Full Day vs Half Day Kindergarten - Essay Example

Full Day versus Half Day Kindergarten Introduction The term ‘kindergarten’ is a German word that stands for children’s garden. Kindergarten is a preschool approach for education that is based on playing, social interaction, singing and practical activities of the children. It is an approach that takes into consideration transition of children from home to a new environment. This approach was first implemented in Strasbourg and Bavaria in the late eighteenth century in order to take special care for those children whose both parents were working. Friedrich Frobel was the man who had coined the term ‘Kindergarten’ and his unique approach had a very great impact on the early year’s education across the globe. The term in the present scenario is applied to a wide range of institutions for children of age two years to seven years and differs on the basis of teaching methods that are used in these institutions. There are certain signs that indicates whether a particular kindergarten program is beneficial for children or not such as children are more active, work as well as play with other children in the classroom, children have got access to more number of activities, children receive small group and individual time with their teachers and are not part of any form of large group work time, classroom is decorated by work of children, children gets to learn alphabets and numbers throughout the day by means of various experiences and not only while instructions are given by the teachers and the major focus of children is towards development of all of the aspects of the child and not just to be bounded to academic readiness. Pros, cons and benefits of Half day Kindergarten The approach towards kindergarten differs from region to region and even from family to family. Many parents find that half day kindergarten is suitable for their children mainly because they are not loaded with too much of educational pressure at the early age and can spend more time with their family (Bruce, 2011). Half day kindergarten gives an opportunity to the children to learn as well as play at home and even gives them the space so as not to get into any form of restrictions. There are various forms of benefits that are applicable for half day kindergarten such as academic achievement, emotional, social and physical. Academic achievement The academic achievement is one of the major benefits of half day kindergarten as it is the optimal day time when children attend the class. As per the Walker Readiness Test it has been stated that it is the morning time of kindergarten sessions that children score more in comparison to afternoon sessions (Bhavya, 2007). Children who take part in the half day program of kindergarten are less prone towards being inattentive in classes and hence the rate of failures is less. A young child always possess shorter span of attention and so such half day sessions are more beneficial for early years education. There have not been any academic disadvantages that half day kindergarten has which needs to be eliminated. Social The approach towards teacher are higher in children who attend half day programs as they stay for a short period of time and wants to be more with their teachers. This factor was proved through the elementary behavior rating scale that was designed b Hahnemann. The children spend less time on a structured kind of environment and can be a part of many social activities that are taken place outside the setting of their school. They even get the opportunity to get closer or spend quality time with other members of the family such as adults, peers, family, etc. A half day kindergarten program gives an opportunity to the children to take part in various forms of creative activities that are taking place outside the school premises (Deiner, 2012). Such programs also provide a platform for young children towards diverse set of activities so that they can seek an overall development. Emotional Kindergarten is a transition phase in which young children are taken into a completely new and unknown environment that is far away from their home. Many children do not feel comfortable to spend time in such environment and feel home sick. This results into lack of attention in sessions that are being conducted by their teachers. However half day kindergarten programs assist such challenges to handle children as they spend less amount of time away from their home. The other emotional benefit of such approach is that it helps to develop small stages for education that is imparted on young children. Physical The physical benefit is that it helps to cause less of fatigue in children during the initial years when they are made to join such institutions. These young children also through half day sessions are spending less span of time in such structured activities and can spend more amount of time in free play zone where they are more comfortable (Gestwicki & Bertrand, 2011).The less time that the young children spend in classroom give them the chance to develop more skills through other activities that would be advantageous for them for longer run. Kindergartners are normally those children that are of age two years to six years and in such a young age the attention time span amongst children is very short which indicates that whole day sessions or of longer time period will be outside the grasping power of individual. The major advantage of half day kindergarten is that it enables children to adjust to a structured environment of classroom for a shorter span of time and they do not feel so stressed. An entire year of such program of a half day kindergarten would make young children be more focused and even can adjust more promptly to the full day classes in school at the later stage. The majority of these kindergarteners need an afternoon nap or else they may get tired and even throw more of tantrums to other people (Kreassig, 2008). Half day programs do not make kindergartners get tired and hence help in enhancing the overall skills of young children, improves on their social skills and even make them pay more attention on their learning sessions. Hence it can be stated that half day kindergarten facilitates more of rest time for such young children. The biggest disadvantage of such half day kindergarten is that since the entire program is of few hours so children spend less amount of time on learning (New & Cochran, 2007). A research that was conducted by National Center for Educational Statistics stated that in full day classes student had plenty of time to devote to various subjects such as mathematics, social studies, etc., and they even could spend one hour everyday on reading which even improved their pronunciation skills but in half day classes children did not have much of time that they could spend on learning such wide range of subjects which restricted them towards learning. The other major loophole of such half day kindergarten sessions is that there is less of social interaction amongst children. The most important lesson for these young children at kindergarten is how to work and play with other children, but since these children lesser time in kindergarten in such half day classes so they are not able to learn such skills. The young children in such programs go back home immediately their class gets over that restricts them to form healthy friendship with their peers and this may rise a major difficulty that these children may face they reach the first grade as they would not have good friends. Pros, cons and benefits of Full day Kindergarten The benefits of full day kindergarten can be of two fold that is such sessions are advantageous for children as well as the teachers who active participate in full day classes. The teachers in such full day classes provides more of in-depth instruction to the children, they can easily develop more of close relationships with the young children which enables them to give instructions that are more individualized, this even helps to solve the issue for planning time, teachers even are not in a rush in such full day sessions and can enjoy each of the moments that they are spending with kindergartners, teachers