On the first day of kindergarten, the little boy put his hands on his hips and defied his teacher with: "I don't have to listen to you."

Veteran kindergarten teacher Cindy Buckley took a deep breath and bent down to be face level with her new charge.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Abraham Lincoln Elementary School Principal David Zolkowski, left, talks with Nanae Makino and her daughter Nagisa, 5, at registration for kindergarten. Click photo for larger image.

"Oh, honey, you're mixed up. I'm the tall girl. You listen to the tall girl," she said. By the end of the year, the pupil was doing well and had adjusted to his new world. Even his parents noticed the positive change.

Parents in south suburban school districts are registering kids for fall kindergarten now and they're seeing it's a vast new frontier. Kindergarten used to be a universe of crayons, sing-a-longs and Play-Doh for a few hours a day. Now, pressures on kids have made it an academic world where preparation for standardized tests starts and competition for a first-class college admission begins.

"Some of the kindergartens are becoming mini-first grades because the curriculum is so full it keeps getting pushed back. Something's got to give," Buckley said.

In some districts, kindergarten is part time. In others, it's full time. But either way, kids aren't even required to go to get into first grade. In fact, kids aren't even required to attend school until age 8, said Michael Brinkos, director of personnel and pupil services at McKeesport Area School District.

Parent Lisa Zandier, 36, of Baldwin Borough, kept her 5-year-old son, Ian, in preschool an extra year because he wasn't ready for kindergarten last fall.

"I thought, intellectually he was fine," she said. "Socially, as a boy, he just wasn't ready." Ian's birthday is 2¹*₂ weeks before the Sept. 1 cutoff date, and she figured his social and emotional health would be better if he waited. He will start this fall at Paynter Elementary in the Baldwin-Whitehall district.

"He's ready to go," she said.

No one in the district second-guessed her decision. Superintendent Donna Milanovich, of Baldwin-Whitehall, said she encouraged parents to keep their children home if they're not ready, either socially or academically.

Buckley said the best indication of kindergarten readiness is the child's preschool teacher. Parents shouldn't get offended if the child is not ready.

"You're just red-shirting," Buckley said with a nod to the college sports world, where red-shirting allows a student athlete to forgo playing sports for a year to gain another year of eligibility. Plus, she said, a nice bonus is another year to save for college. "If your preschool teacher says 'hold,' listen," Buckley said.

McKeesport Area, Bethel Park and Baldwin-Whitehall report an overwhelming majority of their kindergarten pupils have at least one year of preschool somewhere, whether it's a private school or some type of at-risk intervention through the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. Those programs can help children with disabilities or other special needs.

Principal Rula Skezas, of McClure Intermediate School in McKeesport Area, has researched kindergarten and said if children had not been to preschool, they meet with a team of district officials who can determine if the child is ready.

Buckley said the preschool teachers in the south suburbs are doing a good job preparing the kids. The median age of her pupils is 5.6 years.

In McKeesport Area, the district gets together with local preschool teachers twice a year to make sure they are working on the proper subjects to prepare kids, Brinkos said.

Bethel Park's Buckley has been teaching kindergarten for 21 years and previously taught first grade for 10 years. She is unhappy about the increased pressure for younger kids to perform.

"They have to be the best at everything they do," said a frustrated Buckley, who teaches at William Penn Elementary in Bethel Park.

Full day vs. half day

For Zandier, life would be easier if Baldwin-Whitehall would go to a full-day kindergarten, especially because her two older children are in school all day. Zandier also has a 3-year-old daughter, Maggie, who is at home with her.

But all-day sessions won't happen this fall.

Baldwin-Whitehall is examining full-day programs for all its kids, but it won't be ready for the 2005-06 school year. However, 72 of the district's 249 kindergarten pupils already are participating in extended-day kindergarten, a new program this year, Milanovich said.

Each of the district's pupils is pre-screened using standardized preschool tests, and those who need some extra help attend kindergarten for several extra hours to work on their skills.

The rest of the Baldwin-Whitehall pupils go for a portion of the day, either in morning or afternoon, she said.

