Childhood...

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." Fred Rogers

Sometimes I watch my kids play outside from the kitchen window. They create make-believe lives, in a make-believe world and they dream of dreams I would never admit to having as an adult. They see the good in people and in life and they have very few fears. I worry they'll fall off the trampoline. I worry they will get stung by a scorpion. I worry that someone will approach them as they walk down the street. I worry about them. Constantly. And yet, they blissfully play in a world where worry seldom exists. For that, I'm envious of them and their happy little minds.

They don't understand the extent of the world around them; they don't worry, instead they live care-free lives in make-believe worlds. Where one of them is a teacher, the other a dog and they're on their way to Disneyland and they've packed their pillowcases full of all the essentials. How fun it would be to be a kid again if only for a day; wipe my mind of all the worry and stress and just live. Childhood is so important and so often we rush right passed it. My children aren't involved in very many activities (Hallie is in piano and Hunter has preschool) but I believe the learning that takes place in the backyard as they play is just as valuable because "Play is really the work of childhood."