Yesterday Premier McGuinty announced his plans for All Day Kindergarten and today Dani wrote an excellent post in support and praise of it. I think Dani brought up some really wonderful points about why sending children to Kindergarten all day as opposed to half day is a good thing. I, however, want to play the other side of the field.
When the Premier first started talking about this last year, I was not in favour of it and hoped that it would not come to fruition. I am one who feels that our children already spend way too many years in school and that these early formative years would be better spent at home with their family.
I should also remind my readers that I am a Stay at Home Mom, by choice and by sacrifice. Hubby and I decided before J was even born that we were going to try to do it. It would not have mattered which one of us stayed home, but since Hubby made more money than I did and really loves what he does, it was decided that I would stay at home. In the last six years that I have not been out in the field working I have had to bring work in on occasion to make ends meet and would do it again if the need should arise. My current venture into Photography, is one of passion and desire and at this point does not pay the bills, but hopefully one day will.
From listening to Premier McGuinty on television it was pretty clear to me that his intentions for all day Kindergarten is to supplement childcare. Having the schools offer before and after care means that the children could be at school as early as 7:30 in the morning and as late as 6:00pm, that is a long time to be in one place. I understand that there is a need for childcare, but do we really want the Government running daycare? Do we really want to give them that much say in how our children are being raised?
I guess I just don’t feel that a four year old, who possibly still needs a nap, should be at school all day long. I see the teachers twice a day, five days a week. I know that they will not be thrilled to have the same four and five year olds in their class all day long. It is very difficult to teach 20 four year olds for half a day, let alone a whole one. And with more children in classes that need extra attention, I can certainly see some of the teachers changing to higher grades.
I am putting my thoughts out there and would love to hear what you think about it, whether you strongly agree or disagree. Each Province is different for Kindergarten so it would be interesting to see what others think who either already have their children in all day Kindergarten or if you live in Quebec or Saskatchewan where there is still only 5yr old Kindergarten, how did or does that work for your child? For those of you in Manitoba or Northern Ontario where school is a full day for two or three days per week, did you enjoy this for your children?
I would love to hear from all of you on this as it is a subject dear to my heart. I cannot believe that my little girl will have to leave me for an entire day in just over two years, it just doesn’t seem right.
