When my daughter was young, I tried to teach her to read at age four and realized, in spite of her intelligence, that she wasn’t ready. This reminded me of a sunna I had once heard to let our children play for the first seven years. I confirmed the sunna with Sh. Hamza and Sh. Salek. Then, I began to do some research about early education to try to understand the wisdom in the sunna, which was contrary to the “head-start” idea we are led to believe in the States. Reading David Elkind’s book, Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, first gave me the notion that things might not be what they appear to be. His book is one of many books I have since read about the advisability of delaying formal learning and confirming the wisdom of our sunna. I followed this practice with my children and have encouraged others to do so for many years now. I’ve never had a parent tell me they regretted delaying formal studies, but I have had parents tell me they regretted starting their children too young. If you are a parent of young children, I strongly recommend reading this book. If you have already read it, any thoughts you can share may be helpful to others.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 13:58:00 +0000