Playing

You don't have to read my blog long to know that I am a rather big proponent of letting kids play. My kids learn more from playing than I think most things in this world. They have deep conversations with their friends while playing. They learn to interact with people. They learn social skills -- those things that everyone feels homeschoolers are lacking. So we are big on play in our house. We go out of our way to provide the kids with things to play with and on that will get them moving, and thinking, and having fun. We have a trampoline, which, often times when it is warm out, is turned into a water park by putting the sprinkler underneath it.

We ride bikes a lot when it's warm. Sometimes with me, sometimes not. Everyone except Winnie can now ride without training wheels, so they often just take off and go for awhile exploring.


We spend a lot of time at the park whenever it's even mildly warm enough, or outside swinging in the backyard on the hammock.

Since it's been cold, we've joined our local community center and we spend a lot of time playing there. It's a great community center, with a climbing wall, huge swimming pool with slides, and giant kid play area. Needless to say, it's a hit with the kids.


Here are the kids shopping in the play grocery store at the community center.

Climbing the climbing wall with our friend Olivia.

Angus climbed up and hid in the hole to scare people as they walked by.

Zhara and Angus's dad visited for the weekend, and helped the kids on the climbing wall.


We even ended up hanging a swing in the basement, which gets a lot of use when it's cold.


Don't underestimate the power of play, people. It rocks!