These days children go to preschool earlier than ever. I remember that people started asking me if I had already enrolled Rutger for preschool when he was one year old! "If you don’t get him on the waiting list now, you won’t get him in when he’s two" they warned me. When I’d explain that I had no intention to let him go to preschool at all the usual response was; "But it’s so much fun for children in preschool; they learn so much and they can play with other children too." At that I would explain that Rutger and I were having a lot of fun at home and that he learned a lot too and if he wanted to play with another child we could always invite someone, couldn’t we? Finally the last and most important reason to put your child in preschool was mentioned: "But honestly, isn’t it great to have time for yourself again?" Ha, I would think so that’s the REAL reason that most mothers want their child to attend preschool or a day-care facility as soon as possible! Now, I’m not surprised that mothers long for their children to attend school and for themselves to have peace and quiet again. If I look around, especially here in the USA, I can see that many mothers are always very busy to correct their child’s behaviour; that must be pretty tiring… If you, on the other hand, can look at your children in a different way and start enjoying their company, the job of a mom (or dad) suddenly becomes a lot easier. Yesterday was a typical day for us, unschoolers, we had to go out to do some grocery shopping but the sun was shining brightly and we decided to go to the park instead. This particular park is located at a lake with a nice little sandy beach. We had taken a picnic lunch and were playing in the sand, making sandcastles and baking ‘cakes’, when Rutger "accidentally" dropped the bal in the water. We had no other choice but to take off our shoes and go in the water. When we were finally done playing we were all covered in sand and our clothes were a bit wetter than I had planned, but boy we’d had a wonderful and relaxing afternoon. We still needed groceries so we went to a store on our way home. "Homeschoolers, I suppose?" the lady at the check-out asked. "Yeah" she continued "I can always tell." I was surprised, but when I looked around I had to admit that we were the only ones with sandy shoes, wet clothes, red cheeks and a very happy expression on our faces, on a regular weekday in October. One of the great advantages of being a mom is that it’s the best excuse for enjoying yourself. You can play with Lego’s, build a sandcastle or go to the playground all in the name of motherhood. If you’ve forgotten how to play and have fun your children will be happy to teach you. Unschooling gives you the opportunity to truly enjoy your children and life itself. So much so that you won’t feel the need to send them off to school in order to have some ‘time off’