Hellobee Boards

I voted for full even though it's half at this time. It will be full by the time my son is in school which works nicely for us as working parents.

It's a free full school day (8:05am - 2:10pm) but we will still have to pay for after school care (which goes until 6pm but we will probably pick up between 4:30 and 5:30.

ETA: I did not vote since I'm not sure what constitutes a free full day...

Our district has a free half day 4k, and 5k starts full-days 8:30 - 3:30. E will start 5k next fall and I'm a little worried it will be too much for him.

Currently it's free half day and you can pay extra for full day. From what I understand, almost everyone does the full day and just pays the extra money. I don't know how I feel about full vs half day-- and I stay at home, so I don't have to worry about extra after care payments-- but if everyone else is doing full I'm afraid she would be missing out if I took her home early. We still have almost 2 years before she starts though.

@MrsF: @Foodnerd81: So how does this half day free/full day pay type program work? What's done in the extra half day that you are paying for?

@KT326: We have a free full day (7:50 - 3:00). We have after care available until 6:00 for a fee. I consider it a full day program, it's the same hours of the remainder of the elementary school. I think half day typically goes for about half of the school hours, rather than all of them.

Full day, for children in their 5th year (calendar year cut off, so this year, kids born in 2011 are supposed to be beginning K). The interesting thing about this state is that it's not mandatory, kids do not have to be in school until they are 7.

Free full-day. It seems like a really long day, but she'll be used to it because of daycare.

All of MN is free full-day, but since we work full time, we will need to pay for before and after care. Our daughter is currently in preschool, but I voted for free all day since that is what she will have next year. The governor is trying to get preschool free as well, but that hasn't moved very far yet.

Our district is still half-day kindergarten which will be tough for us as we both work. We will mostly likely have to add on a before and after school program to make it work. LO has been in daycare and now in full-time preschool so the full day, while different in a school setting, would not be too long for him.

We have free half day and paid full day.

@MamaG: For ours the extended day does lunch, another recess, a rest time, and something they call "enrichment activities". I'm not sure what they are exactly, but they're some sort of learning that's above and beyond what's covered in the curriculum. I think maybe language classes, music, etc.

I didn't realize the options (and free/pay!) that were out there. In our district, public full-day K is free. There are some private options (all pay, obviously) that offer full- or half-day, but it sounds like most people opt for full-day unless their LO has some sort of other "required" activity on other days (e.g., speech, etc).

It seems like the main downside of the full-day K is that is a straight shot from play-based/child-led preschool or daycare (no matter the length of day) to a full day of a more rigorous, academic setting with needing to listen, sit still, etc etc without getting much free-play.

On the other hand, half-day K would allow you to build up to that, but at the risk of being a little behind academically at the start of 1st...plus still having to get used to the full-day rigor.

We'll do full-day (still deciding between public or private option due to school/class-size), but I'm already expecting it to be a tough adjustment for the first couple of months!