I just read this interesting opinion/article on World magazine's website: http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/08/04/the-parental-guilt-hypothesis/. In a nutshell, the author feels that we have our kids in so much organized stuff that they don't have time to be kids -- playing with friends in backyards, etc. He thinks it is much due to parental guilt; I think some of it is just laziness -- we can't figure out how to "entertain" them so we plug them into stuff. Or we assume they have to be entertained in the first place, when they should be figuring it out on their own.
Ingrid is starting Pre-K next week. She's going to be in the Tuesday/Thursday morning class. Honestly, the main reason we are doing this is to expose her to some children her own age, otherwise, we'd start her in homeschool. There is one little boy in our neighborhood that she plays with, but she just needs more friends. Which leads me to my puzzlement: she really wants to be in ballet or gymnastics and AWANA Cubbies. We had her in Cubbies for half of last year. She loved it, but it was such a late night for her. It started at 6:45, and she didn't get in bed until 9:00; considering her bedtime is 7:00.... Many nights we would also have to bring Ilsa out with us, due to Chad's work schedule. And Ingy will have school the next morning...
Ballet is on Tuesday afternoons, and I haven't researched gymnastics. And she is only 4 1/2 after all! I never did anything organized like that until I was in 2nd grade and started piano lessons. So that would mean out all morning, hurry home for Ilsa's nap (which is very important to us), back out another 20 mile roundtrip for a 45 minute ballet class, hurry up dinner, dump into bed. Out on Wednesday evening for AWANA, late to bed, up early for school again....
I keep reminding myself that we teach Ingrid much of what she would learn in Cubbies already. But bless her heart, tonight at dinner she said, "Mommy, I just want that little Cubbie bear right here (pointing to her heart) on my vest." I asked her if all she wanted was the Cubbie bear. She said, "No, but I want to earn it." Aaaackkkk!!!!
What do you think?
1 comment:
I think the benefit of placing your child in classes, clubs, etc. depends entirely on your motivation. Is your child asking for it because he/she is interested in learning? If so, it's probably a positive thing to do. In my opinion, being a part of a team (soccer, dance, scouts) or learning a skill (cello, gymnastics, basketweaving) is an exciting and character-building part of growing up. Working toward a goal and practicing even when it's tough is something we could all learn a little better. I don't have kids, so I have not yet felt the pressure of "scheduling," and I can imagine that it would be easy to fill your child's day to the max, so it will be necessary to pick and choose the classes that will make your child happy and help him/her develop talents. But overall, I think your child will let you know when he/she is ready to take a class or join a team. Of course, you get to be the one who decides the schedule that works best for your family.
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