Which is better
Full-Day or Half-day Kindergarten
January 14th, 2006
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Enrolling your
child in kindergarten next year? A recent study comparing full-day
and half-day kindergarten may help you in making this decision.
There are two types of Kindergarten classes, full length day and a
half-day. You may not have an option of full-day or half-day but
you might consider supplementing your half day student at home.
A study that is
going to be published in the upcoming February issue of the American
Journal of Education looked at full-day and half-day programs to see
which one was better. They studied more than 8,000 kindergarteners
in 500 U.S. public schools.
The researchers
discovered that most of the full-day programs were being offered to
disadvantaged children. These children showed benefits of a
full-day program with the equivalent of an extra month of academic
schooling compared to the half-day students.
"We evaluated
program effectiveness by how much children learned in mathematics
and literacy over the kindergarten year," wrote the author of the
study. "Results are clear: when children's social and academic
backgrounds are taken into account, as well as structural, social,
and academic features of their schools, children who experience
full-day kindergarten as a whole-school program are advantaged in
terms of their cognitive learning."
The researchers
also mention that the full-day students usually had more time to
interact with teachers. The full-day program also gave students
more time to work on their social skills.
The full-day
program gives all children more time to learn as well as work on
their social skills. If you have a school that offers a half-day
program; try to spend time teaching at home and find after school
programs to have your child interact with others.
Depending on your
school, you may need to enroll you child one year in advance. If
you don’t know when kindergarten enrollment begins, make sure to
call your local school soon. You will need to find out when
enrollment is as well as age cut off dates. During enrollment you
will need a government issued birth certificate, up to date
immunization records, and very likely a physical from a doctor.
Don’t do the physical without checking in with your school first, as
they will probably have paperwork to fill out and a time frame that
it needs to completed.
If you have a
full-day kindergarten program, you may also want to send your child
to pre-school first. The local schools usually have a pre-school
program available. And you may have to enroll months before class
even starts. By starting your child in pre-school, kindergarten
will be an easier transition.
By
Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication Staff Writer
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