So, now that you have made your decision not to go down the schooling path but to embark on this whole new way of learning that is more natural, organic and child-friendly, what are you going to do all day with your kids? While school-going kids spend a big part of the day at school doing school stuff, you and your group of fellow homeschoolers will need to do some planning on how to fill your time. Or do you?

Instead of diving head on into some school-like activities, why not let the children choose what they would like to do together? The ages of the kids would determine more or less the kinds of play that they would prefer. So be sensitive to that fact. Generally speaking, children between ages 5 to 12, and even beyond, prefer hands on, imaginative and constructive play because through play, they learn to communicate, to relate to one another and to develop social and interpersonal skills and to build on their imagination of what their present world is like, and what the future will become. So to answer that question of what shall kids do all day? Let them PLAY to their hearts’ content!

However, that might be too extreme for most parents to take! So I shall recommend the next best thing – assisted play. Parents can plan some activities for them with some end results in mind. For example, our current project of cardboard game-construction in conjunction with the Global Day of Play on Oct 6 was inspired by a 9-year-old who single- handedly constructed a cardboard arcade to pass his time after school. This activity that stretches over a period of three weeks had the parents and kids come up with creative ideas for games using just cardboard materials. This activity involves creative skills, designing skills as well as engineering skills. A highly satisfying activity for everybody! And to make it even more awesome, friends are invited to come and play on that day. And a community project reaches out to the community in the form of play!

So don’t just read about all the amazing things that our Clic kids do at Clic. Come and PLAY with them this Saturday at Clic and find out from the kids themselves what THEY do all day! Our “arcade” opens from 10am to 3pm this Sat only! Games are playable with purchased tokens from the games booths 🙂

Please email beyond.schooling for our address.

See you there!

www.learningbeyondschooling.org