Kindergarten is one of the very first steps kids take on their educational journey. But is that step becoming more like a leap?

Ms. Kelli, who shares her experiences as a kindergarten teacher on her Tiktok account, @the_wondermint, asked this question, which might be on many parents’ minds as back-to-school season begins.

“So I just gotta ask, as a 20-year kindergarten teacher myself, remember when we went to kindergarten that we just had to be potty trained and not eat the glue?” Kelli asked.

“My heart breaks when I see all these videos of what do you need to do to prepare your child for kindergarten, and things your child must know before going to kindergarten, and these lists of things that parents need to be working on,” she explained.

To Kelli, the standards for kindergarten nowadays feel much more intense than what was expected of her own generation.

“Human development hasn’t changed, what a five or six-year-old child is physically, mentally and developmentally able to do hasn’t changed, in all these years. But for some reason … what we expect from them when they go to school has changed,” she said.

Kelli pointed out that kindergarten can be a difficult transitional period, and that in her experience, kids ultimately will be okay if their teachers spend more time on arts and crafts and play.

“Love those little babies who are being separated from their parents, some of them for the first time. The learning will come. The development will come, the ABCs, the one, two, threes, writing, all of it, it will come … Curriculum, it will happen. The learning, it will happen. Just let our kids be kids. Let those five and six-year-olds be developmentally what they’re supposed to be, and that’s a kid,” she said.

The comments largely agreed with Kelli. Many parents expressed their own fears for kids entering kindergarten, or negative experiences with kids who’ve already attended.

“Finally someone said it,” said Jennifer Field. “The curriculum is insane for elementary school kiddos. They have absolutely lost their childhood.”

“Agree, the kindergarten report card used to be things like skipping, walking on a balance beam, the hardest thing was counting to 100,” said Andrea Niesse.

“Yes! My son struggled in Kindergarten last year and even had homework! I could not believe what all he had to know. Teacher said he had a hard time paying attention… yeah he is 5!” shared Amanda Lindsey.

Kelli went on to address the topic of homework in a follow-up video.

She explained that she doesn’t assign homework to her students, and instead, encourages parents to spend time reading with their kids.

“We are covering what we’re covering in the five or six hours with these little babies, and if we can’t cover that in that time, we’re definitely not gonna get the best out of them at 5, 6 o’clock at night when they’re tired and they should be enjoying time with their family,” she explained.

Many parents in the comments agreed that the amount of homework their younger kids received did feel excessive.

“My boys were so tired after all day kindergarten and then had PACKETS of homework. I told the teacher there was NO WAY. and didn’t enforce them to do it!” said MamaS.

So what do the experts say?

A study in the American Educational Research Journal confirmed that kindergarten has indeed become more focused on academic skills. However, it found that a stronger focus on academics in kindergarten improved both academic and socio-emotional outcomes for kids down the road.

As for homework, an Educational Psychologist study found that homework may be helpful for older kids, but doesn’t increase achievement for elementary schoolers.

So, while a full day at school may be growing your kiddo’s brain, extra work after the fact might not be as helpful.