The other day I substituted in a third grade class. We read together a delightful story called "A Fine, Fine School," by Sharon Creech. In this story the school principal is so pleased with his "fine, fine school" and its students and its teachers that he announces that school will not be held on Saturdays...and then Sundays...and then during the summer.
The students and teachers don't voice their opposition to the principal's new policies because they like him and don't want to hurt his feelings.
In the end, a little girl named Tillie visits the principal and points out to him that there are some things that can, and should, be learned outside the classroom--like how to skip and how to climb a tree and how to sit in a tree for an hour.
It's a wonderful story but more importantly it reminds us all that we need to allow kids to be kids sometimes. Let's not schedule them so heavily with sports and other activities that they never have a chance to be bored. Some marvelous realizations can come to a bored child--and a bored adult, for that matter.
There's nothing wrong with occasionally taking a break and just watching the cloud pictures in the sky or taking a bubble bath or daydreaming.
Who said kids had to have all the fun?
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