Rarest Kind of Best

It looks like all I’ve got time for these days is passing on links… Oh well…

Here’s another good one though, “The Genius of Unstructured Summer Time” on the New York Times site.  One of the things that irks me most about modern parenting trends is the need for constant curriculum – not just during school hours, but now bleeding into all available free time, early mornings, evenings, weekends, holidays, summer time… (As well as into the very early years of toddlerhood and infancy: witness expanding kindergarten hours, full-curriculum daycares, computer lapware for babies!)

What would unprogrammed time look like? Is it so bad that they might get a little bored? Learning how to entertain themselves might be one of the most useful skills they can develop.

We spend so much time trying to instill the love of reading in our children, but when the heck are they supposed to read for enjoyment when we keep them hopping every hour of the week?

The space and time to just think… that is where true creativity can spring forth. Dare we let them follow their hearts, in their own time and in whatever direction it leads them?