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View Full Version : Kindy phase-in - Vancouver thing??



EllasMum
09-06-2010, 10:59 AM
My niece is starting kindergarten this year. Her school was chosen to be one of the trial schools for full-day kindergarten. I think it is a great idea, as do the parents, from what I hear from my sister. Here's the weirdness: they have a LONG phase-in period. The kids go one day this week, for half an hour - and then nothing for the rest of the week! Next week, they go one hour the first day, then 1.5 hours the next, two days in a row of half days, and then the weekend. The following week starts with 9-12:45 and adds an hour each day until the end of the week, when the kids will go a whole day. I have never heard of such a LONG phase-in period. My sister does not know why it is setup that way - a lot of the kids were already in preschool at the very least, and many of them were in full-day daycare. We are at a loss as to why there would be such a long period to acclimatise these kids. Has anyone encountered anything similar? I don't know of anyone else with DC in full-day kindy, so I am wondering if it is because of that? My sister's older son went through the same school, before the full-day kindy, and she does not recall a phase-in period like this. I wonder if other full-day kindergarten programs have a similar start? :shrug:

bubbaray
09-06-2010, 11:05 AM
Our French Immersion K classes at our school are still 1/2 day, and the phase in is 2 weeks. I can't remember the times exactly, but IIRC it starts at 1 hr and increases to the full 2.5 hrs (or whatever it is) over 2 weeks. They go for about 30 minutes on Tuesday, then start in on the phase in on Wednesday. First "real" day is Monday the 20th or something like that.

Every district is different, though. I'm not sure what the full-day phase in is like here and I can't get our school's website to work right now.

mom2binsd
09-06-2010, 08:25 PM
Our school in Utah did that, not quite that long and IMHO that long of a phase in is really just a pain, kids adapt pretty quickly. My DD went from 3 afternoons of preschool to full day K and didn't skip a beat, and I didn't notice any of the other K's having issues.

I actually think it's nice to start off with a routine that is the routine for the year, it's almost like teasing them with the phase in, or maybe just teasing the parents....