The question, “Where should my child go to kindergarten?”
seems to be a difficult one to answer for many parents. The families who choose The Learning Workshop Kindergarten do so for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include the following:
1. Our smaller class size allows for a great deal of personal attention and individualized instruction.
2. In our multiage setting, the opportunity for a kindergartner to be the “big kid” at school and mentor younger children nurtures his or her self-esteem, empathy and problem solving skills.
3. Our curriculum is thoughtfully customized to offer each child academic challenge at his or her level.
4. The structure provided at The Learning Workshop gets students used to the expectations of school without spending time transitioning and lining up.
5. The Learning Workshop offers flexible scheduling, tailored to fit each family’s needs.
6. Parents have many opportunities to be involved in the classroom.
7. There is a great deal of parent-teacher interaction and communication about the child’s development.
Learning Workshop Kindergarten alumni have successfully made the transition into various first grades. Their parents feel that The Learning Workshop gave their children a head start academically, which allowed them to have energy for adjusting to their new routine and new relationships.
Some of our families choose to enroll their children in public school kindergarten after their child has attended pre-kindergarten at The Learning Workshop. The Learning Workshop graduates who have gone on to public kindergarten have adjusted well to their new schools; although, they report that they find the curriculum a bit lacking in challenge.
Reasons parents have cited for sending their children to public kindergarten
are:
1. The child wants to ride the bus.
2. It’s free.
3. It’s what you do.
4. To learn the system.
5. Some of his/her friends are going.
6. For the special education support.
7. The excellent school system is the reason for living on Bainbridge.
Parents sometimes worry that if their child attends Kindergarten at The Learning Workshop, he or she won’t know any of their first grade classmates. Many of the children in first grade are new to each other because the classes are made up a mix of children coming from a variety of programs (full-day and part-day public school kindergartens and independent kindergartens). Among the new faces there will be familiar faces from swimming lessons, summer camp, soccer and the neighborhood.
Sometimes a parent is concerned that a child has to go to public school kindergarten before being allowed to attend public school first grade. According to WAC 180-39-020 (the law), a child who is 6 after Aug. 31 who has met program requirements equal to the public school’s “shall be permitted entry to the school program.”
Selecting a kindergarten is an individual choice. The Learning Workshop Kindergarten is an excellent choice for many families.
My child was completely prepared for first grade.
My child had the social confidence to move to a bigger, more complicated class at Ordway.
She was academically ahead and had become used to the structure of a classroom experience.
I believe that no other school could have given them individual attention to their academic needs.
The flexible schedule allowed us to still have time for family activities.
Fabulous kindergarten program!
The Learning Workshop Kindergarten setting shelters kids a little longer. The presence of younger kids, the no superheroes/no violence policy provides a space to be little kids, without the strong pull of media, language and behavior.
The multiage setting helped my child learn young that people learn at different paces and have different strengths.
