Thoughts on Preschool

Our desire to start a preschool program came from our own experience with our own young children.  They range in ages 1 to 5.  Our two youngest children are learning so much from their older brother.  We don't have to force it.  In fact they know more at the ages of 1 and 3 then their brother did.  He was the only child for a minute and his learning was done without the influence of other siblings.  My daughter has learned to sit and eat at the table at just 1 year old and my oldest son could not do that until he was 2. She's already showing early signs of becoming potty trained.  I don't think she is gifted, she just has 2 older siblings that she is rapidly learning from. My two youngest children will sit still and browse through a book even though they cannot read yet.  All this I believe is because they watch their older brother do it.  I could go on and on with this.  Our desire for creating the Play Room was to give other parents a chance to experience their child learning in the natural way.  It puzzled me that once parents came to the  info session about the Play Room, they quickly lost interest.  I found that they wanted to make sure they learned their letters, colors and numbers.  They wanted tradition.  They were afraid to trust the freedom.  I explained this to a friend who shares many of my views on education and her thoughts were so enlightening.  She said, "Well wait until they get into the school system.  They haven't been burned yet."  That's so deep.  I refuse to let my kids "get burned".  I will be starting their learning process in this way early.  So if you come to The Living Water School, you will see a 1 year old and a 3 year old tagging along with mommy, because I want to encourage their rapidly growing curiosity.  Oh by the way, my 1 year old already knows the color red.  Why?  Because the table where they eat their snacks is red and we call it the red table.  If I say, "Day, go to the red table." She does not go to the kitchen table or the brown kiddie table.  She sits at the red table, although the other tables are nearby.  I never once taught her the color red.