Tag: kindergarten

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All-Day vs. Half-Day Kindergarten: The Pros and Cons

In the states of Utah and Idaho, many schools are making the shift from half-day kindergarten to all-day kindergarten. Why is this? Does this have to do with the push to get kids academically advanced at a young age? Is it because studies are showing it’s better? Some families currently have the option to choose if they want their child in half-day or all-day kindergarten. Here are some of the pros and cons of both. Some are pulled from research, some are my own opinion, and some are the opinions of close friends who have recently put their children through either full or half-day kindergarten. 

Half day kindergarten: 

Pros:
More time at home with family (if applicable).
Less time at a desk and more time playing at home or daycare.
A transition year to full-day school.
Typically smaller classes.
A better schedule for kids who are not emotionally ready to be away from home all day.

Cons:
It Can be hard to manage childcare because of the pick-up/drop-off times in the middle of the day.
Academics can be pushed harder and faster because of the shorter amount of time in school.
Not enough time for social interaction for some kids.

Full day kindergarten: 

Pros:
A consistent schedule can be helpful for some students.
Childcare arrangements are easier for working parents.
More time in the day for academics, so recess and free time are more likely to happen.

Cons:
Can be a long day for students to be at school all day.
Can be a hard transition to do full-day school at a young age.  
Typically larger class sizes.
Can be hard for kids that are not emotionally ready to be away from home all day.

In my opinion, I’m team all-day kindergarten. Which surprised me, I didn’t think I would be! But the consistency of the schedule, the extra time for recess and free time in their day, and how well my daughter seemed to transition to all-day school made it an easy win for us. And in my opinion, they have to make the transition to all-day school at some point and the transition is hard, no matter the age. However, each situation isn’t and won’t be the same for each family and child.

It was also interesting to me to see insights from families that live in a culture where both parents work versus having a stay-at-home parent. When both parents are working full time, they comment that the year their kindergartener had half-day school was harder on the child and the family because the child was used to being in daycare full time and the half-day kindergarten threw off their schedule for a year.

Families with at least one stay-at-home parent commented that the transition to all-day kindergarten was harder for both the parent and the child. However, they also said that the transition to first grade was seamless and fairly easy after a year of full-day kindergarten.

Remember that if you are currently trying to choose between full-day and half-day kindergarten, you’re making a decision for your child and your whole family. It needs to be a mutual benefit for everyone involved. And whatever decision you make- it’s the right one. There’s no “one size fits all” in the academic world and whether you choose full-day or half-day kindergarten, you will find situations that you don’t love and you will find situations where your child is thriving.

What are your thoughts on all-day vs half-day kinder?

If you want to read deeper research on the topic, this research paper is an interesting read.

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A 2023 Recap From HonorsGradU

2023 was an incredible year for the HonorsGradU blog. We had some amazing posts and series that have rolled out on our website, not just this year but in years past. Let’s recap our most popular posts this year based on views.

True Colors Personality Testing: Using it in the Classroom

Coming in at number one is our true colors personality testing and how to use it in the classroom. This series was just one of the few that we’ve done on personality testing for the classroom, but so far it has been our most popular. Some may feel that personality testing puts them into a box, but we feel that personality testing is just another way to learn more about ourselves and can be used as a tool to understand our circumstances and thinking process better.

What To Bring On Graduation Day

Our second most popular post is a great article (and one of our originals from back in 2013!) giving tips and advice on graduation day. Graduation day is such a big day, it’s not a day you’ll want to miss important things, so small things like chapstick in your pocket can make a big difference.

Late Summer Birthdays: Hold Back Or Send To Kindergarten?

The third most popular post this year was my initial post about late summer birthdays and deciding whether to red-shirt kids for kindergarten, or not. This initial post led to more and more through the years as I continued to go through this decision-making process with my two older kids.

Chemical vs. Physical Changes: Let’s Get it Straight!

Forever one of our most popular posts: Chemical vs. Physical Changes! It can be such a tricky topic to know, let alone teach, so Mary did a great breakdown for all of us to get it all straight.

A Guide To MBTI: How To Use It As An Educator

My very first personality testing series was on the Myers-Briggs personality testing and is still one of my favorite subjects to talk about. It looks like it’s also one of everyone’s favorite topics to read about on the blog, too because it was our 5th most popular post for the year. Going down the MBTI rabbit hole is worth it, in my opinion.

