Getting Schooled- January 22, 2015
Last week I watched my Facebook feed fill with posts from friends with kids a year older than mine. Many bemoaned that their babies are aren’t babies anymore. There were Instagram photos of kindergarten registration forms with a caption like, “I can’t believe this is happening!”
It’s kindergarten registration season! My daughter just turned 4 in November, so I have another year before this madness begins. I got into a conversation with another mother about this process the other day. She is interested in a traditional calendar magnet program for her daughter this year. “Oh! That’s cool. Good luck with the whole process! We don’t have to worry about it until next year. We really want a year-round schedule. Our base school is year-round.”
That’s when her nose scrunched up. You know, how people do when they disagree with you and are sort of disgusted with what you just said? She said, “Year-round? Why would you want that?” I went on to explain how I went to the first year-round school in our state as a third grader way back in 1988 or 1989 when the concept was first introduced here. I told her how as a young elementary school student, I was very restless in the summer and had a hard time, so my parents tried it. It was great. We loved the breaks through the year and still had some summer vacation. Plus, our base school is year-round and is rated a 10 out of 10 so, why not?
She said, and I kid you not, “Right. A year-round schedule for a Disney vacation in January or whatever.”
::pause::
::blink::
Yeah lady, I base decisions on my children’s education solely on making sure they’ll have shorter lines at the Magic Kingdom in three years. What?! I looked around. Surely I was being punked or something. I wasn’t. I can’t even remember what I said. It got awkward. I smiled and walked away.
Here’s the thing. Why are you worried about my kids’ education? I’m not worried about yours. I’m sure you’ll make the best decision for your family. That’s what’s so great. You can choose whatever type of kindergarten you want for your kid. Any kind! I could cite studies for or against every kindergarten choice. I won’t do that. Who has the time? Here are just some of the options parents I know are looking at for kindergarten:
- Public traditional calendar
- Public year-round
- Another year of private Pre-K before kindergarten
- Spanish immersion
- Montessori
- Private religious school
- Public Charter school
- Public Magnet
- Home school
I don’t need to go on. The point is, do what you want for education. Has anyone else run into this? Catching attitude from other parents about kindergarten choices? Have other parents disparaged your school choice? I mean, I know it’s a big life decision full of emotions. It can often be competitive to get a spot in certain schools. I get it, but I remember learning “do unto others” in kindergarten, so let’s all remember that during kindergarten registration.
Spread it around:
Hmmm.. I kinda want to do year round so I can go on vacations at cheaper and less crowded times. I mean who doesn’t like that?! I also like the learning aspect as well. I went to a magnet elementary do I like magnet idea too. I like talking about what peoe are doing because there are SO many choices. So which track is your preference ;)?
We LOVE year-round. Since I work part-time, it’s perfect because I don’t have to fill an entire summer with camps. He does some camp and some just home with me. I do admit I love taking vacations during the off-season too. We went back to AZ last April when he was out- perfect time of year to visit there!
We don’t have many options when it comes to kindergarten. It’s either public or a private program or not sending your kid at all. While I have my own opinions on what is the best option I’m not snarking anyone for their choice. And I find it’s the people that criticize something like this are usually the ones who are second guessing or unsure about their own choices.
We get to chose between two elementary schools with traditional calendars for our twins starting this fall. My husband and I were looking at booking a trip to Disney late night and I will confess to being momentarily jealous of my nephews’ year round school schedule, upon realizing how much more it will cost since we can’t go off-season.
We love year round! The breaks are refreshing for us all.
My son is the exact same age as your daughter (11/2/10). I wish we could start school in the fall for selfish, save money on daycare reasons. I thought about placing him in a private prek, but with his little brother still in daycare it does not make sense to do that for 1 year. One more year and he will start at public kindergarden at the public school in the neighborhood. I am ready for him to start! We do not have year round school option in AR.
There is a lot of that “oohhh you send your kid there’ about preschool here. There are two programs that are exact opposites and their is one mom who sends her daughters to the other one is so aggressive abotu trying to recruit people there. It is also a religious based school and I had some seriously negative experiences there as a teenager. It takes all of my self-control not to say anything about it every time she tries to push people into that school. Obviously my child goes to the other program ha. That would be the play based program vs the you must do the workbooks program fight. For Kindergarten I am still unsure what we will end up doing. We live in one of the best public schools districts but depending on possible school closures we will be school of choicing in our district or possibly to the one that is next to us since we are a mile away from there.