It is every parent's wish for their child to achieve academic excellence. After all, parents may be the sole purveyors of a child's fortune (or misfortune).
In this case many factors play out. The time a child joins school — for academic purposes — is at least one side of the dice. In Kenya the official Standard One entry age is six. That would mean that at three years old, the child starts off in baby class. At four and five they will progress to pre-school. The question (in the Kenyan context) therefore begs: Is three the right age for your child to enter the formal education system?
Fiona Thande, a single mother, agrees. Her son, Jayden, went to pre-school when he was three. "He was ready," she says. "He could speak English and my mother tongue. I felt that he was ripe at that moment. He could not wait any longer." But was it merely a feeling? Was it intuition: a sixth sense that only a mother can explain?
Perhaps yes. But Fiona adds: "I believe that at three children have an idea of what school is. They can talk and express themselves. They will have absorbed enough of that which their parents exposed them to between zero and three years." She takes cognizance of the fact that for every child, their grasp of knowledge, is as unique as — if not part of — their DNA.
"There are children who will feel 'dumped' when taken to school at three. There are those who by the looks of things are ready for it. Every parent should understand their children," she says.
Still, she insists, three is the best time. And so if a child is disinterested in school at three, it is for the parent to teach them how to be bold and face the world.
Expert opinion
From decades of practice, educational and child psychologist Prof Philomena Ndambuki of Kenyatta University has come to one conclusion: That a child is ready to start Standard One at age seven. She says: "Children grow in stages. It would be foolhardy to task that child with work that they should perform in their next stage of growth."
Prof Ndambuki argues that at age three the majority of children are in the pre-operative stage, "when they have no reasoning capability and can barely distinguish good from bad. They have little or no comprehension of their existence." At three she says, children should be learning basic life skills like sitting, going to the toilet, and feeding. They should be playing; having fun and getting to know their environment. And they should sleep too.
"Between four and six years they can go through nursery school and continue learning basic life skills as well as simple concepts like colours and shapes," Ndambuki advises.
At seven, she says, a child enters the age of concrete operation; the point at which they can synthesise information. It is at this point that the child has the capability to handle simple arithmetic.
Rose Kigen, a parenting expert and author, holds similar views as Ndambuki. "At three, the child is still young. They still ought to interact with their parents and other children at home," Rose says. She also cautions parents not to — whether consciously or unconsciously — transfer responsibility to teachers. "The modern woman [who lives in the city] can be a mother and a career woman at the same time. In many such instances, the earlier a child moves out of the house and gains independence the better for them," she says.
Fiona Thande, a single mother, agrees. Her son, Jayden, went to pre-school when he was three. "He was ready," she says. "He could speak English and my mother tongue. I felt that he was ripe at that moment. He could not wait any longer." But was it merely a feeling? Was it intuition: a sixth sense that only a mother can explain?
Perhaps yes. But Fiona adds: "I believe that at three children have an idea of what school is. They can talk and express themselves. They will have absorbed enough of that which their parents exposed them to between zero and three years." She takes cognizance of the fact that for every child, their grasp of knowledge, is as unique as — if not part of — their DNA.
"There are children who will feel 'dumped' when taken to school at three. There are those who by the looks of things are ready for it. Every parent should understand their children," she says.
Still, she insists, three is the best time. And so if a child is disinterested in school at three, it is for the parent to teach them how to be bold and face the world.
Expert opinion
From decades of practice, educational and child psychologist Prof Philomena Ndambuki of Kenyatta University has come to one conclusion: That a child is ready to start Standard One at age seven. She says: "Children grow in stages. It would be foolhardy to task that child with work that they should perform in their next stage of growth."
Prof Ndambuki argues that at age three the majority of children are in the pre-operative stage, "when they have no reasoning capability and can barely distinguish good from bad. They have little or no comprehension of their existence." At three she says, children should be learning basic life skills like sitting, going to the toilet, and feeding. They should be playing; having fun and getting to know their environment. And they should sleep too.
"Between four and six years they can go through nursery school and continue learning basic life skills as well as simple concepts like colours and shapes," Ndambuki advises.
At seven, she says, a child enters the age of concrete operation; the point at which they can synthesise information. It is at this point that the child has the capability to handle simple arithmetic.
Rose Kigen, a parenting expert and author, holds similar views as Ndambuki. "At three, the child is still young. They still ought to interact with their parents and other children at home," Rose says. She also cautions parents not to — whether consciously or unconsciously — transfer responsibility to teachers. "The modern woman [who lives in the city] can be a mother and a career woman at the same time. In many such instances, the earlier a child moves out of the house and gains independence the better for them," she says.
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