In Bethel Park, kindergarten starts at 9:20 a.m. and lets out at noon. David Zolkowski, principal of Abraham Lincoln Elementary, said parents at a recent kindergarten orientation meeting were enthusiastic about the idea of a full-day kindergarten. An upcoming building project in the district may make space available to extend its kindergarten to a full day but that is not likely to happen until at least the 2007-08 school year, Zolkowski said.

He said his school, which has about 70 kids in kindergarten, lost about five to 10 kids each year to private schools that offer full-day kindergarten. Many eventually return to the district, he said.

Zolkowski said schools had to be careful to offer developmentally appropriate programs when they expand to full-day kindergarten.

"You don't want it to be an extended day care," he said. He said it was not good to fill the day up with nothing but "specials," such as art and music, nor should the kids spend the whole afternoon napping. But the goal should be to better prepare kids for first grade, by helping them academically and socially.

"Self-confidence [in full-day settings] blossoms, as well as independence," Zolkowski said.

McKeesport Area has had full-day kindergarten since the 2002-03 school year. The program was expanded to improve academics and better prepare kids for first grade, Brinkos said.

McKeesport's Skezas is currently pursing her doctoral degree at Duquesne University, and her dissertation is on evaluating results from increasing kindergarten from part time to full time. Although her research is not complete, Skezas said, it's her impression that moving to full-day sessions has really helped the kids. Their academic ability, specifically letter recognition and putting sounds with it, has improved. Social skills are better.

"A lot of these kids who come to us, come to us with no readiness skills," Skezas said.

The kids have handled the increased school hours well, she said.

However, sometimes the parents have difficulty letting go. She said national trends point to school districts beginning to provide their own preschool programs.

Requirements

In the McKeesport Area, pupils must be 5 by Aug. 31. Parents receive a preparation brochure detailing the curriculum and philosophy and they're told it's helpful if kids entering kindergarten know their full names, the recognition of their names in print, how to print their first name, their phone number, colors, use of crayons, pencils and scissors, how to count to 10, how to take turns, how to speak clearly, how to sit quietly, how to follow simple directions, as well as how to take care of their bathroom needs alone. Pupils absolutely must take direction from teachers and adult staff members.

As far as academic ability for admission, blank slates are OK with Buckley. She's happy to teach the alphabet, writing and other skills. Kids must be 5 by Sept. 1.

Kids also need to be able to sit still and listen for about 10 to 12 minutes at the start of the school year. By the end of the year, that time increases to 25 to 30 minutes. They also need good fine motor skills, such as the ability to hold a pencil properly. But even more important is the child's ability to be kind.

"The most important part of a person is their heart," Buckley said. "All the learning will start from there. ... Have the children come in, be happy and respectful of peers and adults."

Buckley encourages parents to limit TV and video games and instead let them play outside or go to the library.

"Read to your children," she said. Rhyme in the car. Tell jokes. Sing."

The only readiness required in Baldwin-Whitehall is that pupils be 5 by Sept. 1. But by the end of kindergarten, they will be able to do many things, according to Director of Curriculum Lucille Abellonio. Among pupils' skills when they leave kindergarten will be learning about a letter and its sound per week, some writing, counting, learning sets, money names, basic shapes, color words, rhyming, sequencing of events, beginning and ending sounds of words, recalling details from a story and repeating the story, and predicting based on what is learned.

Milanovich said the kids were not pushed too hard, but that the school was academically challenging. It has to be, she said, to keep up with standards in the federal No Child Left Behind program and the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests given in reading and math in third grade.

"The kids are really ready," she said, crediting their achievement to involved parents and good preschools.

Parent Lisa Zandier said her two older boys, Todd, 9, and Cameron, 8, both learned to read in kindergarten at Paynter Elementary. She believes Baldwin-Whitehall has found a good balance between learning and fun, which is what Buckley wants to see.

"Why do we have to push and pressure these kids?" Buckley asked. "It's important for us to remember that they've only been on Earth five years."