I've been thinking a lot lately about the 'rules' we place on ourselves. The rules of society. I guess I was thinking about it because of some of the comments I've received because we choose to homeschool our children. Most peoples 'rules' tell them that Reid & I are choosing unwisely for our children. We are setting them apart from everyone else, we are making them different, we are certainly not going to adequately prepare them for the 'real' world. We are not giving them the opportunities for greatness that all the other public school children receive....sigh.

I have a million replies to all these 'helpful' comments...but really the only one I use is "well, it's certainly not for everyone." How good is it that we place huge expectation on a child to be brilliant at kindergarten or grade one? What favour do we think we are doing when we have our young 5,6,7 years olds coming home with homework? You know what I think they should excel at? Playing, imagining, creating... at what other point in their life are they going to have a chance just to be. I've read a great deal of info on how important it is to build an early foundation. I have to say, that I agree. I just don't agree on what the foundation is built of. To teach a child to use his or her imagination, to think outside of the box - to teach them to THINK at all is key. If they know how to think - then they can learn anything.

I am not against public school. In fact, when I meet people I would never dream of making a comment on their choice of public school for their child. I guess this rant was brought on by people feeling it was their duty to point out the flaws in our choice of how we educate our children.

So I'm back to those rules. Rules that tell us that this is the most appropriate way to live...and perish the thought if you choose a different set of rules, or heaven forbid, chuck the rules altogether!