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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. 
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[b]I hate "specials" for early childhood. So dumb. The kids should get extra recess or free play during that time. [/b]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.  [/quote]

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