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our district has 2 montessori elementary schools. It gets more traditional as they are older, but for PK, K, 1.... it is pretty true to the montessori style. I don't know if it will be right for DS (he is only 16m now!) but I plan to look into it.
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@PinkElephant: From what I understand, (both my BIL and SIL teach in our district) is that it would count as kindergarten and either scenario she would probably need to be evaluated or have some communication between the school district and her preschool to make sure she would succeed in 1st grade without having to go through a "2nd" year of kindergarten. We're in PA so kindergarten isnt mandatory.
I was similar in that i was one of the youngest in my academic grade (august birthday) and while I hated being younger than my friends, I always did well academically.
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What a great question! We are now in the midst of investigating K options for next year. We will probably move, but if we don't, then our zoned school is awful and I will definitely homeschool. DH and I always comment that the kids learn just as much if not more on days we are home/doing other stuff. The schedule that @T.H.O.U.: posted is pretty much my worst nightmare for my DS.
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I am not for a second a fan of a ton of sitting and structured time in K, but the trend right now is making Pre-K available to more and more people because it's been shown to make such a difference in later success in education.
We will enroll in any and all educational options offered, but I will look for programs that are less structured, have more play time as much as possible. And even though teachers post the schedule and it says "language arts" that doesn't mean it's not an engaging activity or even centers where the kids rotate doing 3 different activities...
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We won't be skipping! And here's the schedule for our Kindergarten:
8:10-8:30 Children arrive (morning yoga)
8:30-8:50 Morning Meeting (calendar, attendance, greeting, music and movement)
8:50-9:30 Language and Word Study
9:30-10:00 Reading Workshop
10:00-10:15 Morning Recess (until November 1)
10:15-11:00 Writing Workshop
11:00-11:20 Lunch
11:20-11:50 Recess
11:55-12:15 Quiet time and bathroom break
12:15-1:15 Math
1:15-1:30 Snack/Pack Up
1:30-2:20 Specials
2:30 Dismissal -
@Chillybear: My aunt did something similar for my cousin. The cutoff for Kindergarten was Aug. 31 and her birthday is Sept. 2, so she put her in private kindergarten and she moved to the public schools for first grade. I wish I could do that now for H but the trend in my area is for the private schools to have earlier kindergarten deadlines to prevent parents from doing that. Public schools are 5 before Aug. 1 and the private schools are 5 before June 1.
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@Baby Boy Mom: I think most every school (even play based schools) will give you a "schedule" like that. Its what they do in that scheduled time that makes the difference. Is math time simply worksheets or is it centers and hands on activities to help with different learning styles and levels.
I believe kids do learn a lot through home/natural environments, but unless you are really making an effort, a trip to the grocery store is just a trip to the store unless you make the effort to count the items, add up the costs, categorize fruits/veggies etc. So just keeping them home doesn't always = more learning.
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@T.H.O.U.: I don't disagree with you. My main concern is the amount of recess...Currently in pre-k they have 50 minutes in the middle of the day. And 40 minutes of nap. The two big chunks of time in the morning and afternoon are conducted in centers (like stations) and just a short circle time to open and close the day. I am worried about the amount of "academic" time in relation to free play time.
And I am totally in agreement that home doesn't always mean learning; it depends a lot on the parents/environment/opportunity etc.
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