Adventures in Playschool

  When our children were small, I firmly believed, “Let them be kids, they will have the rest of their lives to be in school.” So, that’s what I gave them. Room to play, to be creative, to be messy, to be risky. Room to try things, fail, and try again, to experience, to regulate, and room to be KIDS! We were outside often, and regularly went on “field trips”. Our children joined me in everyday tasks, such as running errands, cleaning the house, prepping food, doing laundry, and other general life skills. While I followed their lead in their interests, they were still held to expectations and our days followed a regular rhythm. While none of our kiddos attended formal preschool, they were beyond ready for 4K. When I first started caring for other people’s children, I took this same approach, even telling them that I am not a preschool. Over the past few years, I was encouraged to abandon this mindset in the name of “high quality care”. The rating standards paired with what I was lea...

Often times play is looked at as what we do when we are done working. I mean as adults, that is how we view vacations. We work hard to get all the work done so we can check out and go on vacation, only to be greeted with triple the amount of work to do. As a mom of three teens I look back at my own children's childhood to see when did play really become unacceptable according to society. It's middle school. The amount of school work that was required of my children in public school 6th grade was crazy. For the past few years, I have been working hard to ensure we get time to play together as a family, despite the calling of our work. The times we play are the times we are most connected and they are the happiest.  Somewhere along the way, playing became a reward for completing your work. Somewhere along the way, children have been losing their right to a childhood. It is here I plan to share with you how children learn through play and how essential play is for not only childre...