"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.

"What? Is it nothing to be happy?

"Nothing to skip, play and run around all day long?

"Never in his life will he be so busy again."
--Rousseau

I started my blogging journey with a great deal of tension inside of me . . . . as evident in many of my previous posts. Tension between my untested beliefs/ideals/hopes/etc and actually, personally, homeschooling and facing the pressures and expectations of both the outside world and my own years in the educational system and then the realization that finding some way to succumb to some normal route of schooling would be easier in every imaginable way - from actual hard work to time and space management in a little home to dealing with all the pressures.

I think the tension's gone! Not that it won't return or be an ongoing part of my journey, but the initial roadblock is gone. I am relaxed in that part of my brain and questioning whether or not it is laziness and apathy but am pretty confident that it is not. I embrace Rousseau's words above. I full-heartedly believe that nothing is to be lost by not intentionally striving after academic skills right now. I believe everything is to be gained by embracing play, fresh air, good books, God, and learning the content of the child's world that is naturally set before him each day (for now, not forever).

This article fits nicely with what I've always believed and now am ready to do without worrying.

This quote gives simplicity and focus to my world of academic learning:

What we need to improve education is not more curriculum, but better education, and that comes from classics and mentors. With young children you do two things: read them the classics—things at their level like Black Beauty, Charlotte’s Web, the Little House on the Prairie series, fables and rhymes—then talk about it with them, teach them lessons.~A Thomas Jefferson Education p. 49