Perhaps We Should Have Done It This Way

I am a teacher at heart.  I loved my years spent in the classroom.  I couldn't believe I got paid for all the fun I had with my students.

When I found out I was pregnant, there was no question in my mind that I would homeschool our children.  I couldn't wait to get started.
  I tried to be intentional about what toys we bought and became somewhat of a sucker for all things labeled "educational". 

My first child proved to be a compliant perfectionist.  He works hard and wants to please.  He is very worried about not doing things right and stresses about his younger sister and friends who seem to be "getting ahead" of him.  Against my better judgement, I plunged right into a kindergarten curriculum for him soon after his fifth birthday.  After all, all his friends were in school for several hours a day.  Why couldn't we spend an hour or two in the mornings getting some of the basics put behind us?  The term "unschooling" sent a spooky shiver down my spine, and I determined to keep up with - and excede - the basic standards set out for the schools in our area.  It was the teacher in me.  I couldn't help myself.

Now that we have a new baby in the house, "schooling" has been set aside for the most part.  And, yet, I sometimes stop and think that more learning is going on these days than during our usual hours at the table. 

Here are some of things my children have spent their hours doing over the past couple of weeks:

1. Listening to classical music and coloring pictures of composers that we print off of the computer.
2. Spelling words on the refrigerator with the 'fridge magnets.
3. Coloring, coloring, coloring.
4. Running around outside for hours on end, catching bugs and taking pictures of plants and animals with an old camera.
5. Playing Starfall on the computer.
6. Spontaneously picking up BOB books and ABeka readers and reading aloud to me.  I think my five-year-old has spent more time reading aloud to me in the past three weeks than ever before.
7. Playing games that improve math skills:  UNO, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Bibleopoly...
8. Looking through books and magazines that haven't been taken out for awhile.
9. Building with Legos and wooden blocks.
10. Putting together puzzles of the alphabet, maps, and the solar system.
11. Listening to books on CD and tape.
12. Drawing pictures out of their Ed Emberely drawing book.
13. Painting, cutting, glueing....
14. I've had the radio on a bit more than usual, listening to talk radio, and we've spent much time discussing the topics brought up by Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, and Bill Bennett.  When my four year old wants to talk about "health care reform" and "the sanctity of life" with my husband when he comes home, I wonder why we don't just play the radio in the background and call it kindergarten.
15. Reading books together.  Hours and hours of book reading has taken place on the couch while I feed the baby.
16. And don't forget the real-life skills we've taken a little more time to perfect:  baby care, laundry duty, cleaning the bathroom, cooking, etc.

No, I don't really regret the time we've spent "doing school" this year.  We have discovered amazing places, the joy of reading, and the fun of math.    My children ask, "When can we start doing school again?", so we'll get back to it in a few weeks.  But I think we might take a little more of a laid-back approach and enjoy the art of "education through play".  Perhaps this is the way we should have done it all along.