Oh GAWD I don’t KNOW about the under-the-house smell. I.. I just don’t know! How mysterious.

As far as all-day vs half-day K.. I was against the idea of all-day K for my own precious progeny when it was nearing time for them to start. They were only 5! Still BAYBEEEEES! They certainly didn’t need to be in school all day! But it was our only option here, so all day they went. And withing, oh, 3 days, I was that mom, the one waving a banner outside the school for OH I LOVED ALL-DAY K!!!

So, now I’m a fan of all-day. EXCEPT in your instance, because since not ALL the kids are there all day, what are they going to be able to do with the kids that DO stay all day that won’t make the kids that don’t stay all day behind? NOT MUCH. Since they won’t want the half-dayers getting woefully behind, I doubt there’s any benefit in sending him all day.

Plus, it’s cheaper to keep him home, right? I’d say go half-day.

As someone with a distinctly depleted sense of smell, I would totally be willing to hire someone to sniff out my house and car.

I think you need more information to decide on the Kindergarten thing. I can’t answer that question without knowing what they will be doing during the 2nd half of the day.

I love all day Kindergarten which also includes PE, Library, Guidance, Art and Music every week – FABULOUS!

Around here, a spot in full-day K is generally obtained through a lottery among all the incoming K students. As I understand it, they don’t do any more work than the half-day K, but the pace is not so punishing and allows for rest time in the afternoon. I definitely want it for my son (same year as Riley) but don’t have high hopes for getting it as there is only 1 all-day class (of 10 classes) at our school.

I have a really good sense of smell and I have to say it is more often a curse than a blessing. Sounds like something died somewhere down in there, recently. Animals are really good at finding out of the way places to give up the ghost.

I can totally relate to the smelling stuff that no one else can smell! My husband has almost no sense of smell and I’m constantly smelling things that he can’t, and it appears that all my co-workers also have no sense of smell. I am “blessed” with a bloodhound nose, but seriously, what is wrong with everyone else?

And now that I’m pregnant, it’s even worse. I can smell stronger, and I can smell *different*, like stuff that I would smell before but didn’t really bug me too much just about kills me. Lots of fun.

That death smell permeates everything, so it could just be the remains of it still around. It’s also one of those smells that you never really forget and I think it like clings to corners and stuff, to jump out and surprise you when you’re least suspecting it. So it could be that. Or it could be something else there. If the air is circulating all over, maybe the smell is blowing all over? Ew!

My mother in law had a disgusting pukey smelling mystery smell for weeks one time, she finally figured out that it was the plant in the room, the roots had rotted and almost liquified under the soil….it was horrid….any plants near this door?

I have this same problem in our house. Is there a drain or a pipe near the closet, possibly from the kitchen? Our stink is the pipe that the kitchen sink drains into–you can either rent one of those huge plumbing snakes or a call a plumber to do it for you and clean it out, and it will be clear for a while–until of course it clogs up again. (My fear that it was the bathroom pipes (horrors!), but the plumber assured me that the kitchen drain stink is almost always worse than the bathroom one, oddly enough.) Wow, I have a lot to say about bad smells.
As for half vs. full: we did both and I cannot tell which is better. I really miss my kid in all day, though, because school is loooong.

I would find out what other parents do in that school district. If most kids are there all day, there will probably be benefit in choosing that option.

I have done some research on this, in my capacity as a reporter, as my kid isn’t old enough for K yet. The consensus from parents and teachers alike is that full-day K is usually the better option, academics-wise. I spoke to a first-grade teacher who said she can tell the difference who went to full-day K and who didn’t – the kids who went the full day are ahead academically, just plain and simple.

But, again, it depends on what most people do. If half the class leaves at lunchtime, then the second half of the day might just be cheap babysitting. If most of the kids stay, though, some serious learning could be going on.

I would ask the teachers how their days are structured, do they aim for full day or half day in their lesson plans. Around here (Massachusetts) full-day K is usually what most people do, although parents do have the option to pull their kids out mid-day. However, most teachers advise against it, because they plan out a day for a full day and the half-day kids miss something in the afternoon. Some districts will arrange a class of kids who just go for half days, so that might be an option, too.

I have a lot to say on this subject, clearly! Feel free to email me with any questions, and I can probably dig up the articles I wrote about the issue, though they are more specifically geared toward the community I was covering at the time.

