So what else do you have them do with their day?
I read and read and read. We’d turn in my book list to the evaluator at the end of the year and it would have 300 books on it. She’d ask me “This is really how many you read this year?” And I’d answer, “No, these are just the new ones. I didn’t list re-reads”.
I played outside with my siblings. We tromped all over our wooded acre and a half, and the neighbors’ woods, and whatever else we could without getting in trouble. We played Indians or homesteaders or space cadets.
I wrote stories, although that was mostly when I was an older teen. We went to parks, chess clubs, enrichment classes. I had regular babysitting jobs. Mom read aloud to us for an hour a day.
It was heavenly. And it was in the 90s, not the 50s. I can do this for my daughter too. Kids don’t hate school half as much when it’s not destroying their chance to actually have fun.
Not to brag, but to demonstrate that I got an education: my SAT scores, at 16, were high enough that I was the only National Merit Semifinalist in my school district. I got a bachelors’ and a master’s degree in computer science. All my siblings have been accepted to and completed or are completing good college degrees.
So what else do you have them do with their day?
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They played....hard and intensely. I think the play was vital to their development. Because their play was rarely interrupted, they learned to concentrate intensely for many hours. Sometimes their projects would consume many months. Some projects spanned years.
We did what other successful middle class parents do. We read to them at night, took them to the library once a week, and visited educational sites on weekends, and the summer went camping and to the beach.
Actually, it was an amazing process to watch. Gradually their play became their adult work and avocations. The same intensity that they directed at their play became highly focused work.
For example, my oldest become a highly accomplished athlete. He competed on the national and international level and was on the team the represented the U.S. As a result, he has traveled widely. All play musical instruments. All sing in their church choirs. All are accomplished ball room dancers. The two younger were highly active as well in ballet, jazz, tap, and modern dancing.