"Can I Play?"

My brother recently recommended "There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather" and it echoes my parenting and homeschooling philosophies:

-Teach children too much too early and it will backfire 

-Allow kids to learn when they are ready and they will do better

-play, play, play during early years.

I see the fruits with my little guys, now 7 and 4. They love books, eagerly try to reproduce letters and live their math workbooks...all because they pick them up when they want to.

They spend about 5 hours a day engaged in imaginary, non-medical play. Stuffed animals are their recent favorite since the weather is colder but after reading this book, I am faced with the additional reality that "there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing."

I love the quotes about needing to be outside so much, about needing to move. So, so true!

"Authentic play occur naturally when children and nature are brought together." The author cautions against over-regimenting their time. I can worry about this. Just the other night I wasn't feeling well and had the youngest two at home in the evening. Mentally, I started laying out a series of activities for the evening. And then I didn't. I waited.

While I organized a quilt on the floor, they spent about 30 min just running and jumping over the squares, giggling breathlessly and interspersing hugs for me. When they started winding down and I started considering a movie, Eli jumped up and asked me, "Can we color with markers?" An hour later I asked them to wrap it up so we could go to bed. Yes, I had to intervene a couple times when Liesl ran out of color space and started coloring Eli's page. A few other pages ripped out and problem solved.

Silly me.