playful home

When you commit to teaching your children at home, you may find like me, that the pressure to keep them educationally busy during school hours can be intense. For me, the pressure comes from our immediate neighborhood that watches our coming-and-going like we watch theirs. We live in a condominium community consisting of twenty homes all facing each other with a large grassy courtyard in the middle.
Over the last two years, at least three neighbors have directly asked me about the virtues of homeschooling, our daily schedule, long-term plans and other curious questions. Others have hinted and vaguely referred to it in passing conversations. Our family's choices are a neighborhood anomaly and the desire to conform is quite strong at times.
However, I am constantly reminding myself to allow plenty of free, unstructured time throughout the day for Seth to play, build and implement ideas. As the weeks have turned into months, I see areas of play that have honed ingenuity and developed skills without any input or planning from me.