Kindergarten versus computers

Recently, Meredith's school has been doing a marketing push for kindergarten. They've engaged the pre-kindergarten kids and their parents on the subject of staying at the school for kindergarten. As part of this push, Meredith got an invite from her "kindergarten friend" to visit the kindergarten class and see all there was to see. We let her do a special full day last week (kindergarten at the school is all-day), which she loved. The parents have gotten an orientation and some literature.

Overall, Meredith has been very excited about being in kindergarten next August. She's talked about it a lot and sees it as the big milestone it is. She likes her school and was impressed with the kindergarten experience she had.

Today, while we were driving home from the zoo, Meredith told us that she didn't want to go to kindergarten at her school next year. We asked her why. She told us that it was her decision and that she decided not to. We told her it was not her decision, but we were very interested to hear what she thought, and again, why she didn't want to do kindergarten at her school.

We went back and forth a bit, explaining over and over again that "because that's what I decided" isn't a reason per se. Eventually, it became clear that she didn't want to be in school all day, but preferred the half-day experience she currently has in pre-kindergarten.

"Why don't you want to be in school all day?"

"Because then I can't play games on the computer."

Recently, Meredith had been introduced to some educational games at PBSkids.org. It's become an infatuation. I point out that she can still play computer games even if she's in school all day (evenings and weekends), as well as point out that she currently isn't playing on the computer in the afternoons anyways and that wasn't going to change. The conversation then devolved further into her saying she was going to play on the computer every afternoon and me saying that she wasn't. Meredith informed me that that was her opinion and that she was right. "Meredith, you're entitled to your opinion, but as the person in charge I can say confidently you're not going to play computer every day." (Why was I continuing this conversation?)

When we got home, it didn't take long for her to ask to play on the computer. "No, we're going to have lunch now." She pouted a little. I guess we'll have to sell the concept of all-day kindergarten a little more to compete with the almighty computer.