prk schools with more outdoor time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's pretty amazing free PreK offered at a range of CBOs. They're early childhood centers so it feels less like regular school for a kid so young (and there are no uniforms, a plus for me) and before and after care is available on a sliding scale. Full school day attendance (9-3:30, 8:30 if you want breakfast there) is expected to keep a spot. Outdoor time at ours is something like 45 min and while the rooftop space isn't great, they also do movement classes, garden, and take walks in the neighborhood.

Thank you for the information! We are in the process of checking a few of these out. We are still working to figure out if it is just too long of a day. Or if it is the more structured school setting vrs more of a smaller group, warmer, playful /room to move setting.

OP - your child is going to grow up so much between now and next August. What is hard to imagine now may make perfect sense by July.

While I agree that 3 year olds are often plenty ready for a full day school, I do find it interesting that friends outside of DC area are mostly doing a couple mornings a week only at that age. But my kid had already been in full day care for 2 years by the time she started PK3. I sometimes think that parents are trying to keep their kids babies for a bit longer...

Usually PK3 in DC is quite nurturing, as far as I've seen. Well, it depends what you think hat means, it's no daycare. We are at a montessori but visited a lot of schools, most seem to have play based fun classrooms for that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC DPR co-ops might meet your need. They are mostly 2-3 year olds, but meet for 2-3 hours each morning M-F.

OP, some of the PK3 and PK4 schedule is just the constraint of a day. Lunch and nap takes 2.5-3 hours hours of the 6.5 hour day. If your kid's school has daily "specials" (which parents aggressively advocate for), that is another 30-60 minutes. That leaves 3 hours remaining. Recess is typically 30-60 minutes, which leaves about 2-2.5 hours for snack, bathroom breaks, and center/lesson time. Think about how long it takes to get a group of 15 three-year-olds to do anything (snack, lunch, bathroom, walking to or from recess) PLUS the school's need to schedule/balance which age groups (PK3-5th grade is 8 years of age span) are on the playground at any given time.

My kids go to a school where the littles have one scheduled morning recess of about 30 minutes. They are frequently outside for additional parts of the day for lessons, and sometimes the non-nappers get additional outdoor time in the afternoon. Aftercare typically does 1+ hours outside as well. They get more time outside than they did when I was home with them. But yeah, it's only 30 scheduled minutes of recess per day.

I hate "specials" for early childhood. So dumb. The kids should get extra recess or free play during that time.

Our DCPS PK3 had a ton of outdoor time (long recess and long lunch). But that was totally dependent on one teacher.

Agree with others that if you only want a few hours/week you should go for a co-op program.

Oftentime the specials are something fun - like PE or music. I don't think they are "dumb" at all. I also think that it helps kids learn how to transition - something that they will need to do with less interruptions starting in K or 1st.

[Anonymous]

SWS does a lot of outdoor time for early childhool education. Thirty minutes is the requirement, but they do more than that in practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee Montessori allows for early pick up for nappers (aka pk3 and sometimes pk4). They also play outside everyday regardless of weather (unless it's dangerous). Most schools will stay inside but Lee they are out and you are expected to send your kids with proper outdoor attire.

The real question is are you serious about sending your kid to school? If you aren't prepared to fully commit to school's attendance than don't take a space for a child/family willing to commit to being all in.

Lee allows pick up at 1pm for all PK3 and PK4 kids, though you will be strongly encouraged to leave your PK4 kid once they are ready for an afternoon work period (usually around age five).

Ya'll really shouldn't be making this known, because OSSE will shut this down if they know.

Umm.. it is public knowledge, it is shared at open houses, and/or on the schools websites. Not a hush, hush thing. Charters have more flexibility in how they run their programs than DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are currently in a DPR co-op and really liking it after a couple of weeks. Gives my son time in a relaxed environment, gives me a few hours to get work or other stuff done, and it's super inexpensive. It isn't too late to try to get a spot - just call the office and talk to Moneick. There are a lot of people who are on waiting lists at a couple of spots so once they accept one the list at others move. And inevitably some families realize it isn't the right fit. They try not to accept anyone after Dec 1.

What ages do you find most often at the DPR coops? I see some cut off at 2/3 ish. And a few others are for 2.5-4.11 years old which seems like a really wide developmental range for activities. It looks like currently Chevy Chase & Columbia Heights are the only ones without wait lists.

[Anonymous]

Specials is a waste of time for prek 3 at least. I've subbed numerous times and most specials teachers have no idea how to teach that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are currently in a DPR co-op and really liking it after a couple of weeks. Gives my son time in a relaxed environment, gives me a few hours to get work or other stuff done, and it's super inexpensive. It isn't too late to try to get a spot - just call the office and talk to Moneick. There are a lot of people who are on waiting lists at a couple of spots so once they accept one the list at others move. And inevitably some families realize it isn't the right fit. They try not to accept anyone after Dec 1.

What ages do you find most often at the DPR coops? I see some cut off at 2/3 ish. And a few others are for 2.5-4.11 years old which seems like a really wide developmental range for activities. It looks like currently Chevy Chase & Columbia Heights are the only ones without wait lists.

2.5-4.11 was mostly 3 year olds when we attended several years ago -- most do go to Pre-K at 4. It was a great program and I'm actually a bit surprised there are openings at all.

