Bring Back Recess! #Recess #StopCommonCore

Thanks to 99% of schools, public and private teaching the common core standards, children have little to no time to play anymore. Recess is pretty much gone in most schools. Children get anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes during the ONE recess they get a day. Instead of playing outside around 9 or 10am, they go eat lunch at 10am or 10:30am, and so on. Then they go back to the classroom for more instruction time. Did you know that some of this instruction time is used to put your kids in front of an educational video such as The Magic School Bus or Curious George? Yep! Your kids instruction time is so crucial and important, that they could be outdoors playing, instead of watching that 20 to 30 minute video, pretty much every single day from what my children are telling me!

When our children get home from school, we encourage them to go outside and play, to play in the house or in their bedrooms without the TV on or playing with electronics. I encourage them to get physical and jump around and also, to dance. We throw on music instead of television. I have taught them to be silly and to let loose! My children know that when they come home, they are free to do what they want, but within limits of course. They can't jump on the beds, jump off of the furniture, throw things at the ceiling fans (yes, they have done this), hurt one another. But overall, they can play with their toys, dance, color, talk to me or whatever they want to do.

Since we can't bring back recess in school, how about we bring back recess at home? We can encourage our children to go swimming, go to the park, play in an outdoor pool, go horseback riding, run, play a sport if they want or get involved with their local Cubscout, Boyscout or Girl Scout troops! They do many outdoor activities and the children eat it up! Plus, they learn many life skills they they wouldn't normally learn in school! Do this, because your kids matter! Do this because you matter! Do this, because if you don't, future generations will suffer more than you know.