The Search for Full-day Kindergarten

I just came to the realization the other day that my daughter will be going to kindergarten. Granted, she won’t be going to kindergarten until 2014, but nonetheless…Kindergarten.

I mean, I just had this girl, like, yesterday or something.

Anyway, the funny thing is we moved, and alas, the amazing county we live in has half-day kindergarten. And my “half-day,” I mean, 2 1/2 hours of “class,” which entails 30 minutes of snacks and play, and 30 minutes of welcoming and goodbyes.

This means my daughter will be going from spending a full day of daycare 5 days a week to, oh, 1 1/2 hours of “learning” 5 days a week. And, by the way, now I need to find aftercare and/or transportation to said aftercare from kindergarten.

If you knew how much we pay in taxes, you could see why I am bitter about half-day kindergarten.

Yeah… we need to find a full-day kindergarten option here.

Noodle Helps Parents Find Local Education Resources

At the time I was asked to review Noodle.org, I didn’t realize I actually needed the service. But thank goodness I learned about this resource.

Noodle.org enables users to find the right school, college, tutor, instruction video, or any other education resource — and it’s free. Headquartered in New York City, Noodle was created in 2011 by a powerhouse team of education innovators from The Princeton Review, 2U, Kaplan, Kumon and Colloquy. The company has been recognized by Forbes Magazine, as “one of the 6 fastest growing tech companies” and hailed by Mashable, as “one of the 5 startups transforming online education.”

I logged on and started my search for full-day kindergarten within my specified radius at 8:19 pm. By 8:21, I had narrowed my search to 2 schools.

Noodle let me choose the schools that best fit my needs, click and rage them in order of preference, then review each individual profile to check out the number of children in each grade, tuition (if applicable) and subjects taught.

It was so easy and within 2 minutes I had a short list of schools to call and ask about kindergarten registration.

Facts about Noodle

Did you know:

Over 3 billion searches related to learning and education take place monthly, but research shows that these searches frequently end with more questions than answers
One-third of all students transfer colleges at least once before a degree, as well as high dropout rates, suggests that students are making costly and time consuming mistakes with their choices
Noodle.org addresses this need for an effective internet resource to search and recommend schools, programs, providers and content for education
Noodle.org features data on over 130,000 schools and hundreds of thousands of education providers
Noodle.org offers content from the most credible sources, including federal and state education departments and agencies, LinkedIn, Forbes, Newsweek, YouTube Education, and US News & World Report
Users can select from over 350,000 interactive learning materials covering an expansive range of subjects, compiled from noteworthy sources such as National Geographic, The Smithsonian, Khan Academy and BigThink

With over 120,000 K-12 schools, 2,900 4-year colleges, 5,000 graduate programs,135 study abroad programs and 80,000 tutoring listings, Noodle.org has the largest compilation of education resources found anywhere on the web.

Noodle Makes it Easy

I didn’t use all the options Noodle really has to offer, as my own search was pretty straightforward. Once users narrow their search selection and want to engage with friends, family and others who have shared experiences, Noodle.org enables them to share their findings from the site via Facebook and Twitter, and save their results for easy access.

Another thing I really love is that you can search for all sorts of education from tutoring to education abroad. How I would have loved this when I was in school!

Using Noodle brought me memories of college fairs and thick brochures from potential colleges. If you are a parent with child getting ready for her own college search, you need to check out Noodle.org.

To connect with Noodle Education, visit us at: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest.

Disclosure: I was compensated for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.