Full day public Kindergarten in Kirkland is somewhat silly. It’s not that much longer, and it’s not that academically challenging. I’d say pass (but my kids are in private full-day Kindergarten).

If there’s one dead mouse, there’s more. We recently had a local pest control company remove a hornet’s nest and a dead rat from our crawlspace, lay traps, replace a square of floorboard insulation soiled by the rats, and patch the place they entered at and several additional potential entrances. All that (2 hours of labor) and two follow-up visits to check and eventually remove the traps was like $275. The guy was great. Adept Pest Solutions, john@adeptpest.com

We had a gross smell that no one but me could smell, til one day my mom came over and said, “Oh, that’s sewer gas.” And sure enough we had a toilet that was leaking around the base, and I had never put the two together, but once we got that fixed I haven’t smelled anything since.

Re: kindergarten definitely check to see what other parents do…especially any of his little friends, he’ll want to do the same thing.

We do all day K. I love it and she does too. In Seattle at the school we go to, they get, gym, music, art and library time. The big plus for me is the lunch room. They get to learn how to navigate that beast. It wears them out the first few weeks of school then they are in the swing of things. If I were you I would take a tour of the school and ask what the extended day gets.

As for the smell, don’t know what to tell you. Maybe one of the boys peed in the vent?? :)

I say no-day Kindergarten, and homeschool him, but you didn’t ask that, so I say ease the boy into school. There’s no rush.

I smell something gross as I type this, and I know it’s something in the pipes in the kitchen. Not sure what else could have died around your place.

I vote for all day!! Man, life is good with all day school :)

Really, though, if you can swing it go for the all day. It’s a good prep for first grade and he’ll benefit from the interaction, even if it turns out to be glorified daycare in the afternoons. Can you stop by the school and check out a class before you decide??

The smell, ewww. Have you checked other areas of the crawl space or even in the house? Okay, I can’t talk about that anymore because it makes my skin crawl. We had a terrible rat issue when we lived in Hawaii; I’ll never forget the sight of a rat casually eating out of my dog’s food dish in the kitchen.

I taught kindergarten for 19 years ( and also 1,2, and 3rd for additional years). The last four were full-day. Where I taught the full-day option was more like first grade, we had to fight to keep it developmentally appropriate. As a parent and a teacher I am against the full day option. I would check out the program and maybe it’s some wonderful creative, inquiry based, hands-on learning type and would be great, but I doubt it.

Half days allow children to ease in to the school routine. They’re only little once. Let him take it easy if you can.

You might find this helpful.
http://notjustcute.com/2010/11/01/age-does-matter/

I too have a very strong sense of smell. Wonder why women usually have a better sense of smell than men?

Anyway, I also work in property management and come across lots of odd smells. Can you describe it? More than one person has mistaken a dead mouse for a gas leak, as the dead mouse has a sulfer-like smell.

The fact that you must pay for the full day option indicates to me that it is exactly that, an option. You’ve already given Riley an extra year, and from what you’ve posted regarding your homeschooling, exposure to a rich curriculum. Presumably, you would continue those types of activities during his half day at home next school year, and I can’t imagine what they’d do with the group that does opt for the extended day that would trump his time learning with you. Not to mention the fact that full day programs are lacking in opportunities for PLAY, which is heartbreaking. Of course, for children who would spend the extended portion of the day at home watching TV or playing video games, my recommendation would be the opposite. But in your case, the only two reasons I’d go for the full day option would be if you think Riley will need the full day experience in order to practice the self-control needed to behave appropriately in school when he hits first grade, or if the teachers tell you that most families opt for full day and he would miss major portions of the curriculum and fall behind if he only attends for half that day (which, in my experience, would not be the case).

By the way, I am a kindergarten teacher at a private school.

I’m one of those people that can detect an offensive odor even if no one else can. I tracked down a water leak at my office a few months ago because I could smell mold and no one else could.

Not that I can really offer any advice, just commiseration. I’m quite certain that you DO smell something, but as for what it could be…

I’d also cast my vote for all-day kindergarten. Ours was all-day (non-optional) and I think that since my son, like Riley, was one of the oldest in his class he was really ready for that transition.

Ever since my second pregnancy, I also have a heightened sense of strange and otherwise undetectable odors. It is frustrating and I would so hire someone to tell me it’s not in my head!
We did full-day preschool for 1 semester and decided to pull our daughter out and attempt the homeschool thing. I think full day school is a bit obnoxious and unnecessary if you don’t have to do it, and in the end, no one will know the difference. It’s not like he’ll be at an interview in 20 years and get asked “So tell me this: did you attend full-time elementary all the way through graduation? Because if not, get out of my office NOW.” Listen to your heart and decide what’s best for you and your family. F**K the rest of ’em!

