For those of you who say kindergarden is the new first grade...when did you attend kindergarden?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious. I was born in 1988, so I guess I would have attended kindergarden in 1993. I went to kindergarden at DCPS at a JKLM school, and while my memory is fuzzy because it was 20 years ago, this is what I can remember of it.

We had some pre-reading activities like sight words, rhyming, phonics, learning how to write short words/sentences. We did some basic math, mostly addition and subtraction. We had "centers" that had some kind of theme to them that we got to play in for some portion of the day (the reading center, the make believe center, the science activity center, etc.) We had a lot of art projects that had some kind of learning goal in mind...I vaguely remember learning about the solar system and the phases of the moon through some sort of paper cutouts. We had one special every day...science, art, music, PE, and something else that I'm forgetting. We had a lot of learning about different cultures. We had story time that could be picture books or chapter books (I remember having The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe read to me at one point). We had naptime, but it was optional and if we didn't want to nap we could read, draw, or play quietly. We had some homework in the form of coloring and writing activities, but I think it was only like 10 minutes. We had recess with the older kids, which was like 20 minutes, although I think we had a little extra 15 minute break to play outside, weather permitting. It was sort of academic, I guess. My teacher thought I had "impulse control" issues and told my mom that she should work on it with me, but I wasn't really a problem child or anything. We had to line up to get our milk at lunch, or go to the cafeteria. Socially, it wasn't a problem because I attended nursery school and was used to being around other kids. I thought it was mostly pretty fun. My best friend and I had all kinds of fun adventures that we would plan during naptime because neither of us liked to nap.

Is kindergarden way more stressful and academic than this now? I definitely didn't just play and fingerpaint in preschool; there was a lot of pre-reading and pre-math activities but none of it stressed me out. Also back in the day, DCPS had a December cut off, so there were plenty of 4 year olds in my kindergarden class.

[Anonymous]

^^by preschool in that last paragraph I mean play and fingerpaint in kindergarden. Whoops, typo.

[Anonymous]

I attended K in 1977 at Terraset in Reston, VA. I was also 4 when I started. It was a lot longer time ago for me, so I don't remember much. I remember writing the numbers 1 through 100 on index cards or similar and attaching them together with string I think. I think K is more academic today in terms of kids learning to read and write, which I don't think we did. I also attended 2 years of preschool, and I'm sure I would have been happy with today's more academic K.

[Anonymous]

1972. Only a half day. Lots of games, music and singing, finger painting, coloring, crafts, and exposure to letters, words, and numbers. I clearly remember not learning to print in any formal manner until first grade. And remember doing simple addition and subtraction in second grade. Multiplication and division in third grade. My son is doing all this a year ahead of me.

[Anonymous]

1964. Ah, the days when childhood was carefree!

[Anonymous]

I didn't. I tried it for a few weeks and it didn't feel like a good fit, so my parents pulled me out and I started in First Grade at 6. It didn't stop me from going to lawschool.

Of course, now some jurisdictions require Kindergarten, but I think it's wrong. Students really haven't changed in the last three decades.

[Anonymous]

1979

[Anonymous]

1977
half day
nap/lights out time
lots of music & play
much less content - letters
didn't get to sounds/phonics really until 1st grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I attended K in 1977 at Terraset in Reston, VA. I was also 4 when I started. It was a lot longer time ago for me, so I don't remember much. I remember writing the numbers 1 through 100 on index cards or similar and attaching them together with string I think. I think K is more academic today in terms of kids learning to read and write, which I don't think we did. I also attended 2 years of preschool, and I'm sure I would have been happy with today's more academic K.

I read that you went to K in 1977 and was like geeze this person is old....until I realized that I too went to K in 1977!! Holy crap I can't come to terms with this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1972. Only a half day. Lots of games, music and singing, finger painting, coloring, crafts, and exposure to letters, words, and numbers. I clearly remember not learning to print in any formal manner until first grade. And remember doing simple addition and subtraction in second grade. Multiplication and division in third grade. My son is doing all this a year ahead of me.

1973, ditto the above. And we definitely did not have any homework! Probably not in 1st grade either.

[Anonymous]

1978. Went to The Lab School at U of C, started at age 4 (December birthday). I remember doing phonics, but that might have been in 1st grade; it was a mixed age open-plan classroom with stations and I went there for 2 years. One station had all different sorts rocks, we did a bunch of interesting art projects, and I had a boyfriend named Otis. That's what I remember about K in the 90s.

[Anonymous]

I went to kindergarten in 1980. I went in the morning and came home and took a nap. We did a letter each week and did some art activities featuring that letter. I remember singing songs, playing on the playground, having a snack, playing in centers (blocks, housekeeping, etc). I think I learned how to write my name. I still have quite a few holiday crafts that my mom saved from kindergarten. We learned phonics in first grade from a phonics book with a plaid cover. I am a teacher now and I don't know if I would've done very well if I had to go to school now. It's sad that our kindergarten teachers have to "sneak" time in for play these days. They have wooden blocks, Legos, etc hidden in their cabinets. I think all of this early education nonsense is backfiring already. Ask most kids in say, third grade what they think about school and I bet you don't get a positive response. My son is in 3rd grade and he doesn't like school except for the usuals- lunch, gym, recess. He said he wishes he could just read a book all day and he is tired of talking about reading. He just wants to actually read. The sum total of my reading strategies was "if it doesn't make sense, go back and reread it." I have 2 Master's degrees so something went right for me in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1964. Ah, the days when childhood was carefree!

I'm diagnosing a case of nostalgia.

[Anonymous]

1984 in FCPS. It was afternoon kindergarten and I don't remember much at all except my teacher had a puppet named Charlie and his mouth moved. Impressed that you all remember so much!

[Anonymous]

1969/70.