thoughts on education

Of late, i've been reading a plethora of books on education, from homeschooling, to child psychology,to various kinds of pre-school syllabi just to get a sense of what might suit the little one (and me). I'm torn really, part of me wants to keep her home till it becomes compulsory to send her to formal education (I'm not sure i want her to memorise lists of spelling or doing homework when she should really be playing), but the other part wonders if she'll miss out on social interaction, building resilience, learning how to share and stand up to bullies and such.Homeschooling her in the initial pre-school years sounds wonderful, after all, who'd give undivided attention to her and cater to her learning style specifically and her interests? That too is a double-edged sword. Precisely because she can get such individualised education, it'll be a huge adjustment once she gets herded into primary school and has to learn passivity.That is just the thing, i hate for her to be taught in a passive manner, to learn about trees and birds by looking at pictures, to learn to count by counting drawn apples, to memorise words in a list.
right now, she learns about the world through touching, exploring,smelling, tasting and the absolute wonder and joy in her face when she learns is something i wish i could bottle forever. Recently, because she was being fretful and a real pain at home, hubby and i took her downstairs to look at the flora and fauna (what little of it). We stuck sticky tape on her little wrists (sticky side up) and proceeded to find petals, leaves and such to "collect" on her "sticky wrist-board". Not only did she learn about colours, shapes, texture, names of plants, she also learnt the word "sticky" and "tape" and what sticks and what does not. Of course, subsequently, she wanted to wear her sticky wrist tapes every day to stick all sorts of things on! now tell me that isn't education! combining botany, language, physical fitness, science!