I would assume the smell is still coming from the dead and already decayed rat. But I could be wrong… You could call an exterminator and ask if that is possible?

We had our son set for 1/2 day K this year (he is about a 1/2 a year older than Riley) but he was really mad that he would have to leave early. We decided based on his being angry about the 1/2 day thing that full day was a better option. We were kind of thinking 1/2 day because we did not want to pay and we looking for one year of low childcare costs but when push came to shove that seemed like a really bad reason to keep him home. we did 1/2 day pre-k and our Nanny was like you providing a rich homeschool type experience. Around this time, my hubby got to talking to a retired Kindergarten teacher (25 yrs can you imagine?!) and she said essentially you are doing a disservice to your child (if he/she is ready) by having them in half day K. She said that kids these days are excepted to be better prepared earlier and you can bitch and moan about this (I do) but it is the truth. Kids in K no longer learn to tie their shoes and play, my Kindergartener has homework and does actual school work in school. A Title I teacher told me that kids are EXCEPTED to know how to read by the end of first grade. EXCEPTED. Not in theory, not maybe it must come to pass or they stay back. I am not saying if you make the 1/2 day choice it is right or wrong it is just the system and I assume it is the same whether it be WA or IN. GL in the decision making!

I would call the school and see what the curriculum difference is between half-day and full-day. For my nephew’s kdg this year, full-day was also a paid “option.” But if he didn’t go for the full day, he’d miss extracurriculars (gym, art, music, etc) and their science exploration every day. My sister-in-law ended up sending him for the full day.

Maybe change the furnace filter, too?

My guess is a mouse or other ratish animal crawled or gnawed it’s way into the furnace and died. We had hamsters growing up and we lost three of them at one point. Found them months later dead in the furnace. They had crawled in through the top and gnawed their way through the furnace filter.

And if that doesn’t work, get JB to dig up and discard the soil under the area where the rat was. For the rat-corpse to dry out, the fluids had to go somewhere, and that is most likely the area underneath its remains.

Yeah, usually where there is one rat, there are many. I wouldn’t be surprised if another one wasn’t rotting somewhere in your crawl space.

I don’t know what you should do about kindergarten because I’m in the same boat on BI. My 5 year old wants to do full day very badly so I’m more inclined to do it. That and I still will have 2 other kids at home. Really, though, if he says he’s ready then i think that’s a pretty good start (BUT it’s redonculous that you half to pay to attend full day public school, IMO).

Since having a baby, my super-duper-sensitive-pregnancy nose is still in effect. I have talked with other Mommies who said theirs never went away either. It is a curse that some of us apparently keep our sniffer sensitivity long after having a kid.

Reminds me of when I was sitting in a chair above a vent in the floor at my parent’s house and would occasionally catch of whiff of some gag inducing ass smell. Over time, tracked it down to the vent – but couldn’t see anything.

Turns out there were a couple of dead birds in some outside accessible vent in the furnace, and when the heat would kick on, the fan would waif the rotting bird smell through the vent and out the floor straight into my nasal cavity and scarring my brain forever.

Don’t know if this is the same kind of vent for you -but you should think about cleaning/maintaining your furnace or have someone trace the whole path of the vent back until it dead ends – either into some furnace or other mechanical thingamajig – or dead ends into something’s dead end.

Ha – you see what I did there?

I have no earthly idea about the kindergarten dilema, but I do have to say that “turbo hork” and “Satan’s Taint” both caused me to laugh so hard that I nearly wet my pants.

Oh I know ALL ABOUT the super-smell thing – not because I have it, but because my husband does. We call it the “stinky towel gene”. I have no idea what might be going on in your house (given that I am one of the smell-less ones, for the most part). But I CAN tell you that your sense of smell has an upside: you’ll be the first to know if your kids ever stick something in their nose.

My husband complained about our daughter’s nose smelling funny for months and it turned out that she had something hiding up there. It’s kind of amusing – I wrote about it here, http://themasterwongs.blogspot.com/2010/03/for-safe-keeping.html, if you want to commiserate with another super-smeller.

Hope you find what’s bugging your sniffer soon….

