With most children now back in school, I thought it would be a good time to check on how they make the transition from early learning to the first stage of K-12 and the overall state of kindergarten, which appears headed towards a crossroads.

While there isn’t fresh research floating around the internet, there is excellent commentary and reporting that raise important questions about how kindergarten has changed for parents and their kids. What should and shouldn’t we do to help ease the transition? Are kindergarteners and their teachers too stressed out struggling to meet federal and state standards? (How will this influence the upcoming debate over rewriting the No Child Left Behind Act?)

Here is some fodder to chew on:

• Lisa Belkin wonders whether we spend too much time easing our children into preschool over at The New York Times Motherlode blog in “Do Preschoolers Need So Much Phase-In Time?” I agree with Belkin on this topic. We spent a lot of time helping our kids adjust to their new classrooms with shortened days and playdates, even though I thought they were ready to handle more on their own.
• Over at EarlyStories, Liz Willen asks important questions about the pressure we place on kindergarteners and their teachers today in “Kindergarten Rebellion: Let Five Year-Olds Be Five.” It examines a thoughtful story in the North Platte Telegraph, “What should kindergarten be like?”
• Family writer Sue Shellenbarger asks “Do Preschools Need Mental-Health Help?” in the Wall Street Journal blog The Juggle and explored the topic yesterday in a full column, “Therapy in Preschools: Can It Have Lasting Benefits?”

“The specialists' purpose isn't to diagnose or treat mental illness in individual children. Instead, they provide targeted, expert help to teachers, and sometimes to parents, on ways to interact with children and reorganize classrooms that improve behavior and the emotional climate.” – “Therapy in Preschools,” 9/08/09.

• Finally, Swine Flu is on parents’ minds as school begins and the federal Department of Health and Human Services offered a “Know What to Do About the Flu Webcast – Parents and Child Care Providers.” (The department promises to offer an on-demand version shortly.)

Post your thoughts on early learning transitions and the state of kindergarten here or join any of the other forums mentioned above.