We had to go to kindergarten through 12, but did not have to go to preschool when I was a little girl over 50 years ago. Now young mothers say they got to teach their children how to spell their names and know numbers up to 10 and must go to preschool. Children have to have their supplies too.
Yep! Did the caught in the headlights look tip you off? I don't even think I told my mom it was picture day. Because I didn't understand a word they were saying and if I bought home a note, my mom probably couldn't read it.
I did not attend kindergarten. And very very few of my classmates did. At the time I stated elementary school my town had approximately 3500 people. I am not sure the town had a kindergarten.
Kindergarten wasn't a very pleasant experience for me. We lived only 2 blocks from the public school. The teacher didn't seem to like me much. One day she taped my mouth shut for talking during our "rest time". My parents didn't take to that and sent me to the Catholic school, a near mile away, for first grade through high school. In first grade, the nun didn't tape my mouth shut. She just slapped the snot out of me because I couldn't answer some silly question. I hated school.
Tried to "like" your post, @Ike Willis but the "like dislike" repeatedly was worse today than ever, so I gave up trying. I should be getting the new mouse around Tuesday or Wednesday... I'd best keep my trigger finger off of the like button until then. I don't know, maybe I'd better take @Patsy Faye up on her offer and borrow the mouser!
I don't know if it was optional in Ohio but I did attend kindergarten for half a day. I remember walking to school and home with my older sister. My younger sister wasn't born yet. I vaguely recall playing much inside or outside but I'm sure we did. I always try to remember those days but find it very difficult. I only remember the teacher because of the school picture. I remember that day well because of the hand puppet. It's eyes and ears popped out and everyone laughed then there was a blue flash which blinded me. I wonder if that's why my favorite color is blue.
I attended Kindergarten. My city had a dense population, and there were two sessions, morning and afternoon, and different children attended each. I think it switched out halfway through the year, with the morning children going in the afternoon, although I'm not sure. Schools were in neighborhoods back then, and the kids would all walk together to and from, in the morning, at lunch, and then back home in the afternoon. I believe the idea was to transition children from an unstructured day to the full structured days of regular elementary school. I don't recall much of what we did there other than reading and some singing, but I'm still amazed that we made butter using a churn, and it's still the best tasting butter I've ever had.
I remember nap time. I hated nap time. We were supposed lie there, in the middle of the day, on these thin little pads, with thirty other kids, and sleep? I don't know if anyone slept, but we were supposed to be quiet and pretend to be sleeping, so we had to kick each other when we didn't think the teacher was looking. I'm pretty sure kindergarten was optional, but I'm not sure; I was young then.
Ours was the full day but, at that age, I didn't take naps during the day at home, and I certainly wasn't going to be able to sleep with a bunch of other kids on a floor. I think I was in my thirties before I started hearing about preschools.
We live in the same country and are the same age but our experiences are so different. All day kindergarten has just become popular in my grandsons time. I've heard of preschool in my daughter's childhood years and she is 45. More parents work now then back in my childhood so I think all day kindergarten was kind of a response to the daycare situation.