Catch ’em younger

NAGPUR: It was at the age of one and a half years that Shruti Ranade decided to send her daughter to Bal Jagat, a popular play school in the city. “My daughter was very shy and would not even speak up. This worried me and I was advised by the paediatrician to send her to a play school,” she says. The change was miraculous as the little girl learnt to mix with her peers and opened up, says the working mother.
This was a few years back. But today it has become almost de rigueur to send your child to a play school. And though the government is all set to raise the age for class 1 admissions to six years, innumerable pre nursery schools have come up to catch the tiny tots not young but younger. Working parents living without the support of elders have made this a necessity too.
“New age parents are not aware of various milestones of parenting. By sending a child to a pre nursery school they get the assurance of good guidance and methodical approach,” says Jasmine Irani, Principal of Cadence International pre school. “The age has come down to 1 ½ years as the child is easily moulded at this stage and picks up fast,” says Irani.
The fact that English is the medium in most of these schools and professionally designed methods are used to teach the child sounds, words and actions is a big lure. “I put my daughter Diyara in a pre school when she was eighteen months,” says homemaker Kavita Sangtani. “I wanted her to take up activities other than what happen at home.” Sangtani is happy with the progress of her daughter who is now two years. “She can rattle of months, days of the week and recognizes colours,” says the proud mother who feels that new methodology of training kids is the reason behind such progress.
The big fuss that surrounds meal times at home is another reason why parents now want a more social environment for their kids. “My child eats whatever is packed for her and eats it on her own. As parents we would given in to the child’s tantrums. But in school at least one meal is finished in the proper fashion while being seated at a table,” says Priyanka Dhanwatey. Her two year old daughter Aishaanya has been learning fast for the past six months at a pre school. “She is growing to be more independent now.”
What the kids are picking up effortlessly in the playgroups, most parents would not even think of taking up with them. “I would probably have not tried to teach my son the names of week days or months at 1 ½ year of age,” says Ashwini Bhansali an entrepreneur. “But it is surprising that he recognizes colours and even animals like kangaroo and porcupine.” Her son Neev started school when he was four months short of two years. “Of course there is some initial difficulty in settling down in the new environment, but they do come around gradually,” she adds.
Physiotherapist Farheen Rana decided to send her daughter Zenobia to school exactly at the age of 18 months. “My study tells me that education begins right from the time of birth and is fastest during early life,” she explains. “I have heard many elders say that there is no need to send the child to school at such a young age. But I don’t look at it as a school. It is an exclusive play time for the child where she gets to meet a lot of kids her age and interacts with them.”
It’s not just the highly educated or the well heeled who are making this decision. “Parents of all economic strata are now sending their kids to play school,” says Sheetal Jaiswal, Principal of Orchid Kindergarten. “Fewer people at home, working mothers and also the fact that many parents are expecting their second child around the time when the first one is two years of age, makes pre schools a studied option for making the child more independent,” she says. But surprisingly though the school keeps the curriculum very light and frothy, it’s the parents who insist that they be taught some serious stuff too. “Our effort is to put the child through simple motions of actions and speech development. But the parents are very persistent and want the kids to be mouthing words and numbers too,” she says.
The flip side of the scenario is that these young kids frequently fall sick during the period of adjustments. “Pushy parents and peer interaction can get a bit too much for the little ones. But they get adjusted and throw less tantrums,” adds Irani.