@CCDD14…Nope, not immigrants, in fact mom grew up in this neighborhood. However, I have been wondering if a couple of the overzealous neighbors will be calling Child Protective Services soon!
I don’t believe this! Kindergarten used to be considered “academic boot camp” for kids to learn to be away from their moms and how to act in a classroom setting. It’s crazy!
I’m glad I am done with that stage. Those were tough years when they are so young but it doesn’t get easier.
All these camps weren’t available when my kid was that young. Now they have the kids learning to program before they enter elementary school and worried about college admissions at this age. There is no replacement for a parent that gives their time and attention to a child. The time, attention, and patience parents display pays off. In some cases nannies do a better job than the parents but that is not always the case.
Kids these days are so programmed. There comes a point where you have to follow your intuition to do what is best for your family. I have seen kids without any support do very well and I have seen kids that have been tutored to death with a bad end result. There has to be a balance of everything and extreme of anything is never good. At the end it is the childs efforts and determination that helps them succeed. (not suffocating them at such an early age)
This boot camp doesn’t offer anything that I didn’t see when my kids went to our local public elementary school. Why spend $1,000 for an extra week of what the kids are going to be doing once school starts anyway.
What does it usually accomplish though? I think kids learn better when they are at the age to pick things up. Both during my own time at that stage and during my kids’ time, I remember some kids were very early readers, often because they were pushed and encouraged by their parents. In most instances, that “advantage” was lost in a a few years time. Absent a true genius, have many of you found precocious learners to have had a long term advantage? It hasn’t been my experience.
To put this in perspective, there is really only a small subset of people who do this. I can’t imagine that more than a tiny fraction of kids are in kindergarten boot camp. I live in a wealthy and educated area (NoVA DC suburbs) and have never heard of this.
It is just another theme for a summer camp. No one here would have said anything it was a dance or music camp.
@oldfort Umm, no. It’s intensive tutoring for tots. My kid went to summer camp at age 4. She played games, did arts and crafts, and went on field trips. Definitely not the same thing.
Sounds like teacher is reading out loud to kids, which something I would do at home, and often happened at most camps during quiet time.
I have to say, when my kids were at camps from ages 4+, they often did those things. They didn’t do it 8 hrs a day, but teachers did read to them, they drew, had snacks and were required to clean up after themselves.
My kids started going to pre-school from the age 3 for few hours a day. They were in pre-school at a local private school at age 5 from 9-2. Their days were fairly structured with various activities in school. They learned to read, sing, paint, do group activities. They were very happy at doing all of those things. I don’t see what those kids are doing at the “boot camp” other kids are not doing at their pre-school or other more structured summer camp.
I think bootcamp gives the impression of some very intensive rigorous academic environment used to give a kid an advantage or step ahead of everyone else starting school. I have lost track of the costs of kids activities these days but know it is not affordable for most people.
I spent time at the library reading books with my kid and went to the teacher book store for one workbook to help learn basic concepts. (that the preschool teacher recommended) $10
I think something called leapfrog was popular at that time but dd had no interest in it.
But is it a highly ranked kindergarten boot camp? 
My kids did not go to the $1000 boot camp. Nor did they go to Pre-3 and Pre-4 at their school where the majority of their classmates had gone. Those kids knew the ropes! They knew the teachers, the other kids (many of them their siblings or cousins), they’d been playing on the playground for a few years. And yet, within a few weeks, mine caught up and they too were sitting on mats and coloring. My kids had been in daycare so knew how to stand in line and how to listen to a story. Cheaters.
There were a few kids in their class who really didn’t know how to go to school. They were behind in basic skills like lining up or raising their hands, but they too caught up. Amazing. It’s almost like we didn’t have to pay $1000 for them to learn to draw a rainbow.
This is so utterly ridiculous and sad at the same time. Education is important but at what point is the tail wagging the dog?
What ever happened to just learning through play during kindergarten, where kids spent the day playing with blocks, in the kitchen, coloring, eating snacks, taking naps, etc.? The rush to make K into 1st grade hasn’t made students any more advanced in the upper grades, imo.
I wonder if the bootcamp offers Advanced Placement napping.
My guess is that’s exactly what they are doing in the “bootcamp”. The uproar is uncalled for imo. At 3, kids are ready for more structure. My kid went to preschool/playschool starting at 1 1/2. She loved it and it was great for caregiver to have a few hour break and let someone else care for kids. They didn’t call it bootcamp but the activities doesn’t sound any different.
Wow. I thought it was pretty much accepted fact that “play” was the best tool for young children to learn. Kids are naturally curious, way to suck it out of them. And $1,000 from their parents. It’s amazing my kids are functioning adults now being they were deprived of all this and just had mom and dad.
In all fairness, you are probably right that they are doing all the normal things we would expect. However, I think the uproar is in the thinking that one needs to spend $1,000 (for only a week!) to do this. And that it is absolutely necessary to prepare for the “rigors of kindergarten”. (Calling it “bootcamp” probably doesn’t help either!)
ETA: Kindergarten tuition prices that compare to college and one on one tutoring at 200/hr probably doesn’t sit well with most of us here either!
Can someone chance me? I’ll chance you back!
Bottle trained at 1
Interned as Big Brother: summer of 2015 (when mom had baby sister)
Out of diapers at 3, started dressing myself at 2
ECs: volunteer snack passer at big brother’s birthday party
Honors & Award: finger painting 1st place @ Sunday School
I’m SOOOOO Nervous!