The question came up again:
“What is the best curriculum for my children? They are four and six years old, and I’m afraid of letting them fall behind.”
I remember being a young parent, eager to start homeschooling. I used to get mad (without letting it show, like a true introvert) when people told me, “They are young. Just let them play.”
Now I see the wisdom in it.
The most important thing for your children right now, by far, is for them to enjoy learning. The joy of learning is a child’s natural state. As a parent, your primary job is to keep yourself from stomping it out.
But our parental fears can push us into joy-trampling before we realize it.
And our own experience of school makes it hard for us to see how much of our children’s play really is learning. We expect education to look like schoolwork, but natural learning looks nothing like that.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 