oh my. I attended K in 1972/73. It was half day and I remember painting and having a snack and rest time. I don't recall much focus on academics.

1978. Half day. I remember the play house, the piano, and the alphabet song. And the sandbox in the classroom.

Just went to my K child's back to school night and there are math and literacy tests and homework etc.

Learned to read in 1st (was desperate to learn actually). I was a total bookworm.

I went to kindergarten in 1982. Small southern town. I think we mostly played in kindergarten. sometimes the aide would take me aside and we would read together. However, I remember feeling that was special. Other kids were not reading at all.

We spent the first couple months of first grade learning how to write the alphabet. We did not get our first real reading book till just before Christmas. I was so bored and was dying to get to the point in the year when we started learning to read.

1978, K in ?McLean, I remember the teacher teaching the alphabet and snack time. Half day, learned to read in 1st grade.

K was so much easier back then. It us unnecessarily hard now, some kids aren't ready to read in K, and they do well academically later.

1976 in Boston suburb. My mom tells me she found my K teacher asleep with her head on her desk one day! There must be some story there, since my mom said it sympathetically, as in "it was a rough year." I still have scars all over my hands from the wood shop (we got to saw and hammer unsupervised which obviously was a lot of fun). I remember climbing an enormous tree and wandering in a milkweed patch during recess, out of view of any adults, as well as being disciplined for throwing a hard berry up in the air that randomly came down and split a little girl's skull open (surface wound but lots of blood & very dramatic). I have no memory of academics & I'm pretty sure it was a half-day program. Although lots of us knew how to read, I remember no academics until the excruciatingly boring phonics lessons in 1st grade that we gutted out while waiting for non-reading peers to catch up. 1st was definitely considered the developmentally-appropriate time to learn to read.

OP. Even by today's standards, Henry Huggins is a 2nd/3rd/4th grade reading book.

Well this is what was going on in Lafayette in the '90s--I guess a substantial number of people were that far above grade level. I remember very clearly because I wasn't placed in the Henry Huggins reading group, but most of my friends were. I remember being very disappointed and determined to get in there. I remember I was struggling to read simple picture books at the beginning of first grade, and all of a sudden at the end of the year something clicked and suddenly I was reading chapter books (unfortunately not in time to be placed into the Henry Huggins reading group!). By second grade I was "advanced." During silent reading time in 1st and 2nd grade Goosebumps and Babysitters club were very popular.

I find this interesting, because so many people on this board are concerned that JKLM schools in DCPS are providing a subpar education compared to suburban schools. If it was this way in the '90s, could it possibly be the case now?

I also find it interesting because I don't think any of my peers were horribly scarred from being in an environment that pushed academics earlier than previous generations. I remember having plenty of time to "be a kid" when I was little, and I suspect that most children are more adaptable than parents think. But we'll see if I change my tune when my kids are school age.

1976, I don't have much of a memory. Lots of memories of learning to read in first grade, but not much of kindergarten.

OP. Even by today's standards, Henry Huggins is a 2nd/3rd/4th grade reading book.

OP here. I didn't have any standardized testing in K, and by phonics, I meant that I was taught letter sounds, combo sounds ("ch," "sh," etc.), and how to sound out words. In first and second grade we had a phonics workbooks where we went into all that in greater detail. We weren't expected to read fluently (read chapter books and what not) in K, just Bob Books type stuff. In 1st grade, there was an advanced reading group that started off the year reading Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins. I think standardized testing started in first or second.

'62; recess, nap, snack, reading circle, art, walks to collect stuff, 1/2 day. Learned to read, write and do math through calculus, computer programming, economics, you know nerdy stuff.

K today is abysmal.

1966 in the midwest. Half-day kindergarten. Played, nap time, snack time, learned alphabet sounds and number.

No garbage testing, No garbage homework.

And SOMEHOW, I got through college on a partial scholarship, got a job in my field within a week of graduation, and have been gainfully employed for 30 years.

1981, half-day K. Classroom had huge play station areas, just like preschools do today. Walked to school with my sister and home before lunch by myself (6 blocks). Then my mom and I would eat macaroni and cheese and watch her soap opera.

Mid-sixties. Public school on the East Coast. Kindergarten did used to be pretty fun. My favorite things were a really fabulous play kitchen/house/dress-up area, and a big area with enormous blocks for building. We also did a lot of art and music activities. We had a moderate amount of sitting around on the floor listening to whatever the teacher was teaching or reading to us, but were expected to be pretty active. No one was given homework or expected to learn to read until first grade, but I was already reading, and the teacher gave me special homework assignments, much to my nerdish delight.

When my oldest kid went to kindergarten (FCPS) in the early 90s, there was still a lot of this, but with more academics. I remember he did a science fair project. It felt like a good balance.

By the 2000s, when my younger kids started in FCPS, kindergarten was stressful, with almost no time for play. One went to a half-day program, and the teacher never let them have recess, if you can imagine that for 5 year olds. The other went to a full-day program, which had no play areas whatsoever, and was really sad and dull.

1985

I remember we had the 'letter people's so they were definitely teaching us letters and sounds. I remember illustrating and writing' stories, specifically the teacher encouraging me to figure out and write down more than just the sound of the first letter (the teacher or aide wrote a translation below. We made class graphs and did basic addition in math. I remember being asked to count as high as I could and getting to 100. I remember playing with magnets for science. We had blocks and a play kitchen in the classroom

Anonymous wrote:

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

I'm diagnosing a case of nostalgia.

Not OP, but I also went to K in 1964, and it was pretty darned carefree. No reading instruction whatsoever, but I learned to read in 1st grade..

Flashforward to 1996, when my oldest went to K in a MoCo public school. Pretty similar experience to mine, actually.

1999: 2nd child goes to K at same school with same teacher.

Me: Hey, what happened to the nature walks when the kids gathered leaves, glued them in their tree journals, traced and colored them and learned to identify which trees they came from?

Teacher: Yeah, that was fun, but we don't have time for that anymore. The kids need to do their pre-reading worksheets. BTW, I've been meaning to talk to you about my concerns re DS . . . .

DS also learned to read in 1st grade.

2002: 3rd child goes to K -- same school, different teacher

We're not in Kansas anymore. Children assessed and tracked constantly. DD is in lowest reading group; teacher very concerned -- shows us printout of DD's test scores, which are alarmingly (to teacher) low. DH (who learned to read in 1st grade in ca. 1963) and I are not worried -- DD seems oblivious to test scores, likes school, makes friends easily, loves art, music and recess.

Child #3 learns to read in 1st grade.

Long-term results: We all love to read. Of the 4 of us who have applied to college, all were accepted at schools ranked in the top 10 by US News. Our neighborhood school has had full-day K since 2007, I believe, and neighbors tell us that teachers and kids are stressed. But, hey, kids are reading in K now, so that's gotta be progress, right?