I've heard about this but now its becoming a reality in our state. Kindergarten Readiness Assesment Testing-a test I guess so they will see how ready children are that are being sent to kindergarten.

I've talked to some people heavily involved in this and I can see childcares fighting to keep kids. It sounds like childcares are going to be under pressure to be teaching kids cetain things so they will be ready for kindergarten. Not the stand in line, wash your hands type readiness but actual academics. So if you do not to a "real" type preschool you probably won't be getting children sent to you or at least not past age 3.

Does anyone have this in their states and is this part of the STARS program?

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I don't know about my state, but I have a parent demanding it for her 2 year old. She wants to see flashcards.

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I don't know why parents can't let their kids be kids. What is so wrong with that?

Not daycare related, but in my church, I am part of a team with 3 others that are in charge of the children's ministry. For years, kids ages 3 yrs-5th grade were in one room. It was hard to teach the kids because you either had to teach down to the older kids or teach the older kids so then the youngers would be lost. So, we made a preschool (3 yrs-kindy) and elementary (1-5 grade) groups. That was better. We had a nursery for kids up to age 3. I had always felt 3 was too young to be in the preschool group. Anyway, we had a swarm of kids who turned 3 and they were so not ready to be in the preschool group. So for a few months we've been looking on ways to improve so all the kids benefit. We had complaints from the teachers about the 3-4 yr olds behavior. We decided to expand the nursery room (we have no kids under the age of 2.) and added a tv/dvd for those who wish to watch veggie tales,etc, cd's with bible songs, and we added tables and chairs. This is for kid younger than kindy. We left the 1-5 grade classs alone, made just an kindy group and everyone under that in preschool. Well, we have parents of 3 yr olds who are furious. These kids are so not ready to be moved up. They don't sit for the story, do their crafts or follow directions for any activities that are being done. To me, that is fine. They are 3, for goodness sake. The preschool group will hear the same story as the other groups and do a craft, that will be geared for their age level. I just don't get it. What's the rush in growing up our kids?

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I feel the same way. They get to be free and unregimented for 4 years, and for the entire rest of their lives, they have to follow a schedule of school and/or work. They are even trying to take away summers with practice and required reading. I'm sorry, give them a chance to experience life and play and fun.

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This IS the direction that child care is taking. Just look around everywhere.....early childhood education is becoming necessary at earlier and earlier ages and soon, stay at home child CARE providers will be obsolete.

States are beginning to require more and more education for providers and the introduction and implementation of star rating systems is proof of that.

Gone are the days that a mother with nothing more than years of experience rasing her own children can simply care for other people's children and REALLY educate them if she doesn't have at minimum a CDA certificate.

(I am NOT saying it can't be done). I am saying it is the governments way of getting more money for the younger and younger crowd.

I will bet you that within the next 10 years, we will see child care become a business in which ALL providers must have a degree and the state will have more and more input into WHAT we do/teach each day. We will be required to show progress reports and developmental profiles on the kids we have in care.

No one cares anymore if a child has good sleeping, eating and play skills. It will be all about the almighty dollar and every stay at home mother caring for a few extra kids to supplement her income and raise her own children will be driven out of business.

The thinking now days is, "Education starts in infancy and providers should be expected to fulfill this idea/thought as it is necessary to the well being and future education of each and every child."

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I have never had a kid go straight from me to kindergarten, for as long as I've been running my daycare they always go to a year of preschool before kindy and in recent years I'm finding more are opting for 2 years of preschool so I am losing them even earlier.

I do believe in letting them be little and playing, but since kindy and 1st grade are demanding so much out of them I can see why they are choosing academic pre-k programs over my home environment.

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They've been doing the Kindergarten readiness test in my town (state?) for as long as I've been doing preschool. I think it's awful how much they throw on these little ones. The home daycare I'm at advertises as Daycare & Preschool. The reason I was hired was to teach preschool while the owner took care of the younger children. We've always done a structured preschool time, to begin with I was doing 4 & 5 yr olds on M/W/F, and 2 1/2-3 yr olds on T/Th. After taking my CDA classes, we had to combine all the ages together, making that really hard to teach. We ended up having to go to just accepting 3-5 yr olds, since that's the age we enjoyed most (and it was taking both of us to do preschool since all ages had to be combined together for everything) and doing the daycare as a full day preschool type thing. Preschool every single day of the week. Children could be enrolled for as few as 2 days/week, but the curriculum I made up had to be for 5 days, with anyone enrolled that day had to do preschool. Even if the child already had their own preschool somewhere else for half day, they still had to do preschool with the daycare before going to their "other" preschool since everyone had to be combined. And it has been tough to make sure ALL the children know EVERYTHING they need to know before kindergarten... especially when some children aren't ready as early as others, and some parents won't help out even when you let them know what areas their child needs to work on before Kindergarten. OR they just don't bring them half the time for preschool because they can't get themselves up early enough for a 9 am start time. It's really frustrating to have to throw so much on a child who doesn't even have the fine motor skills to write their name yet, or the ability to follow a 2 step direction, like go wash hands and then sit at the table. Or a child who cannot keep their hands to themselves during circle time, but instead of teaching them those skills, you have to focus on letter sounds and reading, writing the letters, shapes like hexagons and pentagons, telling time to the hour, simple addition and subtraction, and all the other advanced preschool academic skills.

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For years I've been fighting having pre-preschool curriculum but I just ordered my first month of Mother Goose Time for my 5 two year olds. I didnt order it because I thought we needed it but because more and more people are expecting it and to stay in business you have to change with the times. I don't understand why we are heading is this direction. Children at this age learn from playing. Gone are the days when we can follow a loose schedule, dance around the room like maniacs and dig for bugs until we are exhausted, now we will have to stop our exploration and fun to move to the next thing. I have four children of my own, my eldest is in college on full scholarship (scored at 32 on his ACT) and he never went to a day of preschool. So far my other children are following their big brother, my eldest daughter (11) is in honors math and does great in the rest of her subjects and my 4 year old and 2 year old are advanced for their ages. My four year old did just start preschool but only to get time away from me (bossy issues when mom "bosses" everyone at daycare). She seems to like it but already knows the things they have taught so far. I didn't do anything special with them...we talked about our surroundings, feelings and every other thing that came to mind but most of all we played with sand, water, mud, sticks, rocks, boxes, blocks, crayons, paint, we stomped through puddles after a storm and made up stories about aliens and people who walked by. The only thing we planned around was eating and sleeping, if we were content digging in the dirt we could do it until we fell asleep in the sandbox. I just don't understand what we are hoping to accomplish.

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