We had the option of full or half day as well (well, the option to pay for full-day). It wasn’t that some kids in one class left early, while others stayed, though. It was some K classes were all day while others were half. I was surprised when we looked into it that it actually was more curriculum, as well as more downtime (rest and recess). My son went to a full-day daycare with preschool before kgarten, but I still think the full day kgarten helped him be better prepared for 1st grade. FWIW…

I have two kids. I didn’t have the option of full day with my first. I did with the second, but chose half. It worked out fine. Maybe she lagged academically at the begining of first grade. Who knows? She is in third now and all is good, I am pretty certain half day kindergatren didn’t set her back. So I don’t think it gives a real long lasting edge. Since she was my last I really wanted that year, to keep her a bit of a baby just a bit longer. Once they are in school full time, things change. Life just isn’t as relaxed.

Considering what’s happening all over twitter lately, could you possibly have developed your super-smelly spidey sense because of a uterine invader?

Re Kindergarten – I vote for no full day if it is possible fore the family. It’s a big change, they work really hard to focus and hold themselves together at school… nice to get a chance to relax and let their hair down at home. Some even start napping again!

Half-day K, for sure. Slow down, people! You will never get this time back. What has happened to the idea of children being allowed a childhood? All day K is for kids who don’t have the advantage of having awesome parents like you. You will give them everything they could get in a few more hours at school. School will NOT give them what they would get in those same hours with you.

Are there any (fresh air) intake vents located outside the house? We had a similar problem – and it drove me INSANE very quickly – our heat was flavored with cat piss! A cat squeezed under our porch and pissed right below the intake vent. We had such a hard to removing the odor, we ended up redirecting the vent to a different spot. Good luck!

Wow, so many helpful rotting corpse comments! I agree that perhaps something has gotten caught in a vent on top of the house and the smell is simply getting sucked down there. Or the dead-mouse-in-the-furnace idea sounds pretty reasonable.

When we first bought our house, I would get these whiffs of sewer. I was the only one that smelled it and it drove me nuts for months. Finally, one day I realized that there was a washer/dryer hookup in the downstairs bathroom we never used and the water normally in drain traps must have evaporated, allowing sewer gases back into the house. I went to Home Depot, bought a rubber bathtub plug and hammered it into the washer drain hole (omg, could that sentence get any dirtier?) It took care of the smell immediately.

As to kinder – I vote for keeping the 1/2 day schedule and having your baby with you a little longer. Unless you want to cross over completely to the homeschooling side, in which case I would vote for that…

Good luck with the smell. Having a good nose is a pain in the ass. One time, we were DRIVING with the WINDOWS UP, and I could smell the guy CROSSING THE STREET IN FRONT OF US. It was alarming.

So my oldest is in (private) 1st grade, and has been full day (8:30-2:45) since pre-K (4 yrs), so that’s my bias. It has been great for her and for me (I work part time from home).

Here are a few thoughts:
1. Don’t entirely discount what will help you get your work done. Of course you changed your job yo br with the family more. But you need to have some working time built into your day — it will run you too ragged if you push it all to evenings. (I speak from sad experience.) Realistically, if he has half day from 9-11:30, between pick up and drop off you’ll have a very short interval. Plus it will really impact how you schedule your day with your youngest, you will be very restricted in what you can do. With full day, you’ll have more space to get work done so you can really focus on him when he gets home, and plan your day with the younger one.

2. Check what is the “norm” for your school — not only for him making friends, but you too. Pick up and drop off is an important time to make connections with other parents that you’ll keep throughout elementary school (maybe longer). Think how much at ease you’ll feel about playdates, birthdays, etc when you know the other parents in the class.

Of course check the curriculum, think about how he’d do, etc. But for our family a full day kinder schedule benefitted the whole family.

Boys Riley’s age frequently do better getting into the school thing more gradually. Of course, I say this as a homeschooling mom whose children have never set foot inside a classroom, so take that into consideration when you think about what I’ve just said.

Well I can sniff shit from a mile away because my pregnancy nose remains with me, but that doesn’t mean I can find the source of the problem.

I say all day, but I use all day day care so in the mommy wars of death, I am firmly a day care cheerleader. But what will you do with youngest? You won’t really have more time to do work type work. And why is the schedule there just 2 1/2 hours anyway? What can be taught in no time at all?? I am confused, so perhaps you should ignore me.

