Boarding School & Transitions

Kenya sends a higher share of its children to boarding school than almost anywhere else in the world — and writes remarkably little about what that actually does to a family.

There is good clinical material available locally on the harder end of it. There is also a steady stream of news reporting on bullying, homesickness and school conditions. What is missing is the ordinary middle: a structured, practical guide for a parent whose child is fine, mostly, but seems different each time they come home.

These articles sit in that middle.

How do you stay genuinely connected to someone you see for a few weeks a term? What is normal adjustment and what is a signal worth acting on? How do you send faith with a child rather than only receiving them back and hoping it survived — a devotional in the box, a letter that says something real, a rhythm that belongs to them rather than to the school?

Transitions run both directions. Leaving is hard. So is coming back, into a house that has quietly rearranged itself, with a family who has missed you and does not entirely know how to say so.