Beyond the Classroom: Big Picture Prep for Your Child’s School Year

Encourage free play. (Vitolda Klein/Unsplash)

August is that month when adults are gearing up for the school year.

Teachers deck out their classrooms with maps, charts, and inspirational posters, scratch out lesson plans to get a kick-start on the year, and fill out attendance books with the names of their new students. Parents stock up on notebooks, pens, and pencils, take the kids shopping for new clothes or buy required uniforms online, and start arranging extracurricular activities on their calendars. Veteran homeschooling moms and dads familiarize themselves with the curriculum they’ve purchased, hunt for any gaps in their kids’ education they may have missed, and help dispel the butterflies of friends new to homeschooling.

As will sometimes happen, the details and dilemmas of preparation can overshadow the deeper purpose of our ambitions. Mom and Dad may spend hours weighing the pros and cons of ballet for their third-grader, forgetting why they deemed dance classes worthwhile in the first place. When this happens, it’s best to shake off the planning and the fretting for a moment and remind ourselves of the real purpose and meaning of education.

To Become the Best They Can Be

In her article “The Traditional Definition of ‘Education’ Is Fundamentally Flawed,” Rachel Denning rightly points out that most of us “equate education with academic learning.” When we speak of the state of education in the United States, for instance, nearly all of us envision the teaching of subjects like math, science, and history. When we consider our own child’s education, we’re usually thinking the same thing. In our minds, we imagine classrooms, teachers, textbooks, and tests.

After pointing out this stereotype regarding education, Denning then writes, “If you set out to ‘educate’ a child by teaching them math, science, and history, you will take a very different approach than if you are trying to guide them to learn from life, develop self-control and confidence, and to understand their heart and soul.” From that premise, Ms. Denning concludes that the true goal of education is to help our children “reach their full potential and become their very best self, prepared to live a life of meaning, purpose, and contribution.”

Certainly, academics are part of that preparation. The methods and results of classroom learning are also much more tangible than preparing children “to live a life of meaning.” Yet there are some practical items we can add to our school year schedules that can help our children become their best selves.

Free Play

In his 2024 bestseller “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” Jonathan Haidt recommends four foundational reforms for a healthier childhood. Among these are “far more unsupervised play and childhood independence.” An enormous body of research, anecdotes, and common sense solidly backs Haidt’s proposal.

When planning out the school year, set aside some time every day for your children to play by themselves or with friends. Put away the phones and the screens, avoid stacking their hours out of school with extracurricular activities, and let them entertain themselves. This unsupervised playtime allows their imaginations free rein, lets them take charge of their own lives, and deepens friendships.

Allot similar blocks of time for your teens. Encourage them to read for fun, invite friends to the house, or pursue some hobby they love.

The Great Outdoors

Whenever possible, encourage your children to play outside. Physicians and researchers have long emphasized the many benefits that come from time spent in the open air, from physical health to mental well-being. An hour at the park, a walk in the snow followed by hot chocolate, a hot afternoon running under a sprinkler in the backyard, building a fort—all aid in giving the imagination and the body a workout.

When you’re planning your school year, be sure this one makes your to-do list.

The Family Hour

“The family is the nucleus of civilization” is a saying attributed to different writers, and it’s absolutely true. The family is where children learn the rudiments of virtue and civilized behavior, and yet “family time” is an entry often missing from the daily planners of parents and guardians.

This year, along with the soccer practices, the homework, and free play, make room on the schedule for family activities. Even half an hour a day spent in each other’s company can have an enormous impact on a child’s development. A long, leisurely supper on Sunday evenings, a family stroll around the neighborhood, playing a board game or putting together a puzzle—the accumulation of these minutes and hours will build a bond of intimacy that will in turn help children mature.

Life Skills Are Confidence Boosters

Among their many talents, my 16-year-old twin granddaughters can whip up a dinner in the kitchen; bake peanut butter bars that melt in the mouth; do the laundry; check the oil, water, and tire pressure in a car; and soothe a crying toddler.

This year, enhance that academic schedule by teaching some necessary skills to your children. Mowing the lawn, basic house repairs, the culinary arts, operating a personal bank account, and growing a garden are just some of the confidence boosters that are readily available at home. Competence in such everyday tasks is as important as trigonometry or the rudiments of a sonnet when stepping out into the world.

The Gratitude Jar

Gratitude is so important to happiness and satisfaction in life that it deserves a place all its own on this list. As Cicero wrote, “This one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.”

A friend mentioned the gratitude jar as a simple tool that encourages children to appreciate others and to take away positive experiences from their day. Give each child a jar with a lid, have them write on slips of paper whatever they’re grateful for that day, and add the slips to the jar. On special occasions, like a birthday, or on days when the jar’s owner gets a case of the blues, pulling out and reading some of the slips can provide a wonderful memory and a slice of joy. If you prefer, you can make this a family affair by using a larger jar and having everyone contribute their notes of appreciation.

Academics are important, particularly in our increasingly complicated age, but to grow and blossom as adults, our children need attention and care on all fronts. Nurturing the body and soul, as well as the mind is at the heart of big picture education.

This year, let all of us, parents and grandparents, mentors and guardians, remember that school extends far beyond a classroom and adapt that idea to our calendars.