Wisconsin Offers Kindergarten for Four-Year-Olds. I’m Moving.
My son was ready for a five day a week program by the time he was four, but our budget was only ready to pay for a three day a week program which lasted just 2.5 hours. When my kids were little and moms with older kids lamented the brief time frame of preschool I imagined shoving them into oncoming traffic. Back then 2.5 hours of freedom was unimaginable to me. 8 years later and I’m those mothers, lamenting how short 2.5 hours of freedom is.
On a less selfish note the district hopes this program will equally prepare children for kindergarten because some children don’t have the opportunity to attend tuition based preschool programs. After seeing the array of skill levels in my son’s kindergarten, I can imagine this would help put more kids on a similar level.
There is no good justification for putting very young children into such a confined and competitive situation unless there is something to be gained from it. For most children, there isn’t. Read the research and you just might find that for the tragically poor, or the non-english speakers, or children from very dysfunctional families early programs such as these have some positive effect. If you don’t fit into one of those categories, consider whether your child is just as well off with you and his neighborhood friends instead of 5 days a week of institutionally structured learning. It is worth thinking about. I’ve been teaching for 32 years, the last 21 in Kindergarten. When do children get a chance to be children?
My kid’s school is also a public Montessori, in Pittsburgh. Their program also starts with preschool (full day) at 3 yo and goes until 8th grade.
My kid’s school is also a public Montessori, in Pittsburgh. Their program also starts with preschool (full day) at 3 yo and goes until 8th grade.
Is it actually called Kindergarten? We have a pre-k program that is offered for via the public school system in Oklahoma. It’s for 4-year-olds as well. We have to drive them to the public school in our district for the 1/2 day 5 days a week program, but other than the gas it costs us nothing. My son went through it, and my daughter is in it now. It is fantastic, and it really helps with the transition to kindergarten which is now an all day 5 days a week program. (Don’t get me started on that subject!)
Some public schools in my area are also offering 3-year-old programs, but you have to pay for those.
It gets better. In the Montessori schools available in the Milwaukee public system, there is a half day K3 option. My 3 year old starts this fall and got one of the coveted slots because her 5 year old sister is already enrolled. I wish the option were open to more people.
Why Kindergarten? Why not have universal preschool instead? I get what you mean, wanting some place to take your kid (and really, by four, all kids are ready for some kind of five-days-a-week preschool), but pushing four-year-olds into Kindergarten only results in resetting the curriculum for Kindergarten to an even younger set. I mean, it is expected now that kids learn to read in or before Kindergarten. And some do. But mostly, kids aren’t ready to leran to read until around the age of seven (yes, write in about how you read when you were three. The point is, most kids aren’t). The countries with the highest literacy rates (which teh U.S. is not) start learning reading in school at age seven.
I’d rather see an emphasis on universal public eduation preschool. I was like you and couldn’t afford much. My kid would have loved more.
I’m moving with you. I figure by the time I finish packing my kids will almost be four.