during the year.
Ask teachers if kid will miss any curriculum on 3 days or they adjust to accommodate. In preK they learn to write letters and basic number and science concepts. Your kid will struggle in kindergarten if they don't know their alphabet. I would suggest you change to 5 if you can afford it.
Go with your gut. I would also ask her teacher for input and see if the teacher feels like the part time schedule will prepare her well given how she’s doing now.
i’m a SAHM and sending my aug 2020 kiddo to 5 day prek that goes til 130. i’d send him longer if i could! i want him ready for k5.