Dear Mom,

It must be so busy at your house! The preschool years are full of fun, new things. Your kids are always learning and surprising you with new things every day. It is a joy to watch them. Their curious natures inspire you. You want to grab onto that interest and run with it. Why waste this time? You can teach them. It is so fun! In fact, homeschooling sounds like such a fun adventure. You have seen all the wonderful homeschooling blogs. The projects are fun! The families are beautiful! This homeschooling thing is the bees knees.

I have had so many moms ask me what they should do for preschool and kindergarten that I need to write about it. They want to know which curriculum they should buy. How should they get started. What homeschool group they should join. I remember those days. I remember the excitement, and if someone said to me then what I am going to say now, I would have ignored them. However, I am still going to say it.

Enjoy your babies. That is it. Our culture has told us that learning needs to start as early as possible. The truth is that your preschooler is learning. He is learning when you talk to him at the grocery store. He is learning when you bake cookies with him. He is especially learning when you read to him. He doesn’t need a fancy preschool program. He doesn’t need a homeschool group. He needs a playground. He needs a couple of playmates who are his age. He needs picture books in the house.

If you want to do fun preschool projects then by all means, do them. You can find a gazillion of them on Pinterest. Enough that will strike fear into the best of mommies. Do you feel the guilt calling yet? I promise that you don’t need to make a rice bucket tactile learning box for your child to learn motor skills. They just need to play. Get them off the iPad learning games and let them get their hands dirty. Give them a sandbox. Let them blow bubbles. Do they need to know the science behind the bubbles? No. There is plenty of time for that.

Find a few friends with children the same age. It used to be called a playgroup. It is good for you, and it is good for them. Meet at the park. Attend your library’s story time. But for goodness’ sake, don’t make everything a learning project. Have fun. Go to Chuck E. Cheese if you are so bold. It doesn’t matter. Your children are at this fun age for such a short time. Don’t make yourself crazy by trying to educate them formally before you have to.

I am saying this, because the time will come quickly when you need to teach them their multiplication tables, and then sooner rather than later you will need to teach them Algebra. Save yourself for this. So play with your preschoolers. Read to them as much as possible. Formal homeschooling can wait. I promise.

Yours,

The quiet mom in the back, whose homeschooling advice will never be featured in a magazine, but thinks it needs to be said anyway.