I enrolled my 4 year old in an in-person parochial preschool and will unenroll from our charter next week. I couldn't take it anymore and the 2-day hybrid--that may or may not happen--is really not a solution for my family.

It doesn't sound like its a good fit for your child and there are no consequences, so I'd unenroll. I have debated on pulling our child but we/she get enough benefit out of it and her teachers are incredibly good. The content is good and they are realistic about expectations for the age. Supportive without pressure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is he actually behind, though? Or just behind her classwork?

I think that I should be working with him more on writing and letters, but I think he is in line with what a 4-year-old should know. He's normal/smart enough, might have attention issues, but I feel sure he's going to do well in elementary overall. He's definitely way behind in classwork - he doesn't want to pay attention to any of it. I feel like what the teacher is doing in online sessions would work for him in person, but isn't right for him for online sessions.

There's no such thing as a 4 year old being "behind" unless they have a developmental disability. Behind for a 4 year old looks like - not recognizing any letters at all, not being able to make a mark on paper, not developing in self-care skills like dressing and undressing, not able to follow commands. By way of example, my 4 year old was behind because he had a severe fine motor delay and couldn't even put mark on paper at 4, and couldn't climb up a ladder to slide.

Unless you really need to stay enrolled in this school to keep your spot for K, I would drop out, 100%. Honestly your kid will probably learn more watching Sesame Street than doing whatever worksheets they are trying to get him to do.

Communities preschool is doing hybrid pre-K4 and it’s free for dc residents. Not sure if they’d take a kid at this point, but worth reaching out to ask. https://communikids.com/

Anonymous wrote:Is he actually behind, though? Or just behind her classwork?

I think that I should be working with him more on writing and letters, but I think he is in line with what a 4-year-old should know. He's normal/smart enough, might have attention issues, but I feel sure he's going to do well in elementary overall. He's definitely way behind in classwork - he doesn't want to pay attention to any of it. I feel like what the teacher is doing in online sessions would work for him in person, but isn't right for him for online sessions.

Is he actually behind, though? Or just behind her classwork?

Maybe I need to to talk to his teacher again, but the impression I'm getting is that she's not cool with the kids doing the minimum, is concerned about my child "falling behind" and that I should to be more disciplined to get him to participate in his sessions? We're not on the same page.

Anonymous wrote:As far as I know most charters and all DCPS have not instituted a minimum DL except for logging into Canvas or the equivalent at the charter for ECE. Is your school requiring more?

I would just do the bare minimum- actual minimum- in the hope that school will reopen in some form this spring.

The school is not requiring more, but I'm getting pressure from the teacher to attend more sessions and step it up.

Yes. My DH doesn't want us to. But he's coming around. I would like to find out if it would be possible to re-enroll midyear if in-person ever happens. We are at our IB and there's no waitlist at the moment.

Our charter school has clear attendance requirements in DL, and the PreK kids don't ever have to appear on camera. They just have to complete one or two asynchronous assignments (I forget which, I don't have a PreK kid, I was just curious), which can be things like listening to mom read a book in Epic. I know we have kids who attend a full time daycare center and spend a few minutes on "school" each night and count as enrolled.

Can you find out what is the bare minimum for your kid, and just do that?

No, its not realistic to ask for a personalized weekly check in with your child on top of whatever your teacher is already doing. Some schools do have weekly check ins with the teacher already built in, but I don’t think it’s ok to ask for this kind of personalization right now.

As far as I know most charters and all DCPS have not instituted a minimum DL except for logging into Canvas or the equivalent at the charter for ECE. Is your school requiring more?

I would just do the bare minimum- actual minimum- in the hope that school will reopen in some form this spring.

Homeschool.......which for a 4 yo should be very easy. Lessen your stress and your kids stress.
Re enroll for K

I think about it every day but we are at a HRCS so can't.

DL is not working for my 4yo. I am considering unenrolling him. The main thing that keeps me from doing it is, if school actually goes to in-person this year, I don't want him to miss out on that. But I don't have to worry about losing his spot for next school year, because it's our in-bound school for K.

Has anyone here decided to unenroll and homeschool, or are you considering it?

I started the year with a can-do attitude and the best of intentions, but it's just not working out, he's not ready to learn on a screen and he's getting nothing out of it. Now he's resisting it and hating it. I could continue logging him on for DL sessions, doing the minimum, etc, but actually the prospect of 7 more months of that is horrible.

I had an idea that maybe I don't have to enroll him, but work something out with the teacher that the kid does not do DL sessions, and I follow along the curriculum at home with him, and we check in with her like 1x a week. I'm not sure if that's something realistic to ask?

My kid btw has a regular activity in which he socializes and plays with a small group of other kids, does crafts and story times with a care giver.