Learning?

"My animals are going to school." Hunter informed me as he sat on his play mat with his plastic zoo animals lined up in a row.

"Really? What are they going to learn?" I asked him.

"Nothing" he replied. "They're going to play."

I had to laugh. "School" is the term I use for the learning games we play in the morning. We solve square roots, learn paintings by Van Gogh, learn to write letters, listen to Japanese songs, read classic literature and practice piano playing. We sculpt with playdough, build cities with blocks, finger paint, throw balls around, and have tickle fights to heart's content. In general, we play, we laugh, we learn. And all this time he's learning literally hundreds of invaluable facts every month, like the Greek alphabet, the bones of the human body, the music of Beethoven and the verses of Scripture. But he thinks he's playing.

Funny, how little kids view learning. And certainly, to anyone who would protest to joyfully teaching little kids about our amazing and interesting world, your answer can be found straight out of the mouths of babes: "No, Mom: they're going to play."

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise..."

Matthew 21:16

Hunter is 3 years, 5 months old