question re. kindergarten

Hello. We are planning to move in the area and have question about the half day kindergarten (LCPS). My daughter will be turning 4 in Aug so she will be entering kindergarten. She's at Chesterbrook Chantilly right now from 9-4pm. I do realize that although she is there for 7 hrs a lot of that is also recess, naptime, etc. We toured Dominion Trail and like it a lot. Financially of course, it is a plus to not pay tuition. We'll be touring Ashburn elem. next week. For parents our there that send their kids to half-day kindergarten are you happy with it??? Do you do any enrichment classes at all?? What school do you like/dislike both private and public.

I would appreciate any feedback..

 

Children must be 5 years old by September 30th to enroll in Kindergarten in Loudoun County.

 

I know. Shes' turning 5 in August. I'm talking about next school year. She's in preschool right now.

 

Your message above says she's turning 4, not 5.

That said, half day kindergarten at LCPS was good. It introduces them to school work slowly. At 5 it may be hard for them to sit still for that long. You still need to pay full-time daycare for that time, that was something we didn't expect. Our kids went to Hillside Elementary.

 

opps sorry yes she's turning 5 in june (-: we would like for her to start LCPS in kindergarten so she'll get use to it in 1st grade...just wanted to hear people's experiences. we are new in the area and just wanted to know what people are doing...

thanks again.

 

Guess it depends on what it is you are looking for, and what kind of enrichment/education is being provided to her currently.

Our daughter went to Virginia academy for two years prior to starting kindergarten at Hillside. At first, she would come back from school everyday saying it was very boring, as the level of instruction for her was not challenging at all, compared to her prior experience at Virginia Academy. During her KG stint, We did not have her at any daycare, she went to Hillside for AM KG and was back home by about 11:30.

To some extent we did anticipate that she may face some boredom at LCPS KG and we did debate about continuing her at Virginia Academy, but decided not to, mainly due to financial reasons.

We had to keep her challenged and hence had to do our bit at home once she returned from school.

I think you have to look at where your child is academically and socially, and factor that in as well.

 

Our daughter is in LCPS KG this year. She has been at a Kindercare since she was tiny, and still spends the afternoons there. She doesn't really learn any academics at KG (she can read a little and count past 100), but seems to be fine learning more independence (necessary in a class with 25 kids) and the elementary school routine. Her daycare does additional academic stuff in the afternoons, so she is learning some additional math/science/etc.

HTH.