This quote about children draws my attention to how children develop at their own pace, how they progress sequentially through physical, cognitive, and emotional growth and change. As educators we have met a lot of children that are unique in various ways when it comes to classroom activities or outdoor when they mix up with their peers.

         Personally I draw inspiration from this quote, it makes me to have more patience in dealing with, not only children in the classroom but also my children because I believe that when the time comes for them to unwrap those beautiful qualities and knowledge in them, they do it in a beautiful way that you cannot imagine.

Testing for Intelligence?

It is very important in my country Nigeria to carry out a test during mid-terms and examination at the end of every term. But for the past 2 academic session in Panaga School Brunei my children have not gone through any sort of examination, but I can tell that they are doing well academically, so I ask myself “is examination the true test of knowledge”?

One of the things I believe should be assessed is the child’s chronological age and how ready that child is to start school. Viewing children holistically is the best step towards molding a total child and this is one of the goals of early childhood development, preparing the child to be ready for school, socially and emotionally healthy, confident and friendly.

Through this preparation a child should be ready for the school years ahead; he/she should be ready or have the ability to have a good peer relationship, and also be prepared to tackle challenging tasks and also have good language skills and communicates well.

The country I have personal affinity for is America, what they do on school readiness is wonderful. It is basically how prepared a child is before going into kindergarten, it also shows that school readiness is all about children, families, early environments, schools and communities. It shows specifically how young children develop at their own pace, recognizing and supporting children’s individual differences, and also establishing reasonable expectations for what children should be able to do when they enter school.

I would like to share that, even if the use of a child’s chronological age of entry into school is important, as educators we should also have at the back of our mind that children are just like butterflies, each flies with the way the wind blows it, some fly very fast why others fly slowly. With the use of the school readiness children will be taken into school based on age not mastery of skills. A school should be ready to help its children based on how equipped its kindergarten curriculum is, the curriculum should include child-guided and teacher-supported activities.