The case for idle

Today is not a good day to blog. I've lots of things to do and it is already 1245am but I just have to write this down so that I can remember. 

By nature, I'm one of those people who like to plan, set goal, target and make list. If I can have my way, I would have plan our schooling down to every minute. 1000-1015 Chinese Reading; 1015-1030 Chinese Writting; 1030-1035 Break, etc etc etc.

Four years of homeschooling teach me to be relax, to let go, to give space for Den to grow on her own pace. I forced my self to give her time to be idle. 

We have not been progressing according to my plan for the past few weeks now due to sickness (hers, then me, then hers) and last min travelling. So now that we are back to our home, I'm rather impatient to get on with our school work. However, due to house chores and activities, we just don't seem to be able to study much.

I've to keep reminding my self, it is ok. Travelling, chores and activities are very important part of the learning too. I've to keep my impatient at bay, not to squeeze in too much works in order to catch up the lost time and not to squeeze out her idle time.

I truly believe idle time is good for kids. They get to do things that they really wanted to do and also explore on their own. 

In her idle time, Den read books, catch insect, wrote letters, making cards, doodle, writting poem or stories, etc. Tonight she decided to make a card game. Originally I wanted to queeze in some study time at night but I control my self and she came up with a game. 

She called it "The Story Game". She make 30 cards and she wrote different nouns on each of them. The players use the cards on their hands to make up stories. She came up with three different ways to play this. 

I'm sure there are something similar in the market but she has never play any of them before. 

In her idle time, she also wrote a interesting short story as my birthday present. I will type it out on another day. 

I've to keep reminding my self learning is not just about desk work! She is learning in idle time too! (May be even more!)

Update: a friend, who is also a homeschooling mom posted something beautiful on her blog that expressed this a thousand time better than mine. Check it out here.