What could be the right age to take the first step?
Many parents wonder as to what age they should enrol their child in a play school. As I have mentioned earlier that in the generation prior to this, children started schooling at the age of five years. This was due to all the formal schools began from class 1. By this time children would have acquired self help and readiness skills, like listening, physical control, motor skills, proper speech and volumes of vocabulary, in short they are prepared for formal schooling.
Many educational philosophers put forth a theory that about 50% of the child's intellectual development takes place by the age of five. So, this is the reason why the early years from birth to five years of age must not be wasted, considering the child's learning starts right from birth.
Most of the schools earlier had only Primary and Secondary sections. Many people capitalised on this theory of early learning and started nursery schools for the age group of three to four years. This was to prepare the children with more academic work and few fun activities. The nursery schools claimed to be preparing the children for the "Interview" that would train them to bag admissions in the formal schools ahead.
Most of the formal schools added pre-primary section, having Junior and Senior classes, calling them Preparation class or in short "Prep-class". This had an adverse effect on the private Nursery. Now, adopting the new theory of teaching children through play-way method, the Nurseries began calling themselves as Play-schools and started enrolling children two years or below.
In recent times, Play-schools also have "Toddler class" which begin from six months onwards. Toddler class is the first experience for the baby of outside world and for the mothers an opportunity to interact with other parents. Having said this, I will remind again that each child is an individual and hence do not compare them to other children. The toddler class is of mixed age group of six months to one year usually. You must have noticed the growth of your child every month. This class aims at the children's social skills, sharing and physical development along with gross motor skills. The child is still emotionally attached to the mother and hence all activities must involve the mother and child together. All activities should take place under the teachers guidance and the mother's supervision. There should be only ten to twelve children in a class and the duration of the class could be limited to an hour.
By twelve or fourteen months the children are more settled and ready for advanced activities. They do not require mother's presence in the class anymore. If your child still cries too much at this stage, when left alone in the class, please do not insist and force the child to be alone in the class. I have seen teachers insisting on numerous occasions that the child will be alright and snatching away the child from the parent. They then bang the door shut behind them. The child then feels scared, insecure, emotionally upset and worried due to a sense of abandonment and anger towards the mother. Please never allow this to happen and instead take control and calm the child and reason out the situation with him. You could show him the play area with lots of toys and activities laid out and allow him to explore with the teachers' help. Over a period of time, the child will himself be independent and look forward to going to school.
Many educational philosophers put forth a theory that about 50% of the child's intellectual development takes place by the age of five. So, this is the reason why the early years from birth to five years of age must not be wasted, considering the child's learning starts right from birth.
Most of the schools earlier had only Primary and Secondary sections. Many people capitalised on this theory of early learning and started nursery schools for the age group of three to four years. This was to prepare the children with more academic work and few fun activities. The nursery schools claimed to be preparing the children for the "Interview" that would train them to bag admissions in the formal schools ahead.
Most of the formal schools added pre-primary section, having Junior and Senior classes, calling them Preparation class or in short "Prep-class". This had an adverse effect on the private Nursery. Now, adopting the new theory of teaching children through play-way method, the Nurseries began calling themselves as Play-schools and started enrolling children two years or below.
In recent times, Play-schools also have "Toddler class" which begin from six months onwards. Toddler class is the first experience for the baby of outside world and for the mothers an opportunity to interact with other parents. Having said this, I will remind again that each child is an individual and hence do not compare them to other children. The toddler class is of mixed age group of six months to one year usually. You must have noticed the growth of your child every month. This class aims at the children's social skills, sharing and physical development along with gross motor skills. The child is still emotionally attached to the mother and hence all activities must involve the mother and child together. All activities should take place under the teachers guidance and the mother's supervision. There should be only ten to twelve children in a class and the duration of the class could be limited to an hour.
By twelve or fourteen months the children are more settled and ready for advanced activities. They do not require mother's presence in the class anymore. If your child still cries too much at this stage, when left alone in the class, please do not insist and force the child to be alone in the class. I have seen teachers insisting on numerous occasions that the child will be alright and snatching away the child from the parent. They then bang the door shut behind them. The child then feels scared, insecure, emotionally upset and worried due to a sense of abandonment and anger towards the mother. Please never allow this to happen and instead take control and calm the child and reason out the situation with him. You could show him the play area with lots of toys and activities laid out and allow him to explore with the teachers' help. Over a period of time, the child will himself be independent and look forward to going to school.
Now again, what is the age criteria? Well, the education boards still do not recognise the pre-primary section even of the formal and well reputed schools. The schools calculate the age criteria themselves by counting backwards. For example, SSC (State board schools) the age criteria is set at five years to join class one. Hence, counting backwards the Senior Kindergarten would be age four, Junior Kindergarten would be three years of age and the Nursery would be two years of age. But, other boards have set the age criteria for standard one at six years, making the required age for the Nursery to be three years, Junior K.G four and Senior K.G to be five. This, in my opinion is the appropriate age criteria as even one year makes a lot of difference in terms of the child's emotional independence, motor control and physiological control, coordination and understanding. You must not think about saving an year and rather think about your child's academic achievements in the future.
In my next post, on next Thursday, I will discuss about the play-school's environment and the class room ambience.
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