I am excited to see what 2024 brings for HonorsGradU. We already have some great posts and series up our sleeve, but if there is something you’d like to see here, please let us know in the comments!

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Doing What is Best For the Child #TeacherMom

I was dead set on holding him back for kindergarten.

My “middle of August” baby born four years ago has forced me to have kindergarten on my mind since the day I knew his due date. I guess that’s a normal thought process after spending years working towards a teaching degree and years beyond that in multiple classrooms and schools. 

Knowing he was a boy with a very late summer birthday, I knew I wanted to hold him back. I’ve had this decision set in my mind for years now. 

But then his course of schooling took some unexpected turns.

We had the developmental preschool in our school district put him through their testing to see if he could qualify for their free preschool, which is an amazing resource to have! 

After three separate days of testing he was able to gain acceptance into their program under an IEP for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy, all while under close observation for a pending ADHD diagnosis. 

Whew. We just went from a child with a few sensory issues that we were working through to a full-on IEP and in-school services weekly. 

It was a whirlwind taking it all in and seeing where he landed with all of his testing, while then sitting through my first-ever IEP meeting as a parent and going through each of his goals. 

And still, the kindergarten question loomed over me. 

Because legally, this is the last year he can attend this preschool and receive in-school therapies as a preschooler, since next year he will turn 5. Therapies and schooling can only continue if he is in kindergarten.

So without the ability of sending him to preschool again as a five-year-old like I was hoping for, it leaves us with two options. Send him to kindergarten as a very new five-year-old, or keep him home for a year so that we can send him back to public school as a very new six-year-old. 

I know in many cities there would be many other courses of action that can be taken, like charter schools or private preschools and therapies. 

But unfortunately for us in our small town, those are not options we have. Keeping him from kindergarten next year would mean a full-year lapse in therapies that he so desperately needs more than I realized. 

It means redoing all of his testing to place him back into these therapies when he does start school again because everything would lapse and we would be starting over from scratch. 

I was set on holding him back for kinder. I was ready to put him into the public school system as a six-year-old, more prepared and ready to take on the world with an extra year of playing outside in the sticks and mud instead of sitting at a desk. 

But what wins out over what I want, is what he needs. Yes, I want to hold him back a year and I can see the benefits tenfold of sending him to kindergarten later. But I can see the better, higher benefits of sending him earlier, despite my wishes. 

Because in the end, the best decision you can make is whatever is best for the child. Always. 

Cover Photo: Mallory Wilcox

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Where We Draw the Line With Extracurriculars

My oldest is 5 years old and we are already deep in the trenches of managing extracurriculars. It’s mind-boggling that we would even be at this phase of life already when she’s only in kindergarten. Yet she comes home roughly every six weeks with a new flyer from our Recreation District about soccer signs up, t-ball the next time, and basketball the month after. And the discussion between friends always starts at school, “Are you playing soccer this year? I am, I want you to be on my team!”

While I am very impressed with our Rec District and happy they are providing these opportunities for our community, I’m also an overwhelmed parent that can’t keep up with practices and games and everything else that comes with each sport! So, we don’t. 

When do we finally call it quits? 

Well, there are a lot of factors to consider. I love Mary’s perspective on this topic. I’d also like to add that we live in a very small community and participating in extracurriculars and spending Saturdays on the soccer fields is a huge community event where we all know one another and have time to socialize. This factor plays in when making a decision! 

But my biggest selling point for this decision-making process is time for free play. Are my kids coming home from school, rushing to change clothes and eat a snack, just to get back in the car and head to soccer practice? Once in a while, that’s fine! One night a week we live this way so we can make it to a tumbling class, and it’s an overall benefit to our whole family. But the rest of the week they come home, have some downtime by themselves or with screens, and then spend the rest of the evening deep in play, sometimes inside, sometimes outside. Sometimes we involve friends and neighbors, sometimes we don’t! 

But play is the real work of childhood, not basketball. Not choir practice. So when all of these extracurricular activities start interfering with playtime, that’s where and when the line is drawn in our family. 

It’s always a tricky road to navigate, though! How do you decide which extracurriculars and how many your child can and will be involved in? 

Other helpful posts:

Are Extra Curriculars Helping or Harming?
Thoughts On Kid’s Extracurriculars
Why You Shouldn’t Feel Bad About Canceling Extracurriculars #TeacherMom
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Our Distance Learning Experience

I think everyone can agree that the winter of 2022-23 was full of sickness, sickness, and more sickness. This was unfortunately all too true for our family as well, even more since we moved to a new city this year. New cities and new schools mean new germs and lots of sicknesses! 

