What's the deal for 3yo kinder in Vic?

[Ginger]

it is not compulsory for you to send her. like others have said, i would look around and enrol her now- because you can always pull out later.
fwiw, my kids have never been in cc or anything- i have been a sahm for 5 years- and sending ds1 to 3 year old kinder for 4 hours a week has been fabulous. he and i have both made some awesome friends and contacts in the community, and it has helped me with the decision of where to send him to school. ds2 will start next year.

[Miss.September]

You can always hold her back too if you wanted to. DD turns 4 in March but she isn't starting 3 yo kinder until then. 3 yo is direct with the kinder - we put her name down in May I think this year and she's been accepted. 4 yo is through council. But no, 3 yo isn't compulsory.

[Junglemum]

I never thought i'd send my kids to 3 yo kinder, didn;t feel it was necessary. However, by the time DD was old enough for 3yo kinder i couldn't wait to send her! lol She loved it and i needed a break!
I wish we had 3yo kinder for my now 3yo... She and i would both like the break i think.

[Khaleesi]

I agree with the other posters I'd put her name down now just in case you decide you want to try 3yo Kinder.

It helped my DD1 a lot, when she first started she was shy & didn't like being around new people but by the end of term 1 she was making friends & coming out of her shell.
DD2 also goes to 3yo Kinder & loves it. It's her special time away from her sisters where she gets to hang out with her friends, sing songs & do dances etc...

[shellbell3]

We do a similar program thru neighbourhood house. I think a few places now are offering similar programs as it can be quite hard to get into 3yr old kinders.
Ours is only 2x 2.5hr days and Em loves going, get so excited.
Just keep it in mind if you are interested down the track, check out what available in ur area.

[Tanya]

I haven't read all the replies but I wanted to add

We sent our kids to 3yo kinder because I think it is a good intro to the kinder and the kids your children will build a relationship with during both kinder and early school. It is only a couple of hours per week and all of our children have loved going to 3yo and it almost isn't enough at only a couple of hours per week.

The 4yo kinder is great at getting them into routine and ready for school

Most kinders will welcome inspection for upcoming kiddies, so go and have a look at a few local schools.

Good luck

[Olive]

I see kinder as being a great Introduction to social situations, learning to share, wait their turn, following directions from other other than parents, becoming independent with toileting, dressing, packing/unpacking bag, snacks andlunch etc...not just education.
you'll know what's right when the time comes...like others have said put her name down so you have to option to go with it or not.

[Mum2twoBoys]

Gosh does that mean I should be thinking about this already?

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[Olive]

It depends on your area, our council you can only apply the year before starting, I'd contact your council and ask

[Traveller]

As others have said, kinder is not compulsory. Neither is school, you can home school if you choose. The misconception that kinder is compulsory is one I come across frequently as I withdrew DS2 from 4yo kinder because it was shockingly run, and my twins are not in it at all because tbh their daycare is far superior to the kinder DS2 went to. If 4yo kinder is ever made compulsory you could avoid that by registering for home schooling I am certain.

[HotI]

Nah, WM our area is not that hard to get into. i have booked DD in for next year for 3 year old kinder, but you don't need to book years ahead.

[feeb]

Boys go to CC 1 day a week so I have not done 3 year old kinder. Next year DS1 will most likely continue at CC and do 2 or 3 days a week there. The kinder program as such is about school rediness and not about teaching them to read and write etc BUT they will help if a child is keen and wants to learn. I have been to info nights at CC and info night for sesional kinder and both have stressed the fact that neither has more benefit than the other. Both have to follow the early years framework form birth to 8 years of age.

My council used to be register at age of 2 now they have changed it to can register even earlier and 2 is the latest you should register for 4 year old kinder to have a good chance of getting where you want.

[sloane]

Gosh does that mean I should be thinking about this already?

Sent from HTC wildfire using TAPATALK, so forgive any spelling errors its a small keyboard.

What olive said. My council takes 4yr old applications (listing your 3 choices in order of preference) once they turn 3. 3yr old applications are direct to the kinder & from what i can see, they all have different ways of doing it (some will let you put your name down whenever, others will only take it the teay before etc).

Im another who wasnt sold on the idea of 3yr old kinder but after having visited a couple, speaking to the teachers who explained it's more about the social aspect than anything else & speaking to the mchn, we're planning to see how it goes. If it's not right for ds we can always wait until 4yr old kinder or look at other options.

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[Astrid]

Did not enrol the girls into 3yo Kinder as they were already in childcare. DD1 went to 4yo kinder, along with a day at childcare. It was good for her, but the main benefit was its connection to the local primary school. Automatic acceptance there, integration program at the end of the year with the school. Also she got to build friendships that she could continue, along with me getting to know the other parents.

For 2013 DD2 will be going to Kinder and a combo of childcare. She may or may not get into our Kinder of choice (same as DD1). If we had sent to her 3yo there, she would be given greater priority (introduced this year, so did not know when enrolments were on).

So, really consider the flow from 3yo to 4yo to primary school. If your chosen primary has a priority system for children from a certain kinder, it may be beneficial to enrol.

[Rouge]

My gf's DD didn't do 3 year old kinder. And she's fine. I think it is a child by child basis. She had an older brother and a younger sister. And when she started 4 year old she already had friends there from outside kinder.

I chose 3 year old because DD was an only child. I didn't like the idea of child care for socialising. I think this is more important than anything. The socialising. My gf is one of those amazeballs mothers who walks to the park everyday, meets people with kids, gets out in the dirt with her kids etc. so her daughter was more well rounded than some of the others.

[TeniBear]

I *only* did three year old kinder, then went to school. My parents had the choice to hold me back or send me to school, and I was waaay ahead of the other kids (at that point, i made up for it by beig a dumbass in high school ) so off to school I went As others have said, each child is different!


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[PumpkinZulu]

http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000028.asp

Found this an interesting read, although I've yet to find and read the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment, which is what I'm really interested in from that article.

[~Gee_Whizzy~]

nup 3yr old isn't compulsory. i chose to send DD1 because she was getting bored with my offerings at home

as for 4yr old kinder believe it or not we actually got our papers for that when DD1 was born!. i submitted them to council when she was 3 mths old! we live in a fast growing municipality and the reasoning behind it is to see how many children will require places and if the current infrastructure can support the required places.

i got confirmation last week that DD1 had been accepted into the first choice 4yr old kinder i chose so I'm very relieved