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completely agree. especially given that the kid is only 3.5! I mean, unless you are trying to find a way to convince them to not have lessons....
Like has been discussed/mentioned by several people in this thread, at that age, you won't be doing any actual "piano music" for at least a year or two, so why would 88-keys and weighted matter?

(update on my 4yo student I was talking about earlier, that applies to this; I'm --this-- close to stopping teaching her. After several months, I don't have anything to do with her besides moving to the next step, which is playing actual songs. We've done rhythm, finger numbers, and she's mostly learned the letters on the keyboard, but I think it is just one step too much for her 4yo brain to be able to grasp any more than one of those at the same time - the imminent problem which is about to be she can't play a "song" b/c while she can remember her "1" is her thumb, and which key is the "F," she can't at the same time either remember or be coordinated enough to put them together and for the most part keep them there. She was doing ok with "2-3-4" on "c-d-e," but I don't think she can handle any more than that, or comprehend different hand positions, much less playing two notes at the same time. So at this point, I would just have to continue doing simple exercises for the next year, which I'm not sure I'm up for doing, since like I said before, I'm a piano teacher not a preschool music teacher. With that being said, that's why I can't imagine insisting on an 88-key keyboard for a kid so young.)

I had intended to use the Music Tree primer book with her, which is easy enough and focuses enough on fingers 2 and 3 for almost the entire book, that I was fairly confident she could handle it. The thing about that book, though, is that you move up and down octaves constantly. After that, I was going to gradually move her into my typical Music Pathways with lots of supplemental repertoire. Music Pathways is wonderful partly because it uses the entire keyboard from the second month or so, not focusing on middle C.

At her first lesson, the little girl was able to practice clusters with decent hand position, which I could work on improving over a few lessons, and she was doing fine with the first Music Tree piece.

You might be able to get away with a 56-key keyboard or something, but right now they have a 24-key toy keyboard and were thinking about buying something bigger. I didn't flat-out refuse to teach the girl unless they got a full-size, but I did tell her I thought they'd be wasting their money buying an "interim" keyboard that their daughter would in all likelihood outgrow in a year or two, at which point they'd have to spend even more money to buy a full-size. I recommended renting if they weren't sure she'd stick with it, or buying a cheap piano or keyboard on Craigslist that they could replace for what they paid for it when they were ready.

My experience is that even beginners hate practicing on a keyboard that won't let them play dynamics or play all the notes in their songs. I've had more than one student quit in under a year directly because of a sub-par instrument.

In my mind, playing on something like that is like trying to learn clarinet by playing the recorder. It's kind of similar, but it's not the same instrument.