From Labor day until Christmas, we were getting hit with one big thing after the next with no breaks in between. Our immune systems needed a break! Desperately! How many more doctors and hospital visits could we realistically take on before we needed to draw the line? 

Over Christmas break, we spent a lot of time discussing with our doctor and with each other the best steps moving forward, and ultimately what we knew was best would be pulling my oldest from kindergarten and homeschooling for a time. 

It was not a decision we took lightly. This would be a huge decision that could have an effect on her for quite a while. 

On Tuesday morning after Christmas break was over and everyone went back to school, we spent the day on the phone with her teacher, principal, and superintendent. Ultimately, the biggest question was, “Is this temporary, or for the rest of the school year?” 

With our specific situation, it needed to be temporary. She is not the type of child that would thrive in a homeschooled situation because her social needs are more than I can ever provide her while homeschooling. 

Because we chose to make this temporary, we needed to figure out the best way to move forward, whether we would unenroll her from school and then re-enroll when she came back, or how we would handle it. 

But we ended up being very fortunate that as a result of the 2020 Covid shutdowns, distance learning is still an option, but this is the last year they are allowing it in our district. So a distance learner she became! 

When schools shut down in 2020, I, fortunately, did not have a child old enough to be in school and did not have to take on the burden of distance learning. However, we’re getting the full effect now! We now have packets of papers to do with her, books to read, activities to work on, and more. 

It’s been fun to have her home each day and it’s been fun to hone in on my inner teaching skills to help her understand new concepts. I’ve loved being more involved with her learning to read and we’ve adapted a lot of the worksheets to be more hands-on and interactive, which I know is a huge privilege we have while doing work one-on-one instead of in a classroom of 25 students. 

But at the end of the day, she is one of the most extroverted humans I know (okay maybe she’s second to me), and a public school situation is somewhere she thrives, there’s no denying it. Even her teacher and her principal would agree! 

We have loved this learning experience of having her home, but we’re still counting down the days until she gets to go back and spend the day at school with all of her friends and various teachers that help in the school. 

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The Different Ways We Learn

Sight words are such a buzzword in our household right now. And if you’ve had a kindergartener before, you know exactly what I’m talking about. 

Each day my daughter comes home with new worksheets, readers, and other various activities that have to do with sight words. Her teacher also sends her home with a new set of sight words to play with and master from home each week. We’ve had a lot of fun learning these words through the games and activities we’ve come up with together. 

The way I tend to learn best is repetition, repetition, repetition. If I read the words over and over, say it, spell it, rush through them on flashcards again and again, and then I will never forget the words. My mind has to see the word, deconstruct the word, put the word together again, and then it’s set in there forever. 

Because this is how my mind works best, this was the basis for a lot of the activities I chose to do with my daughter. The more exposure, the better! We were doing so much repetition of the words that I was surprised and frustrated when I started realizing that what we were doing wasn’t sticking. When quizzed on the words, she wasn’t able to recall what the words were. 

To be honest, it made me feel like a failure. I have all of this background in teaching and I can’t even figure out how to teach my own child some sight words. 

One night, my husband lovingly stepped in. He took out the sight word flashcards and they started making sentences together using only sight words. They would make a sentence, read it, and then create a new sentence, repeating the process over and over. Eventually, they pulled out the sticky notes and added CVC words like cat and dad. They spent about ten minutes doing this activity and while they were having fun and bonding, I was doubting his ability to get anything to stick beyond their current work. But nevertheless, I let them have their time. 

The next evening we pulled out our sight word Jenga game, and immediately I was shocked. She knew the words! All of them! We had done so many different activities and nothing was working, but suddenly in one day, it all clicked for her. 

I approached my husband about it afterward and he told me he was playing a word game with her in a way that he would learn the new words best. By application. By seeing them as a part of a sentence and reading them together with other words. 

In my mind, this made no sense. How can she even read the words if she hasn’t spent the time memorizing them beforehand? 

But in both of their minds, the path using real-life applications worked. I was trying to lead her down my own road of rote memorization for learning, while she desperately needed real-life application.

The concept that everyone learns in different ways is something I know and was taught how to work with during my undergrad. But when it came to my own child, I just assumed her mind worked the same way mine did. I was giving her varying activities to do, but the process for all of them was the same. Repeat the words over and over and over until eventually, you memorize them. 