can also adjust students well and have asset of positive minded parents as their children are spending time to learn something productive, and mostly teachers are very enthusiastic towards organizing full day sessions that would be of future help for these children (Reddy, 2008). Full day kindergarten helps to reduce various risks that are associated with learning and development of young children. The full day class lowers down the risk that is linked with cognitive development and language; it also helps to reduce the risk level that is associated with social competence and lastly full day kindergarten reduces risk that is linked with general knowledge and communication skills of young children. The benefits of full day kindergarten can be applicable for children, teachers as well as parents as stated below. Benefits for children It provides the children with an increased opportunity, through which they can enhance their literacy skills, develop social skills, and they are even able to develop self concept in positive sense. The full day classes even facilitates that the learning difficulties can be well identified and resolved, it enhances more of consistency in routines, builds stronger bonds with school and facilitates smooth transition for the children to the first grade. Benefits for teachers The teachers can utilize their most powerful teaching methods that are only possible in full day classes as more time is required for such activities. They even get the opportunity to develop bonds with children and even strong relationships with their parents. They even get the opportunity to address the challenges that is faced by students as the environment that is created by such programs is not of a hurried learning environment and this even gives them the flexibility to plan to entire days activities of the school for the children. Benefits for parents The parents feel secured in full day kindergarten sessions as professional and more of consistent care is given to their children. They even have the satisfaction that their children are developing and learning in a safe environment that too for the whole day and thus they can develop at a faster pace and can make good connections for the public school (Torkelson, 2008). Parents even have economic benefits as such a program is less costly in relation to childcare and also get an opportunity to take active participation in the formal education of their children. There are various advantages of full day classes the most important one is children should be kept bust the maximum times so as to lower down the chances of them falling into any kind of problem and this is facilitated through the full day classes (Spielberger, 2004). Children are also very curious and they always to wish to touch and see objects that they have not earlier and such full day classes gives an opportunity to the teachers to plan such activities so as to keep young children busy. The full day session also helps to eliminate any issues that are related to day care of children and having spent a full day in Kindergarten helps the children to develop more socially. Children become more ready in context of joining any other subsequent grades or full grades after they spend a whole day in such classes. Every state a separate policy toward such kindergarten and they are normally funded by local taxpayers or the local and federal government and in such a scenario having full day classes would mean more of money. The state policy can also be such that it may not support such full day classes which would in turn result into an inconsistency in the career development of students. This approach also has the major disadvantage of causing educational exhaustion amongst children. Children often get tired and restless in such full day classes which have an impact on their learning skills as well as on other students. Long hours of instruction are in majority cases not the most appropriate way to handle such young children. Comparison of full day versus half day kindergarten Full day kindergarten and half day kindergarten having their limitations and advantages differ in the way they operate. Full day kindergarten is suitable for children because they can spend more of their time on learning different subjects and also to improve on their social skills on the contrary half day kindergarten does not provide the opportunity to spend so much if time on learning and development as the sessions are time bound and offers limited access of children to various activities. Half day kindergarten can be termed as beneficial for providing young children with more of free time that they do not have to spend in a structured environment. Young children feel more of home sick when they are put into such unfamiliar environment that is far away from their home which in turn makes them tired and restless and this is the most common scenario with full day classes (Weller, 2001). However full day class offers the platform for children through which they can communicate well with other children and also develop strong social relationships with teachers and other students as they spend more time in the kindergarten. On the contrary half day classes enable children to develop relationships or strong bonds with those such as family and relatives who are outside the school premises. Both the approaches work towards the overall development of young children that is their social wellbeing as well as the educational base of these young children. Full day kindergarten focuses towards developing individuals by having strong knowledge base and good social skills that would help them in the next grade in public school. However the concept of half day kindergarten is that it gives little pressure on students in educational context and focuses more on play then work so that they are able to adjust themselves easily in such structured environment. On the contrary full day classes are often more beneficial as it helps to give sufficient amount of time to the teachers to plan their sessions and use the best approaches of their teaching profession so that they can impart the right skills to their students. On the contrary half day kindergarten provides more of hurried environment where teachers do not get flexibility to plan sessions as per the requirement. Conclusion Kindergarten concept had gained its importance on the factor that basic education or rather early age education is more of necessity for young children. The approach has grown at a rapid pace due to more number of working parents, expensive child care, and the need towards keeping children in safe learning environment. Kindergarten depends on the nature of the society and the policies that are framed by the government of a particular region towards such educational programs. A half day kindergarten class focuses imparting that much learning lesson on students that is required and given them more of free time that they can spend with their family and peers. On the contrary full day kindergarten approach focuses on removing much of the educational risks and provides whole day training and development sessions for these young children. References Bhavya, M. S. (2007). Early Childhood Education. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House Bruce, T. (2011). Early Childhood Education.UK: Hachette Deiner, P. (2012). Inclusive Early Childhood Education: Development, Resources, and Practice. USA: Cengage Learning Gestwicki, C., & Bertrand, J. (2011). Essentials of Early Childhood Education. Canada: Cengage Learning Kreassig, D. C. (2008). An analysis of full and half day kindergarten.USA: ProQuest New, R. S., & Cochran, M. (2007). Early Childhood Education.USA: Greenwood Publishing Group Reddy, S. (2008). Does the Effect of Kindergarten School Day Length on Academic Achievement Among Student Groups Endure Through Third Grade? New York: ProQuest Spielberger, C. (2004). Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology.USA: Academic Press Torkelson, J. A. (2008). Half-day to Full-day Kindergarten Programming. North Dakota: University of North Dakota Weller, A. C. (2001). Editorial Peer Review: Its Strengths and Weaknesses. USA: Information Today, Inc. Read More