My daughter will soon turn 4. About once a day since she first noticed a sprig of red on a tree she’s been reminding me that she’s almost 4. We have been asked by various coworkers, friends, and occasionally the complete stranger on the public playground whether we plan to send her to preschool, Head Start, or Pre-Kindergarten this fall.
My answer is no. She’s been learning a preschool curriculum at the daycare that she has attended since she was 6 weeks old. She’s comfortable there and I see no need to uproot her knowing that next fall she’ll have to leave the next setting I place her in to begin kindergarten.
While it may be surprising to many considering I spent time as a teacher in an elmentary school, and that my husband also spent time as an elementary teacher with his favorite grade to teach being kindergarten, we don’t necessarily fully subscribe to the belief that every child needs to add an additional 2-3 years of school to their career before they even graduate from high school. Can’t we give them just a couple years to be children?
I do want to clarify that I do believe it’s important that a child enters school prepared however. I think a parent should be responsible enough to know what will be required for a kindergarten screening and be sure that their child can meet those most basic requirements.
Preschool and pre-kindergarten seems to have become an expectation similar to that of college. It is assumed that all children will attend. I will admit however that if my local public school offered Pre-K I would most likely send my kids to it.
A woman that I encountered on the playground the other night, who was very friendly to talk to, seemed shocked when I said I wasn’t enrolling Cat in Pre-K this fall. She had a daughter on the playground that was the same age as Cat. They had just returned from completing their back to school shopping. She was lamenting that it was so expensive to send a child to school. She had told her daughter to pick out 7 outfits, one for each day of the week (I thought there were only 5 school days?) but said she had to stop at 3 because it became so pricey by the time they purchased accessories to go with each outfit. I nodded, but admitted I hadn’t done any ‘back to school’ shopping.
And thus our conversation began about whether I would be sending my daughter to Pre-K.
I wondered how many other people do complete back to school shopping for Pre-K aged students?
Yesterday afternoon I did purchase some fall clothing for Cat. Our community is participating in a town-wide garage sale this weekend and I found a garage sale on our road that had lot of little girl clothing. I filled two shopping bags and paid a whopping $2.50.
Back to school shopping can be very expensive. I’m not sorry that part of my parenting is over. I didn’t send my oldest son to pre-school and wish I had only because in Kindergarten we found out he was deaf in one ear and that may have come to light had we. My youngest we did and wouldn’t have needed to. But my kids weren’t in daycare and I felt he needed the other kids. Not to learn but to socialize. I feel you do what you choose to do and not judge what others choose to do.
Well, I’m planning on homeschooling, so I’m not sending my kids to preschool. I don’t see why it’s necessary. My mother has been pressuring me to send my 4 yo, or asking when we are going to “start homeschooling.” My view is that all good parents homeschool at least until the kids start school, and then they continue to do it in some form, whatever kind of school they are attending. (Excepting maybe boarding school.) Before this generation of kids (my cousins’ children), no one went to preschool, so I don’t know why she suddenly thinks it’s necessary. My 4 yo can do most of the kindergarten skills already (not tie his shoes), so what’s the big deal?
And spending hundreds of dollars on coordinated, accessorized clothes for preschool? UGH! Doesn’t it start early enough? Can’t we let them wear t-shirts and shorts and be comfy and get dirty and be KIDS?
Taylor went to PreK and it was the best thing I ever did for her.. Cole went a few weeks and had to be taken out after Hurricane rita hit and I couldnt’ keep him well enough to continue because his asthma was so out of control. He missed so many days the school said it was better to withdraw him so thats what we did.. I tried my hardest to work with him at home but he just didnt learn very well from me. In kindergarten he was a little behind. Not much but a little behind the other kids who had gone to PreK.. because of that I put Jewel in PreK through our public school(all of them went to public school for preK).I did buy jewel new outfits last year for prek but in the end she ended up wearing play clothes because its preK and they get dirty! And who buys accessories for prek? That to me is insane! The extent of my kiddos accessories is a pony tail holder for her hair!
Joy: I’m definitely not looking forward to the years I have of doing that. Of course I also don’t understand why parents would inflict the pain of heavy duty shopping any earlier than they have to. The years we have without our kiddos giving us their opinion of what they want for back to school is pretty limited. We should enjoy this time!
Judy: I totally understand your point and agree. My parents prepared me for kindergarten at home. When they went to school kindergarten didn’t exist and parents were expected to send a child to school knowing the basics, alphabet, name, numbers, colors etc. School also went to 8th grade for girls though too…so a lot has definitely changed. I’m not saying that time was better…but its very different.
Tosha: If our public school offered Pre-K I would definitely send my kids. I guess in that case I just would view it as an extension of my local public school system. I’m not sure if it makes me a hypocrite or not. I definitely was a kid that could have used Pre-K. My parents had me well prepared at home with academics, but I had no siblings at home and I really needed the socialization that came with Pre-K. Playdates etc didn’t exist in those days