How we view learning

The other day, I was chatting with another mother while my son was at swimming lessons. She noticed that Baby Smurf had something on his hands and asked what it was. I told her that it was food coloring because we were mixing different colors of water together that morning to see what new colors they made. Interested, she asked if I ran a play group or something. I told her, no, we homeschool so that's what I do. I want the kids to view learning as something that you are always doing, not just something that is done during certain hours of the day, so I often incorporate learning activities into our day.

That exchange got me thinking. First, that I might be a little snobby when it comes to education. But more importantly, it got me thinking about how our society views learning activities.

I know this mother was probably just trying to break the ice and start a conversation and this is in no way a dig at her, but it struck me that someone would assume that such an activity would not be done at home with just one child.

I have always done stuff like that with my kids. I guess that is why they were unchallenged at the public school and why we made the switch to homeschooling so easily.

It is funny to me that our society sees learning as something that happens outside the home in school, daycare, or playgroups. This is one of the reasons that homeschooling is so hard for some people to accept.

If we could just get all parents to embrace the idea of incorporating learning into activities at home, then I think that more people would be willing to accept the homeschooling way of life.