LET THE CHILDREN PLAY (for faster information absorption and accelerated learning later on)

Rudolf Steiner says we should let our children play until age 7. I believe we should let them play longer. Play is how they learn and every day they are learning every thing they need to know by touching, hearing, seeing, sensing, experiencing and by osmosis. I don't have any psychological, scientific, medical or even esoteric data or statistics to back this up - I know because I experienced this myself first hand with my own daughter. I did not do any formal lessons with my home educated daughter at all, I let her play and last year when she was 8 turning 9 she came to me and asked to start learning more "from books" because "there is so much that I want to learn about and to know." We now do set lessons five days per week and she is learning at an astonishing rate and is even doing some year 7 work. It seems that playing and not pushing a child to learn increases their desire to want to learn and their ability to absorb information.

If my daughter does indeed decide to be a Veterinarian or a Zoo Keeper she will study what she has to when that time comes and learn everything there is to learn to enter those courses. I have absolutely no doubt that she can do/be anything she chooses and am not afraid at all that keeping traditional learning from her for longer than other children will hinder her in any way. In fact, I am quite sure of the opposite - my own and other home educating parent's experience shows that these children will achieve far more far quicker than their schooled counterparts. We do not have to fear burn out or drop out because the child has chosen when and what to study, is learning at their own pace and is in complete command of their own future. 

If you wish to comment or contact me please feel free to do so.