After my revelation, I started catering to her learning style better. 

We continually made up sentences with sight words. We read books filled with sight words. We even wrote our own book using sight words! Anytime we were looking at words and sentences on cereal boxes, in grocery stores, etc., we pointed out the sight words and read them together. 

More application. Less rote memorization. 

It was a great, simple reminder that all minds have different systems and routes for learning. Yes, even our own offspring sometimes. 

And if we can take some time to figure out each individual mind and the route they personally need to take when they are struggling to grasp a concept, it can make all the difference in the world to them. It may even turn them into a little, tiny reader. 

Photo by James Wheeler

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Can A Worksheet Do That? Teaching Social Studies in a Hands-On Way

We recently made the decision to pull my daughter from school and do “distance learning” for a short time because we had a new virus or sickness in our home every week and it wasn’t sustainable anymore (more on that story to come later). 

Luckily, the school was able to work with us to make her a “distance learner” because of Covid protocols still in place, instead of unenrolling and re-enrolling her when she’s ready to head back. 

She is in kindergarten, so the workload is fairly easy and somewhat hands-on. However, one worksheet for social studies looked like this: 

Photo: A group of neighbors with adults and children standing around, laughing, and talking. Food is being exchanged. 

Text on photo: Talk About It: Essential Question. Who are your neighbors? 

Text: Talk about how these people are being good neighbors. Draw and write about one way you can be a good neighbor. 

Writing prompt: I can be a good neighbor by 

I am sure this worksheet sparks great conversations in classrooms and it gives the students a chance to draw and write about what they’re talking about. 

The only requirement for my daughter was to do everything this page said. Talk about it, write about it, and draw a picture. Then she would have been done with the assignment and moved on. 

But what did she learn from that interaction? 

Are we really learning social studies with this worksheet, or are we learning conversation skills, writing, and drawing? 

How can we do this… better? 

We started with a picture book.

Good Morning Neighbor by Davide Cali and Maria Dek 

I highly recommend keeping this one in your personal library, it’s a good one with many applications. 

After reading the book, the discussion started.

Who are our neighbors? What nice things have they done for us? What nice things have we done for them? Why is it important to be a good neighbor? 

And then we took it one step further, what can we do for one of our neighbors today?

This led us to making and delivering dinner and cookies for a neighbor that we knew was sick. We also stopped next door to an elderly widow and chatted with her for a while, asking her if she needed anything. On our way out, we quickly shoveled her driveway and cleared her car of snow and ice. 

On our walk home, we noticed that another neighbor near us had some rugs left outside on their doorstep that had blown into the yard from the high winds. We spent a few minutes gathering them up and stacking them on the doorstep since they were not home to take them inside. 

Once we were finally home, we pulled out the worksheet, and my daughter felt like she was ready to write a whole paper on ways she could be a good neighbor. She wanted to give the full story of everything we accomplished in our afternoon of service. Instead, we settled on a simple few-word sentence, and then she was able to tell her teacher the whole story the next time we went into the school to bring back her finished schoolwork. 

Looking at it overall, how much would she have taken away if we would have had the discussion and written the sentence? She would have practice in writing, that’s for sure. But the whole point was to focus on social studies. What did she take away from a social studies standpoint? 

She would probably know that she needs to be a good neighbor. And maybe have some ideas on how she can be that will stick around in her mind for a few weeks, maybe up to a month. Nothing would stick around long-term. 

But after spending an hour serving our own neighbors, the lesson will engrain itself in her mind more than a light discussion and sentence writing ever would. 

Now I know delivering dinner and sitting down to an afternoon chat with everyone’s neighbor isn’t doable in a full classroom. So what can we do in a classroom of 25+ students to give them a similar experience? 

Talk about neighbors within the classroom. Our neighbors in a classroom are our friends sitting by us, but all together, we are a full community. Discuss ways we can be a good neighbor within our own classroom. 

Give them opportunities to draw pictures or notes for their neighbors. Maybe create crafts or pick treats for their neighbors. Let them practice helping their neighbor when zipping up coats to go outside, or picking up trash around their desk during messy play. 

If you’re creating an uplifting, teamwork environment in the small community of your classroom, it will eventually translate itself into their daily life and show in small ways around the school and in their neighborhoods.

Can filling out a worksheet accomplish that? 

Photo by Katerina Holmes