Parents of incoming kindergarteners weigh decision to enroll or not this fall

KENT, Wash. - Cooper and Liv are just weeks away from what was supposed to be a big milestone for them, starting kindergarden.

But with the upcoming school year online, their moms have a lot of questions.

“The Zoom call thing I’m curious to see how that will work,” Liv’s mom, Amy Harmegnies said.

“They will have some teacher interaction but I can’t imagine not having to supervise,” Cooper’s mom, Donna Kostanoski said.

Because is it even possible for a teacher to keep the attention of dozens of kindergarteners through a computer for hours on end?

Also, kindergarteners learn best through play and social interactions. So some parents of incoming kindergarteners are wondering if they should hold back their children from entering elementary schools this fall.

“Do we send him to private, do we unenroll him and wait until 2021, do we not school him at all,” Kostanoski said.

Kostanoski is undecided as of Wednesday.

“Remote learning will be different from what it is now, it will be a little bit more rigorous which I think a lot of us parents are worried about,” Kostanoski said.

Both moms work and will have to juggle being an employee and at-home teacher at the same time.

Harmegnies has reservations but she said her daughter will enroll in kindergarden this fall in the Kent School District.

“It’s all hard no matter what decision you make, our plan is to have her try to do the virtual learning and see how that goes,” said Harmegnies.

“The good thing about kids going through this all together, they are all going to be, for the most part, in the same boat,” Kostanoski said.

Kostanoski said she has a brother-in-law who is a teacher and Harmegnies said her mother was a long time teacher, so they understand the struggles educators are going through on how to best teach online.