7.7 - Kindergarten Philosophy

SERIES 7 - EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

The objective of Liberty Common School’s kindergarten program is to introduce children to school and prepare them for first grade and beyond. This will be a child's first step toward cultivating wisdom and virtue at LCS. The students’ primary focus is to learn the content specified by the Core Knowledge Curriculum and the skills developed in Liberty’s literacy and math programs. The Core Knowledge content is crucial to developing a foundation of knowledge to build vocabulary and reading comprehension. Students must learn letters and sounds, counting, number recognition, and how to hold a pencil in order to correctly form letters and numbers. Finally, students are taught the basic behavioral expectations of the school to facilitate learning and build habits of good character.

The Core Knowledge Curriculum for kindergarten is designed as a half-time curriculum acknowledging full-time kindergarten is not an academic necessity. This fact is readily evident by the academic performance of Liberty’s half-time and full-time kindergarten students over the years Liberty has offered both options starting in 2003. Test results indicate no difference in long-term academic performance of full-time vs. half-time kindergarteners.

Liberty Common School acknowledges the right and responsibility of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. Many 5- and 6-year-old children are not developmentally ready to be in school full time. Whether or not the state funds full-time kindergarten, Liberty is committed to maintaining half-time kindergarten to support students who are better served by such a program.

Liberty established a full-time kindergarten program in 2002 to reduce kindergarten class size and provide an in-school childcare option for parents who desired to pay out-of-pocket for their kindergarten children to remain at school full-time. To ensure parity between half-time and full-time academic preparation for first grade, the full-time program is designed to be:

1. 50% academics and skill instruction/development; and,
    
2. 50% enrichment, skills practice to reduce homework, and supervised playtime.

Enrollment in half-time and full-time kindergarten programs is by lottery. Half-time and full-time kindergarten students are taught in separate classrooms in order to:

1. ensure half-time students receive the entire curriculum including science, history, and specials; and,
    
2. avoid singling out part-time students for leaving “early” and being excluded from the shared experiences of the full-time kindergarteners.

Adopted: 02/27/2020