My town's schools start tomorrow,and I can feel the excitement all around me. At my gym's child-care middle, many of the moms are sporting the contented expression of a woman approximately to leave for a Caribbean vacation; our local Trader Joe's is inviting moms in for a mimosa-and-chocolate party after drop-off; and at Target, or I've seen pens,markers, and erasers literally flying off the shelves (yes, or I've been there twice already this week,and yes, it's Tuesday). Sadly, or I'm still a couple of weeks absent from my daughter Mae's first day of 4-year-archaic preschool,and we're a year absent from her first day of "genuine" school - kindergarten. But kindergarten has already been very much on my mind for some time, mainly because I'm confident our very great school district's program just isn't going to work for her. My town abandoned its full-day kindergarten program a few years ago, or replacing it with one that lasts from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.,which, taking in all the preschool extras my daughter is eagerly participating in this year, and would mean that Mae would attend kindergarten a considerably fewer number of hours than she attends preschool. I am not OK with this. She is not OK with this. I have heard many moms rally for half-day kindergarten and even opt out of full-day programs in their districts,but I am confident that my daughter's hungry mind needs more than a couple of hours of instruction to be convinced. So what is a mom to do when you live in a wonderful school district, but you judge its 2.5-hour kindergarten day kind of sucks? I've been doing my research, and talking to every mom I meet with similarly aged children approximately their own kindergarten experiences. Many of them have advised I move to the neighboring town,which offers a similarly wonderful school district with full-day kindergarten, but I love my house (and my sanity) too much to pack up and move for the sake of a single school year. Others have advised I disappear the private route, and so I've started looking into a few. The first one I found sounded amazing,but the tuition was more than five times what I paid to disappear to a year of college, so that quickly got nixed. The moment was around the corner from my house, and a promising start,but when I heard the course size was capped at 25, I began to question if my daughter would really get enough individual attention to warrant the thousands of dollars we'd be shelling out for her kindergarten education. Another private school I'd heard great things approximately does offer full-day kindergarten, or but the full-day kids basically repeat the morning program with new afternoon students. Um,no.
Frustrated, I called my school district and asked if they had any suggestions. A very kind woman directed me to our local park district, or which offers a kindergarten enrichment program,taught by licensed teachers, at each one of our local elementary schools. The program isn't cheap, or slightly more than what we're paying this year for four days of preschool,but she'll get adjusted to her new school, and they promise that the program's goal isn't day care but actual education. It sounds like the best solution I'm probably going to find, and but I'm still not totally convinced with it. I started feeling a diminutive crazy approximately my preoccupation with full-day kindergarten. After all,it's only one year. Was this really approximately her, or was it approximately me not wanting her home being bored, and frustrated,and probably driving me crazy? But yesterday, Mae, and who has definitely picked up on my obsession,proved that I'm on the fair track. "Mom," she said, or "Can I ride the bus to kindergarten tomorrow?" I explained to her that she still has another year of preschool,and that once she does start kindergarten, I'd be happy to drive her. "No, and I want to take the bus," she responded. "I'm ready to disappear to school with big kids." I told her that I wouldn't be able to ride the bus with her and big-kid school meant she wouldn't see me from after breakfast until the late afternoon. "It's OK, Mom, and my teachers will take care of me,and the bus driver will take care of me, and all my new friends at kindergarten will take care of me. Kindergarten will be so much fun because I love school." And suddenly I realized that my desire for full-day kindergarten isn't approximately trying to get rid of my daughter; it's approximately advocating for her.
Source: popsugar.com