[Anonymous]

I looked into this question (by asking about it at a bunch of open houses) and found that there is not that much variation in outdoor time in DC public schools (including charters). Some schools only had one 30 minute recess, but many have 2 recesses which end up being around 45 min total. So even the "most" is only 45 minutes a day, excluding PE.

FWIW, my kids are at Bridges and they have two recesses, one 30 min and one 15 min.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC DPR co-ops might meet your need. They are mostly 2-3 year olds, but meet for 2-3 hours each morning M-F.

OP, some of the PK3 and PK4 schedule is just the constraint of a day. Lunch and nap takes 2.5-3 hours hours of the 6.5 hour day. If your kid's school has daily "specials" (which parents aggressively advocate for), that is another 30-60 minutes. That leaves 3 hours remaining. Recess is typically 30-60 minutes, which leaves about 2-2.5 hours for snack, bathroom breaks, and center/lesson time. Think about how long it takes to get a group of 15 three-year-olds to do anything (snack, lunch, bathroom, walking to or from recess) PLUS the school's need to schedule/balance which age groups (PK3-5th grade is 8 years of age span) are on the playground at any given time.

My kids go to a school where the littles have one scheduled morning recess of about 30 minutes. They are frequently outside for additional parts of the day for lessons, and sometimes the non-nappers get additional outdoor time in the afternoon. Aftercare typically does 1+ hours outside as well. They get more time outside than they did when I was home with them. But yeah, it's only 30 scheduled minutes of recess per day.

I hate "specials" for early childhood. So dumb. The kids should get extra recess or free play during that time.

Our DCPS PK3 had a ton of outdoor time (long recess and long lunch). But that was totally dependent on one teacher.

Agree with others that if you only want a few hours/week you should go for a co-op program.

I love our specials - the prek kids get Gym, Spanish, Art, Music and STEM once a week. They do a lot of play-based learning at that age anyway.

[Anonymous]

Hyde addison at least as of last year had two recesses for Pre-K and k. worth checking out but hard to get a spot in prek3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC DPR co-ops might meet your need. They are mostly 2-3 year olds, but meet for 2-3 hours each morning M-F.

OP, some of the PK3 and PK4 schedule is just the constraint of a day. Lunch and nap takes 2.5-3 hours hours of the 6.5 hour day. If your kid's school has daily "specials" (which parents aggressively advocate for), that is another 30-60 minutes. That leaves 3 hours remaining. Recess is typically 30-60 minutes, which leaves about 2-2.5 hours for snack, bathroom breaks, and center/lesson time. Think about how long it takes to get a group of 15 three-year-olds to do anything (snack, lunch, bathroom, walking to or from recess) PLUS the school's need to schedule/balance which age groups (PK3-5th grade is 8 years of age span) are on the playground at any given time.

My kids go to a school where the littles have one scheduled morning recess of about 30 minutes. They are frequently outside for additional parts of the day for lessons, and sometimes the non-nappers get additional outdoor time in the afternoon. Aftercare typically does 1+ hours outside as well. They get more time outside than they did when I was home with them. But yeah, it's only 30 scheduled minutes of recess per day.

I hate "specials" for early childhood. So dumb. The kids should get extra recess or free play during that time.

Our DCPS PK3 had a ton of outdoor time (long recess and long lunch). But that was totally dependent on one teacher.

Agree with others that if you only want a few hours/week you should go for a co-op program.

Oftentime the specials are something fun - like PE or music. I don't think they are "dumb" at all. I also think that it helps kids learn how to transition - something that they will need to do with less interruptions starting in K or 1st.

The specials might be "fun" for some kids, but they're certainly not child-led or free play. And I dislike the notion that PK should have age-inappropriate standards (like "preparing for transitions") just to prepare for the age-inappropriate standards of K. Also part of the problem is *too many* transitions in the first place. The vast majority of PKers (and K - 3 for that matter) would be MUCH better off with an extra period of recess every day than wasting 45 minutes/week in a language or "stem" class where they are never going to learn enough to build on anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Specials is a waste of time for prek 3 at least. I've subbed numerous times and most specials teachers have no idea how to teach that age.

Exactly. They make the kids sit in a circle and listen to a lecture, or try to teach them a dance, or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Specials is a waste of time for prek 3 at least. I've subbed numerous times and most specials teachers have no idea how to teach that age.

Exactly. They make the kids sit in a circle and listen to a lecture, or try to teach them a dance, or something like that.

Yup. When I'm subbing as the aide in the little kid classs, I dread specials. In every school I have worked in there are so few good specials teachers. Some make them sit for 45 minutes and get frustrated when the kids are off task, don't listen, etc. They have no idea how to construct age appropriate lessons. It's the biggest time waster of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Specials is a waste of time for prek 3 at least. I've subbed numerous times and most specials teachers have no idea how to teach that age.

Exactly. They make the kids sit in a circle and listen to a lecture, or try to teach them a dance, or something like that.

Yup. When I'm subbing as the aide in the little kid classs, I dread specials. In every school I have worked in there are so few good specials teachers. Some make them sit for 45 minutes and get frustrated when the kids are off task, don't listen, etc. They have no idea how to construct age appropriate lessons. It's the biggest time waster of the day.

To this I would say DCPS and DCPCS need to stop running PrKs like K+ grades. Learning by playing, moving, hands on, creative time and sunshine is so important at this age. They really need to stop making it all about college readiness at 3, 4 and 5 years old.