Childhood Should be Filled with Joy, Imagination, and WONDER

Bekki — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:51:00 +0000

Inside: 6 Questions every parent, teacher, and homeschooler should ask themselves about their kids.

It’s 1976.

I am super excited to go to my Kindergarten class today!

Mrs. House is the best teacher ever.

My friend Shelley and I sit next to each other in circle time as the class sings songs and talk about what is a good nutritious breakfast. Mrs. House isn’t too happy that I had a cup of coffee again today! I’m sure she will talk to mom again later!

When mom picks me up from the bus stop, I start talking.

“We did the phonics circle. Mrs. House played Ferdinand the Bull for us. I laughed and laughed when he “sat on a bumblebee”. I played house with Mary during play station time. There is an iron and ironing board! I love and “ironing”. At snack time, my friend Shelley and I turned our milk cartons into little boxes so we could collect things during recess. Shelley and I played tag during recess until we couldn’t run anymore, then we plopped down in the clover patch to search for four-leaf clovers. After recess, Mrs. House quizzed us on “F, F, for Freddy Fox” and sang “This Land is my Land” with the first-grade class next door.”

{I gasp for breath and start talking again}

“We covered a paper with all different colors of crayons and then scribbled all over that paper with black crayon as hard as we could. Once is was black, we used a paper clip to scratch designs into our picture. I was so excited, I made two! This one’s for you mommy. We worked on counting and did some fun worksheets. I can’t wait to go to school again!”

Didn’t you love kindergarten?

The play, the music, the glitter, the stories, the friends, the dancing, the pretending.

I turned out great.

Right?

I loved school, so much in fact that I grew up to ‘play school’ at home full time (by homeschooling our five boys).

I fell in love with learning and exploring and music and art and people in kindergarten.

I am so concerned for today’s kindergartners.

My friend has a kindergartner who has a reading quota and is already placed in a remedial group because he does not read fast enough. His class has to skip recess often in order to get more work done. He also has homework. At five years old.

What is wrong with this picture?

Childhood is fleeting.
Learning is cultivated.
Creativity is crushable.
Excitement for learning is perishable.

If we turn our culture’s creative, daydreaming, dancing five-year-olds into frustrated, militant, quiet little soldiers who can sit at a desk for 5-6 hours a day, should we be surprised that obesity, depression, and anxiety will dominate their lives as teens and adults?

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

We need to allow children to return to childhood and delight in life again.

I mean delight.Visible, audible delight.

Let them pick clover, turn milk boxes inside out, spill glitter while making a picture for dad, play hopscotch, swing and swing, play hide and seek, share, sing, dance, and play.

Related: Free Kindergarten Fun {printable} at the end of this article.

photo by Mi Pham

Kids learn through play and role playing.

This is how children grow up to be creative, self-expressive, caring adults.

They need to have the “time” to just be…

Photo by Janko Ferlic

No electronics, no homework.

What purpose does homework bring to a child under the age of 10 anyway?

Kids need to be outside, sometimes guided, sometimes just supervised so they don’t kill themselves. But they need to be outside. Rain or shine. Snow or wind.

Remember: There’s no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing!

Photo by Josh Calabrese

Kids need to color, cut, sing, dance, role play, rest, read (and be read aloud to), count by bouncing balls and keeping score, and laugh.

Learning is much easier when the child’s basic needs are met.

Parents, we need to do something for the sake of our children and our future society.

This is personal.

For my family, it is personal enough to pull my kids from the public school so we can educate them at home.

Where they run.

Where they laugh.

Where they read when they are developmentally ready.

Where they play outside.

Photo by AL Montpetit

I am kicking my four youngest sons outside with play swords.

Plastic swords.

Awesome swords.

The kind of swords that turn even the most reluctant teenage boy into a knight.

(I recommend protective gear. Boys take this kind of play seriously)

They will play outside during the time of day that most American Kids will be scribbling on their desks and suffer from numb tushes.

Ask yourself if your young children are delighting in life.

I’m not asking if they are busy, can win spelling bees, read at the age of three and solve algebraic algorithms by 6…

Are Your Kids Delighting in Life?

Do they love stories and reading? (or being read to)
Do they enjoy their classrooms/learning environments?
Are they nurtured by their educators?
Do they laugh and run and sing and dance?
Do they build, explore, and experiment?
Do they play contentedly? With others? Alone? Inside? Outside?

I am concerned about today’s kindergartners.

We need to stand up and stop accepting new “cultural norms”.

Our kids, your kids, my kids deserve better.

Start looking around you.

Find a handful of children who are delighting in life, are full of excitement, and are excited to learn.

This might be a challenge, but you will see a few.

Then start talking to their parents and glean wisdom.

photo by Yoann Boyer

The parents of content, excited, kind, curious, enthusiastic learners have the answers…

ask them!

Homeschooling with Confidence {free}

A Better Way to Homeschool