A while back, someone wrote to our local homeschooling group email list and asked the following question:
“Do you find you miss the hours of “free play” time when you have lots of stuff scheduled? I guess I’m afraid of running out of time for fort-building, hammock swinging, storytelling, bike riding, etc.”
She received many good responses about the need for free play. Here’s what I wrote:
I think these are the most important activities you can allow time for. It’s really easy to over-schedule, and when that happens, we don’t have time to just play. Classes and clubs and field trips are great, but they aren’t any more important than ordinary, everyday play and everyday activities.
My son is 15 now, and I don’t regret any of the time we’ve had simply reading, playing games, building with Lego, exploring nature, baking, and relaxing together.
It’s so easy to want to do everything. It all sounds so enticing. We don’t have to do it all at once. We’ve got years and years. Look at what you like to do together, how busy you like to be within a day or week or month, and find the balance that makes everyone happy. Less is more.
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