Kindergarten Application is Evil!

[StantonHyde]

My DS will start kindergarten next year. The kid has been in all day care/preschool/pre K since he was 3 months old. I like working part time and I want to keep doing it--at least 2 days a week. Our state has decided that all day kindergarten is "state subsidized day care" and thus public schools shall not have full day kindergarten. (Even though we are at or above the national statistics for % of workforce being moms with young kids) The governor got the legislature to pass full day K for "at risk" kids. So in some schools, its all day K. In our neighborhood, we have one half day class and one full day. DS would probably be competing for one of 4 slots open for "model learner" boys, the class size can range from 20-33, and we won't know for sure that we have full day till July or August. WTF????

So I am now having to look at private schools. DH and are committed to public schools but I need to plan my life let alone that 33 kids is basically cat wrangling. So we are applying to a Catholic school that has 60 applicants for 24 slots and they give preference to Catholics, which we are not. We are applying at the JCC and there are more applicants than slots and they give preference to Jewish families, which we are not. (How fast can I convert to 2 religions.....) And then there is the "smart kids" program that has full day K. But I think it is not "enriched" kindergarten but something more like, "ok, let's just start you off in 1st grade" or so I am told. DS is smart but a bit slow on the uptake and he shuts down if he can't do something well. So I don't want him in a program where he will be at the bottom of the heap just because he can't learn to read in a week.

AAAAARGHHHHHHH!!!!!

And don't get me started on the fact that DS has to be tested and interviewed to get into these programs and he is an anxious kid so I am going out of my way to make this as fun as I possibly can--another trip to the bakery for a cupcake????

Honest to Pete--I just want the kid to go to school where he can learn well. It doesn't have to be perfect--just good enough. BLECH on the whole thing!

[californiagirl]

La la la I can't hear you because otherwise I would PANIC.

My kid turns 4 next week and I'm already a bundle of nerves about kindergarten.

Is there an extra cost extended day program for kids in half-day? I mean, other working mothers have to do something, right?

[StantonHyde]

They do have a kindergarten enrichment, come to think of it, which is aftercare for half day. And there is a minimal cost. But--last year they didn't have enough kids to run it (they only need 11 out of 20 some odd kids) and they didn't let people know till Sept 1. I guess if you have family backup and you can roll with punches it is ok. But I don't have backup and I am a planner.

[SnuggleBuggles]

This whole kindergarten thing is nuts! Your situation is down right crazy, overwhelming and frustrating from the sounds of it! Do you think school choice was this hard for our parents??

Funny side story...I am Catholic (non practicing) and dh is Unitarian. The boys are not baptized. There is a discount to the Catholic schools if they are baptized. My mom works for the Catholic church and has been biting her tongue on the fact that the boys aren't baptized but she saw her in the other day and said that her friend, a priest, could baptize ds real fast so he could get the tuition discount. I told her that that sounded like fraud if we weren't actually going to raise him Catholic. She said it was just practical. She's a real head scratcher, I tell you. :)

I thought I had 1st grade worked out for next year but there is a new twist and I am back to being confused. I just want this to be done! Soon it will be, right?

GL!
Beth

[AngelaS]

And people think homeschooling is hard..... ;)

I'm amazed at the hoops people have to jump thru for free public schools. Whatever happened to the neighborhood school?