One of the things I always hated about school when I was little was the way that they stifled my creativity. The teacher would present us with an art project and make all 25 of us do it exactly the same way. I'd get in trouble for coloring outside the lines or making the horse purple or gluing something in the wrong place. It was all about "learning to follow directions" which is valuable, but not at the expense of creativity. I saw this great book the other day "Eric Carle The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse" which is about the author and artist of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "The Very Busy Spider" and so many others of my all time favorite books. It talks about his discovery of a different kind of painting and learning that art isn't about following someone else's rules.
Through homeschooling, I hope to maintain my children's creativity, their imagination, and their enthusiasm for play no matter how old they get. I don't want them to ever feel like they must hide their uniqueness for fear of ridicule from other kids or that they are "too old" to dress up and imagine that they live in another time period. As Dr. Seuss said, "If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good."
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