does anyone know any information about American Kindergarten?

Asking about early childhood education in America is a lot like asking about Chinese food in China... ten people will give you ten answers at a minimum. There is no overarching non-governmental organization for kindergarten and there are no large "professional" kindergarten schools that I am aware of [but I am not from the east coast, where education can be very different.] Depending on your needs, hit proteacher.net [or proteacher.com, can never remember which] as well as readwritething.org, a website that is a combination of the International Reading Association and the Natioanl Concil of Teachers of [American] English. From there you can find links galore.

If you are trying to figure out what to teach/select/design curriculum, various state boards of education post their standards as well as the framework, code for the lofty goals and recommendation on how to get there for each area/subject. There are not always based on reality, but I can speak/type from personal experience that the California kindergarten standards and framework are very good for native English speakers as
well as English language learners.

If you contact various teacher education programs, they would probably jump at the chance to at least exchange e-mails about early education. I would try to make contact with a tenured professor so that you are dealing with someone whose career is settled as opposed to someone who may use you/your shcool to test a theory [there are horror stories out there about this.] The First Five of Alameda County people in California are great about early education in and out of public schools. I have worked with them in a public school setting and found them to be great.

I don't know much about Montessori [sp ?] but they are everywhere on the internet. Homeschooling associations may be great because they exist to do everything schools do, but do it better. Warning: homeschooling may come from a decision to pursue issues that are not necessarily comaptible with education in China [think about it.]

I apologize for the scattered response, but as I get recall more stuff [with acutal structure and detail] I will pass it on.

thank u platypanda. all of the information you offered is very helpful. thanks again

Didn't know there was a cirriculum in kindergarten...

All I remember from those days was: crayons, water coloring, duck-duck-goose, Dr. Seuss, and nap time.

actually look up kindergarten on Wikipedia, they have all sorts of links that'll be helpful.

@Mek,

"Instructor" magazine did an article that headlined something like "Is there any play left in kindergarten ?" and showed a completely confused kid surrounded by serious/weighty math and reading. Not all change is bad, but--at least on the West Coast--the "no play kindergarten" is being driven by test scores... students were underperforming so much/so badly that school districts began to look at teaching more. Can't increase instructional minutes by lengthening the day, but you can change the curriculum of kindergarten and first grade. I loved teaching kindergarten, but it was a disheatenng change. Kids learn through play...

That, and naptime is gone :(