Last week I shared a wonderful interview with Elizabeth Gilbert and her new book, Big Magic. This week, I want to share a quote by Heather Shumaker who wrote, It's Ok Not to Share: And Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids. After teaching in the public school system, I have seen many changes. Some good. Some not-so-good. What I do know is this: we have lost sight of how play teaches children. Play allows for children to learn and grow in such a natural way that we have forgotten how important it is - and how much it actually teaches them. We have been so focused on testing and accountability, that we have lost sight of the importance of letting children be children. Children learn through observation, practice, trial-and-error, making attempts that sometimes work and often fail. We don't take children to school to learn how to walk, talk, eat, sleep. We let them explore, discover, uncover, wonder, imagine, create, and play. Have we strayed too far from allowing them to explore their natural curiosity? I'm not sure I have the answer, but I do know that at Lalu, we allow them to engage in what they know how to do: imagine, create, and play. There is no right or wrong, we allow them to be, find their voice, figure out their likes and dislikes, imagine something that comes forth from their curious minds, and feel a sense of accomplishment in what it feels like to create something that is theirs.
