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“It will wash. That’s why God invented bleach!” I find myself saying that to the parents of my preschoolers more and more and to myself more and more.

Kids get dirty. You can stop it. Don’t try. If it’s dirty, oily or sticky, your child will sit on it, rub up against it or roll in it.

In recent months I have had the opportunity to see some fantastic speakers through the generous support and sponsorship of Head Start, ESU #9, the Brain Team, Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, and numerous other organizations in our community.

I am not going to go into detail about their backgrounds or their books. I am going to give you that golden kernel of information I felt was so strong in both their talks:

Parents feel like their children need to “book smart” to be ready for school. What they fail to see is that playing and sensory experiences is how children get ready for school.

Children need to play with messy paint and dig in dirt and have Elmer’s glue dried to their fingers and so much more before they are ready for kindergarten!

On our last field trip, my preschoolers and I went to Prairie Loft Center here in Hastings, where Amy Sandeen guided us around the farm buildings, the community garden and last, but not least, through the woods. Can you guess what they liked the best?

I don’t know how many flowers and leaves and weeds and sticks and pinecones I was asked to carry. We even found a deer bone! This is what early learning should be about!!

The kids were so excited and Amy did a terrific job. They were motivated to ask questions and understand the answers.

These are the experiences that help our kids succeed in school. They can see the tree trunk is lying on the ground and doesn’t have any leaves. Why do the trees standing up have leaves? Why is this pinecone open and that one all closed up?

If we hadn’t been walking in that stand of trees, those questions and many others would not have been asked.

Children learn by seeing and feeling and doing. The more experiences they have, the deeper the information goes into their little brains and locks itself in!

With summer coming, we have unlimited opportunities to get outside with our kids or take them to the museum or to the lake and get them excited to learn.

My husband often tells me that when he was growing up, he and his brother wore white t-shirts and jeans every day in the summer because his Mother could bleach the shirts and everything washed out of the jeans.

My Mother dressed my brother and I in “play clothes” during the summer months so she wouldn’t have to worry about inevitable stains and rips.

Our parents understood how much we loved to play and they made it easy for us. I can’t remember how many times I heard, “Just be home in time for supper!”

They weren’t thinking about brain development or sensory experience. They knew scooping goo out of pumpkins, mud pies and dandelion bouquets was important to us and they encouraged us to have fun.

I think about that when I am doing my children’s summer laundry, replete with grass and mud stains. “Can’t they stay clean for once?” The answer is no.

Kids today are being turned into little adults much too soon. Their parents mean well. They plunk them down and start working on letters and numbers and writing their names.

Try this instead. Go for a walk and find a flower. “What sound does flower start with? Ffffff” That’s the sound an F makes!”

Give them old measuring cups and spoons for the sand box or baby pool. They can pretend to cook and learn that an entire bucket of water will not fit in a teaspoon!

Let them help you plant a vegetable garden. They can see the fruits of their labor in a few short days and in a month they can eat them!!

And if they get a little dirty digging in that mud and helping you tend to things, it’s okay. “It will wash. That’s why God invented bleach!”

About the author: Denise Howie

Denise Howie is a wife, mother and preschool teacher. She spent her formative years in Minnesota and Iowa, graduating from Iowa State University. After working in the publishing industry for 6 years she became a stay-at-home mom who rarely stayed home! Denise moved to Hastings in 2006 with her husband and three children and dove head first into life in Nebraska.