Comment

Comment by Rob Keisacker on July 24, 2012 at 2:45pm

I don't know if it is different in other areas of the world, but it is amazing how structured children's lives are today.  I agree with you Dave with the unstructured time.  So many have to be going places and doing things.  It almost seems like society is pushing the point of having to stay busy.  We make sure that we have family game night, and let them have time to use their...oh what's that word...that's right, IMAGINATION!

:)

Comment by Dave Hale on July 24, 2012 at 10:28am

I agree with Stephanie. Sometimes, even simple little things will cause sideways glances, like letting your kid climb up the slide, as long as he's not getting in the way of kids wanting to go down. Or how a friend of ours thinks that we are "bad parents" because we give our kids (5 and 3) plenty of unstructured time to play and explore and watch movies and..., etc. instead of planning every moment of every day and keep them busy with organized art projects and his and that, etc...

Comment by Stephanie Dehennin on July 1, 2012 at 3:05pm

I feel that no matter what you do as a parent, there will always be people who think and/or say you're doing it wrong. I agree with Rob; you know what your kid can handle and as long as you keep supervising, why not? I let my five year old help me bake pancakes today, in a safe way. Curiosity should always be encouraged, and doing something independently -anything- will help build self-esteem, motivation and a lust for exploration.

Comment by Rob Keisacker on June 29, 2012 at 3:17pm

The key word here is supervision.

No reason to suffocate his curiosity, especially when it comes to things like this.  I love the video how he went over and started working.  It would be different if he was trying to hammer things/destructive, running with it, etc....  The obvious things.  Both of our children loved being curious like this, and as before stated, as long as there is close supervision, why not!?