"Prevent summer learning loss..."

Oh dear goodness.

Yep. This one is about "education."

At Barnes and Noble today Miss H wanted a workbook. Whatever. It used to make my skin crawl a bit, but I realized that if I truly believe in child-lead learning, this means I have to let her lead, even if it's not in the direction I'd choose.

And the girl likes workbooks.

Okay.

I find it weird and bizarre, but I love her and she's a wiz, and she does do other things with her life (like ready. All. Day. Long), so it's okay.

Can you tell I sometimes need to reassure myself of this?

Anyway, I was flipping through it when we got home, mostly because I realized that the cover says it teaches "fitness" and I wanted to make sure it was something I found appropriate and not also including health/nutrition which I don't agree with what is taught at all. Anyway, I digress.

This book specifically is a "summer workbook." What bothered me immediately is that it states, "School stops for the summer, but learning never should!" and then is followed by "Prevent summer learning loss without our award-winning, best-selling summer learning series!"

Really?

I mean, really!?

Kids aren't learning unless they're in school?

Kids aren't learning unless they are doing worksheets like little drones?

Kids aren't learning every day, just by living?

Geez.

How in the world did my kids learn how to walk and talk? How did they learn to build blocks and do somersaults and bake cookies and cut vegetables? How did they learn their shapes and colors and ABC's? How did they ever learn how to make patterns and the concepts of basic addition and subtraction?

Because they haven't learned any of these things from workbooks or from being in school.

I despise that there are companies, people, making a profit off of other people's fears that their kids aren't "learning" enough, fast enough, and that the only way to do it is by jamming more busy work down their throats and restricting their free play.

Playing is work!

Kids learn everything they need to know by playing. By following their own interests.

If you let them, if you trust them enough, no human being will not learn what they need learn when they need to learn it.

Of course, sometimes that also means you have to trust them enough to let them choose to do pages out of a workbook, too.

It's a pretty vicious cycle, I'm telling ya.