Madari Kindergarten was purpose built in 1979 and opened in April, 1980 with seven students. There was one classroom operating.

Madari is a high class pre-school, with the purpose being to fully prepare children from the ages of 16 months to 6.5 years for their future life and primary school. It does this by instilling excellent academic skills, great confidence and good self-esteem into the children.

Mrs Ndesandjo has been the Headmistress, as well as the teacher of Preprimary class since the beginning and has seen children who started at Madari evolve through primary, secondary and university, and even into marriage and parenthood. Parents have entrusted their children with us for the past 32 years because of our experience and documented results. Madari is located in a quiet, safe, up-market area of Nairobi.

The school was specifically built to feel like a second home to children aged 16 months - 6.5 years.

Introduction

All parents want what is best for their child. But most first-time parents know very little about children or parenting. Learning parenting provides growth for parents as well as children. As our children's first teachers we must provide love and warmth. calm and rhythm, interest and enthusiasm vital to their growth. And they provide us with new areas of study, work and self-examination as we come up against our shortcomings and the dilemmas our children present to us.

We must take into account all aspects of development - physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual - so we and our children can meet the challenges of our changing world and fulfill the purposes of our time on earth.

We are living in a time of transition, a time in which the old patterns of society no longer hold us. Life in our families, cities. churches and schools is changing at on ever-increasing rate as we struggle to establish or maintain equilibrium and then to create something new.

We need to recognize that the world of the young child is critically endangered today, as more and more children are placed in long hours at daycare from very early infancy and academics is pushed onto younger and younger children. We must understand that children are not little adults. They do not think, reason, feel or experience the world as an adult does. They are centered in their bodies and in the will which shows such powerful growth and need for movement in the first seven years. They learn primarily and most appropriately through example and imitation. Repetition and rhythm are vital elements in the healthy world of the young child.

The young child takes everything in without blocks or filters and we must pay special attention to the quality of the environment and the experiences that come to her. There needs to be a balance between stimulating and protecting the baby's and young child's senses. Stimulation from artificial sources (movies, records, synthetic fabrics) has a different impact on the young child than stimulation from your own voice or objects from nature. We need to be selective in what is experienced and help guard against violating the young child's natural dreamy state.

Everything of life is taken in so deeply by the young child. Providing time and appropriate materials for this kind of play helps the child to work his way into earthly life by imitating through his play everything that he experiences. Allowing this natural impulse of creative imagination to flourish is one of the greatest gifts parents can give their child between birth and first grade.

The young child also has a natural artistic and musical ability which can be furthered by allowing its free expression without lessons or pressure to produce something in a certain way. Songs, rhythmical movement and circle games all speak to the magical world of early childhood.

Children must crawl before they walk and so it is important that children not be prematurely awakened from the imaginative world of early childhood. Trying to speed up development in young children places them at risk, with no apparent gain to justify such risks. Let them develop at their own, God-given, pace.

As our children's first teachers, there is much we can do to provide the most nurturing environment for our young children, If we can take both knowledge and practical experience into our hearts, we will have increased confidence as we develop our own ethic of parenting and make our own best choices for our children. The challenges are great, but so are the growth and the rewards!

Mrs. Ruth Ndesandjo (Headmistress)
Madari Kindergarten.