AM Vs. PM Kindergarten Looking for Pros and Cons

My son's kinder teacher told me the PM class was better behaved and got more done. She said the AM class was tired and took a while for them to wake up, therefore they were cranky and less instruction and activities were happening.

I am so *not* a morning person! Still, for us, morning K worked out much better. My girls were fresher and much more able to concentrate at school and then chill a bit in the afternoon.

I loved afternoon kindergarten. I got all of my housework done while the kids were playing, fed them lunch and then off to school. This allowed me time to do my errands without dragging them with me, and also gave me some time to something for myself. Just my preference.

If I were in your situation, afternoon would be a no brainer. You'll have school holidays and breaks to go to the zoo. It'd be easy to slip in an hour at the park in the morning or even after school. The only con you've listed is the zoo, park, etc. And you may have a hard time getting your son into AM kindergarten. Are you guaranteed an AM slot?

My daughter had morning kindergarten (I worked from home then) and my son had afternoon kindergarten (I worked part time then). I HATED the morning kindergarten. I was so excited when my son got afternoon.
When my daughter had morning kindy, she got off the bus at 12:20, ate her lunch and at 12:45, it would start ... "Mom, can I got to Amanda's, can Danielle come over, can I call Melissa, who can I play with?" Every day. I had one year old who napped in the afternoon, I still worked part time from home, I didn't want daily play dates and she was the kind of kid who wasn't great at entertaining herself at that age (ADHD). It was torture for me. When my son went off to kindy, it was great. We'd put my daughter on the bus, have a relaxing morning, sometimes he'd have a playdate or we'd go to story hour at the library or he'd do his homework before school. We could go out for an early lunch on occasion, then he'd get on the bus after lunch and the two kids would arrive home the same time, 4pm, no after school plans necessary. I loved it.

Hi,
I have issues w half day kindergarten all around, as w have that in our school too. I really felt like there was a lot of catch up for all the kids and parents in first grade in this case. My son was in PM K, as we did not have a choice. The pro was that we didn't have to race to get up and get him on the bus in the morning. The con was that by the time 12 came around and he had to go to school, I think we was a little tired and already felt done for the day. He definitely got used to playing and hanging at home (with my parents). Another plus though was that I never had to worry about snow days as school was long called off but the time he had to go in.

No one can answer this. You do what works best for you

Personally, I would do morning.. 2 reasons.

This will be great practice for all of you.. once they have to go to full day school. Going to bed at a good time, getting up and ready for school.

The other thing is they are tired after school. This way you can pick them up, give them lunch and have a "rest time" or a nap.. and then have the afternoon to play.
Your mornings without them will give you time to run errands and make appts. are lot easier to do than in the afternoons.

They are more attentive in the mornings.

The other reason is the afternoon.. they will not be as willing to go to school, when they have been having fun in the morning. Or if you all run errands in the mornings, they may already be worn out, by the time they get ti school.

This by the way.. is no reason to lose sleep.. Either way.. they will do great.
Do what is best for YOUR family and your lifestyle. There is really no right or wrong answer for this.

Well, it's hard to answer for sure not knowing what afternoon really is in your district. My son is in "afternoon" kindergarten, but he goes from 10:10 - 1:30. Early kids go 8:10 - 11:30.

I would want my kids in school at the same time. If you like your daughter's afternoon preschool better than the morning option, keep it. Put your son in afternoon kinder and it'll work out well.

If it is truly afternoon, you'll be able to do things in the mornings before school. If it's mid-morning like my son's, you will still have several hours after school before dinnertime. Either way, you'll have time to do fun things with the kids.

Afternoon will have more stay at home moms, so easier to make play dates and meet other moms and kids. I vote afternoon.

I liked the afternoon kindergarten because it gave them something to do in the afternoons. they didn't have to jump right into getting up early. our mornings were a little more laid back and it worked for our schedule. I think if you have the option of them both being gone the same hours go for it. zoos, parks etc are open after school and are open on the weekends. don't base it on that unless you go to those places weekly thats not going to be an issue.

It depends. If she takes a nap in the afternoon she needs to be in the AM class. She'll still have to lay down and have rest time until at least Christmas Break in Kindergarten so don't disrupt her nap for pre-school, it won't help in the long run. If he still naps too then put him in AM kindergarten so he's home to sleep. If he doesn't take a nap then it truly does not matter which class he's in.

I think same school where they'll both be going comes in to play when she's enrolled in Pre-K through the public school system so she will be on the same campus as him. Until then you have to drive no matter where you take her since it's someplace different.

