Fall Is Here and Growing Up

Fall blew in today with some drastically cooler weather. Cool weather is predicted for the next fifteen days. Warm, sunny pool days are winding down here, if not over for the season already. And my five-year-old begins full-days of Kindergarten this week. Even though her full days will be every other day, they will be three full days each week. Here is her Kindergarten schedule:

Monday, Wed., Friday -- 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday and Thurs. -- 8:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

It was the best schedule this determined mom could get here in Indiana for a Kindergarten schedule. Half-day Kindergarten is dying here as an option for just about everyone. Even the schools that still offer if are pressuring the parents to pay for full-day Kindergarten. It is very sad to me. One mom of a half-day Kindergarten girl told me that her Kindergartener is in a mixed class with full-day Kindergarten kids and the teachers tell the whole class about the afternoon activities that are scheduled. Classy, huh?

I am just not convinced that our kids need to hit the ground running full-time as five-year-olds. Can't we give our little kids just one more year to be kids? This is the first year that Kindergarten joins the rigor of the Indiana State Academic standards. My daughter will be one of the first kids tested every single year (including this one) on the new standards. If she isn't reading up to standards by third grade, she will be held back, as will any kid not making that cut. Pressure. Pressure. And they are only five. It is simply wrong in my opinion. Kids need to be kids.

Kindergarten IS still optional here in Indiana, but given the above, is it really optional? Not really. Oh well. I am happy with our choices and glad we do have a choice still. I pray that Kindergarten will maintain this schedule next year as well because my youngest daughter will be entering Kindergarten next year. I want to stand up for my kids' childhoods and still do right by them when it comes time to be tested into oblivion.