No doing preschool during Covid - will it affect Kindergarten?
Do elementary schools (public, charter, or private) care whether a child was most recently in preschool prior to K? Like many preschool parents, I'm agonizing over the decision to pull my child completely out of preschool or to keep them in knowing that I would have to commit now to a full year of remote learning (which is not ideal). Pre-COVID, we had planned to keep them in preschool rather than go for TK. Now I'm not sure we can afford to continue paying $$$ preschool tuition for remote learning AND hire a full-time sitter to facilitate it. The alternative is to pull them out of preschool entirely and patch together a curriculum with a sitter and online resources. For what it's worth, my child has not once said they miss school.
Aug 10, 2020
Parent Replies
I'm a former private school admissions director. Public schools won't care at all, it's not a requirement. Private schools are much more likely to see it as an issue. It won't automatically exclude you from getting accepted but often schools are competitive and most require assessments and teacher recommendation letters from preschool teachers. If he's academically ready and you can get a former preschool teacher or tutor to write the recommendation it'll probably be fine but it could put you at a disadvantage depending on the school you are applying to.
Public and charter (charter is a public school with admittance based on lottery) do not care if a child has gone to preschool or not. I do not know if private schools care or not, it might depend on the school. Under California state code, both preschool and kindergarten are optional if a child is not yet 6 years old. You can look up kindergarten readiness lists online and basically they involve communication skills, paying attention for a certain amount of time, being able to take care of bathroom and lunch needs independently, being able to hold a pencil and use scissors. Remember that the overwhelming majority of kids are schooling from home, so yours won't be at any greater disadvantage than any other. If it were me, I would find free resources online and pay for a sitter.
Absolutely not. I think preschool is great, in normal circumstances, but we are in unprecedented times!
I wouldn't do distance learning with a preschooler. I'd let the child enjoy childhood and casually work on learning letters and numbers. There's way too much pressure on kids these days.