Her class time will be less than his so I'd think about doing them separately. That way you have one gone in the morning, then lunch together, then the other one off to school. I truly think once she starts classes she'll need her afternoon nap.

We put our daughter in the PM because it worked out best with our work but it ended up being awful when we had to get her use to waking up before 6:30am for 1st grade when she was use to sleeping it quite a bit later. I would take things like that into account!

Kids learn better first thing in the morning. I'd go with morning kindergarten.

So I am assuming that means K is only half day in your area? If so, just go with whatever feels right. Would it be difficult to get them up and moving in the morning? Would they be more prone to crankiness in an afternoon class due to missing nap? With out knowing these things about your kids it is hard to say which would work best. As for me, our K is full day.

Personally, I would do the afternoon slot given all that you have said - you won't be in a rush in the mornings, you can still do some errands or a quick trip to the park in the morning if you choose, and like someone else said, something like the zoo can happen on the weekends or school breaks. You already said you like the afternoon option better, so I would stop overthinking it and losing sleep over it and just leave it at that.

The only reason to consider mornings (for me) is if your kids are still nappers in the afternoon. My daughter tends to be an early riser and at 4 years old she would still sometimes nap in the afternoon if she was tired enough, so I did morning pre-K for her. She is in kindergarten now, but it is full day (8am to 3pm) and seems to be handling it just fine.

I chose the afternoon option after discovering that the afternoon class was significantly smaller - in our district the p.m. class had 8 less children, a big difference. I also really enjoyed having that one last year of unhurried mornings together. However, I will say that this worked for us because he is not an early riser, and was never tired or grumpy in the afternoon. If he was a kid that wakes up super early, afternoons probably would not have been a good choice.

Our kinder switched half way through the year. There are pros and cons to each time slot. I enjoyed easy carefree mornings when they went in the afternoon. We could take our time, have a good breakfast, playtime, have lunch and get ready for the bus. My daughter took her first skating lessons in the mornings before her PM kinder. It was great.
YMMV
LBC

I would put them both in the afternoon session. Since you'll only have the morning to do stuff with them it will take more planning so you get out of the house by a decent time to not waste time. The only negative is that you'll have to eventually get used to rushing them or at least 1 off to morning school at some point. It'll be a learning curve but that's everything else we do right :)

I think it depends if you're all morning people or not. My oldest did pm and it was great bc my kids are way more into entertaining themselves in the morning than afternoon. It was all so much more leisurely. Just as they'd get bored - time to do to school! But depends on the family... My kids have always stayed up pretty late at night.

I had both of my boys in afternoon kindergarten, but I worked at the YMCA in the mornings, so the boys liked coming to work with me in the morning and going to school in the afternoon.

Kids in afternoon kindergarten due better in first grade because they can get through the after lunch period. Mornings are great for trips because they are less crowded! He will be fine in afternoon kindergarten/ My son started afternoon kindergarten, he was still napping in the afternoon- I was worried but he did great.

I did pm kinder with my daughter and it was ok.. I would have preferred am.. but it was already full.

we had relaxing mornings. we went to library story times. we went to chuck e cheese (no one is there in the early morning) we went to the community center to swim. we probably went somewhere 2 days a week and relaxed at home 3 days a week.. I took my preschool to the zoo while the kinder was in school.

I would have liked morning as .. once they get out of school you have the rest of the day to play.. we had to watch the clock to make sure we were not late for pm kinder.. I have an easier time getting them to all day school this year at 9 am than I did getting my kinder to school at 1230 last year.

i am just jazzed that there are still schools that do half-day K! it seems that all of them have gone to all day, all academic kindergarten. makes me sad.
my boys did afternoon, and we loved it. leisurely mornings (none of us are morning people), and time to go out and do things before school if we wanted.
it's a fallacy to believe that you have to be 'trained' to get up for school by doing it relentlessly from a young age. my kids got up for school when they needed to. when i had early morning jobs, i set my alarm and got up. then when we homeschooled, we all enjoyed a slow start to most of our days, but when there was something going on, we were all perfectly capable of rising at whatever time we needed to.
when my boys hit the college and job years, they had no problem adjusting to a more rigorous schedule. my husband has been getting up at 3am for over a decade to try and beat the commute. it isn't easier now that he's 'used' to it.
i'm always puzzled when people put forth the idea that anyone needs to be trained to wake up.
khairete
S.

I have also heard that kids learn better in the morning. They are fresh and well rested. My son was so tired in the afternoon and needed to nap after lunch. I requested a.m. but my neighbor requested p.m. I guess it is a personal choice. Maybe look at the internet to see if there are studies re: when kids learn best.