AceShowbiz - La Toya Jackson wishes her brother Michael Jackson's children would "wait a bit longer" before starting school - because the trio will find the experience completely "foreign". The late King of Pop, who died a year ago on Friday, June 25, employed a private tutor to homeschool Prince Michael, 13, Paris, 12 and eight-year-old Blanket because he wanted to shelter them from the outside world.

Jackson's mother Katherine was named the youngsters' guardian after the superstar passed away last year, and she has been allowing them more freedom - even agreeing to their request to start school in September this year. La Toya admits she can understand why Michael laid down such strict rules for his children and wishes the kids would allow themselves some more time before taking the massive step of starting school.

She tells Britain's GMTV, "The kids are doing very well... They're having so much fun. They're playing and they're enjoying their lives... I think my mother is doing the best that she can for them, she's doing a great job and they're going out more than they've ever gone out, which is good for them at the moment."

"I don't know if she's doing it because their father is gone and she wants to make sure they're happy. But, you know, Michael kept those children hidden. He kept them very restricted and confined them. He didn't want them to be amongst the world and people of that nature. I understood why he did what he did, because he thought the world was so cruel and the world said cruel things and he didn't want his kids hearing cruel things..."

"It is going to be difficult (starting school). It's a private school and we know the school very well because all of my nieces and nephews basically went there. Actually, they (Jackson's kids) wanted to go, so my mother said yes to them. I wish that they'd maybe wait a little bit longer before because this is something... it's a territory that's very foreign to them. They have never been amongst other children at school."