My kids were in all day K and I liked it. I chose our charter school specifically for the full day. They learned a ton more than my friends with kids in 1/2 day K, but at a relaxed paced. There was enough time to do all the mandatory stuff and the extra hours meant they got to do a lot more fun stuff plus have extra transition time. Half day K means they have to rushrushrush to get everything done. In full day, they had time for extra recess, music, art, gym, library, computers, and nap time plus a relaxed atmosphere.

Is it possible something crawled inside the vent?

Unrelated: I work in an academic library, and our air-intake pumps directly into our back office area and a closet next to my cubicle. A lot of times we get choked out by gas fumes because some idiot has parked their running car illegally in our loading dock, but a couple weeks ago I noticed a distinctly, uh, ‘skunky’ odor. Yes, some students were smoking blunts outside our air intake and filling the entire library staff area with eau de pot. It made for a quite hilarious afternoon. :)

As for half-K vs full-K, which do you think would suit Riley better? (By the way, his printing is absolutely wonderful, from what I can see in the Flickr photos! Go Riley! And go Mom!)

I would maybe check with the school to see what the difference is in the curriculum between the two and see if that sways your decision. And, uh, check to make sure they have recess… some of the elementary schools where I grew up (and where my friends now teach) have ‘done away’ with recess, even for the littlest kids. And yeah, the teachers hate it as much as the kids do.

We didn’t have an option, Eric’s Kindergarten was full day which was great because then he was prepared for 1st grade.

I feel your pain with the rotting corpse thing. I have a very sensitive nose too and my in-laws always have dead mice in their house somewhere and it drives me crazy. Fridge smells kill me. I don’t mind eating leftovers but I CANNOT prepare them, I open the tupperware and gag, so if I have to do it I hold my breath. You must have another dead animal somewhere, tell JB to trust you nose.

You are doing a great job homeschooling and Riley seems to enjoy it. You can stick to the 1/2 day and do the homeschooling on the side and bank that cash.
Don’t be brainwashed that public school has magical properties or can teach him better. And socialization? He is happy and friendly and kinder is really just to teach how to behave in a classroom, in the halls, in the cafeteria, etc and to get some students up to speed anyway. Do expect peer groupings and an increase in unwanted behaviors (boys are like pack animals!)
I would think the only reason would be if you want the extra hours with only the one kiddo at home (to work or for other reasons).
Check what the longer schedule has that is different and also if the pick/up drop off is less packed/crazy at 1/2 day.

I was having the whole ‘whether to send to kinder’ problem at the same time as you were last year since my daughter turned 5 just a week before the cut-off.

Of course, I now sort of wish I had held her back, but I definitely wish we had a 1/2-day option. She had a long talk with me just last night because she thinks school is TOO LONG. She even asked if some kids get to go to school for a shorter time! (I swear I’ve never mentioned it around her b/c it’s not an option here at all to have 1/2 day!)

She went to MDO before, but never daycare, so I think it’s just an adjustment to being gone so long, and it’s hitting again now since they returned after Christmas break, but either way it breaks my heart.

The major benefit of a full day Kindergarten is that it gives kids a chance to adjust to a full day of school. My husband is a teacher and says most kids are exhausted when they first start going for full days, i.e. falling asleep on their desk at the end of the day or just to tired to learn by the afternoon. This is very problematic for the first graders who need to be using that time to learn to read since if they fall behind so early, it can be difficult for them to catch up. Use kindergarten to get him acclimated to the full days before he is missing anything important if he conks out!

I know what you mean. I can walk into the house and smell something and say, “It smells like… [garbage, poo, etc.]” and the hubby will smell NOTHING. My mom was the same way. It must be a female thing or a mom thing?

Wife of a plumber here. I’m rushing and don’t have time to read all your comments, so someone may’ve already told you this. But if it is in the water heater closet, it may be that your drain “trap” has dried out. Just pour some water and bleach down the floor drain and see if that fixes it. Hope so.

We had an awful smell coming out the the vent in our bathroom only and I swear-there was a dead cat in there. Paid a few gundred bucks (more than I wanted) to have all of our vents cleaned and boom-problem solved.

Is your dryer vent anywhere near the furnace? I discovered a noxious smell last year in the basement and it turned out to be a dead rat in the dryer vent! Also, if you have floor vents, maybe there’s a hidden treasure stowed away by one of the boys? I cringed when vacuuming all my floor vents recently but thankfully didn’t end up with any carcusses in the cannister. Hope you solve this mystery soon!