Preschool Homeschooling
Eager to begin assisting their children down the path of life many young parents schedule play dates, attend Mom and baby swim classes, and busily start planning all the necessary activities to give their baby a head start in life. At this early date they haven’t yet realized they are trying to speed their way to the moment when that beloved child leaves their door for a life on their own. Yes, that’s a moment all parents want their children to achieve fully prepared for the vagaries of life, but the closer you get to that moment the more time you wish you had. By the time your child is sixteen, you find them running willy nilly towards that goal themselves just when you’re ready to relax and take it a little slower.
With children ages five through sixteen, I’ve been through the new parent “over achieve for my child” period and now face the “my baby is going to be leaving soon” period. It’s mingled heart ache and joy. The way I deal with my younger children is also greatly affected by this new life stage. I’ve started slowing down with them already. Rather than push them on to new achievements ahead of the pack, I’m giving them more time to be the age they are. Rachel needs plenty of time to play house, sing to her dollies, color, dress up, and create play dough buffets. She’ll give up all these activities soon enough, but the timing will be her own, not because I have pushed her into more “educational” activities.
The concept “educational” activity is in itself restricting. Somewhere along the way we have lost the understanding that the activities commonly known as “school” are only one form of educational activity. Learning to read, write, and do arithmetic have been elevated to such a high plane that the other forms of learning are pushed to the side as unworthy of much dedicated time. In the past preschoolers were not expected to learn to read; and yet today I receive many requests for help in choosing a reading program for three or four-year-olds. I’m assured that the child is more than ready to take this next step in his educational program. That may well be, but my response is “so what?” Assuredly you can start a reading program that requires only 10 minutes a day, and that really isn’t a great chunk of time to whittle out of the child’s daily schedule. But most people that insist on starting their preschooler reading are also working on math, doing science experiments, and finding all kinds of ways to jumpstart academics. All this “educational” activity pushes aside the things that a child should be doing, playing, exploring and discovering life on their own.
Most parents would be horrified to realize that they may be unintentionally quashing their child’s creative abilities by constantly employing them in directed activities. They teach them to color in the lines rather than give them art supplies to use as they decide. Rather than letting them discover ants on their own, they take them outside for a complete lecture on ants. By the age of two, they schedule regular dates for their children to play with those their own age ignoring the fact that two-year-olds don’t yet play socially. They tie up all their time in planned activities and events never allowing children the freedom to discover on their own. Creativity needs room to experiment. If children have no room to do their own thing, they will gradually stop thinking in creative ways and look only for the “correct” or “proper” way to do something. They will turn to their authority, the parent, to tell them what they should do. Later in life they will turn to other authorities.
