by Lisa A. Goff

Created on: June 09, 2007

Should school systems move to full-day kindergarten programs? No, but many are. Eventually, all will. A reason given for full-day kindergarten is to get children used to full-days before they start first grade. It seems to me that at the age of five, half-days of school should be enough. The adjustment to full days the following year should be easy.

Five and six-year-old children get very tired and cranky. Tired and cranky five-year-old children are not attaining maximum levels of learning. They should be able to go home and unwind, be with their parents, take a nap in their own bed instead of on a floor mat with other children pestering them.

The argument I have heard from some parents is that their children are used to being in daycare all day so full-day kindergarten should be fine. They say they need them in school full-time because it is too inconvenient for them to make arrangements for transportation and daycare.

Isn't it too bad that parents have to be concerned about the inconveniences of transportation and daycare when it comes to the comfort and care of their children? For many families, there is no option but for both parents to be working outside of the home in order to make ends meet. The children don't have the luxury of being at home with their parents. Long gone are the days of Wally and Beaver Cleaver whose mother was at home when they arrived home from school or when school was not in session.

My piano students who arrive at my home studio right after school are exhausted and frustrated. They often use me as a sounding board before they can relax and settle into their lesson. They say they wish their moms had time to talk to them after school. These are older children. What must it be like for the little five-year-old kindergarten children who are still not much more than toddlers, themselves?

How much of the day of a kindergartner is actually spent in "learning" activities? I've been in kindergarten. I've also been a teacher's aid in kindergarten and preschool. Very short periods of time are spent on learning activities. Most of the rest of the day is spent waiting in line for bathroom breaks, hand washing, going from room-to-room, activity-to-activity. Play-time, snack-time, quiet-time and waiting around for unruly children to be dealt with take up a lot of the rest of the time.

How much time do children really need to spend in school in order to be socialized? As a homeschooling parent, the "socialization question" is always brought

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