Mud season in West Virginia is well underway. After being cooped up all winter, due to the cold and bad weather, all of us ought to be ready for spring! Sunset is later and later every day, giving us more hours of daylight for outdoor activities. I've always thought that the first day of spring ought to be New Year's Day. Spring is a new beginning.

Since the girls are rarely in need of much help with their projects, I am going to do more with their little brother this spring. He is three years old and has an active imagination. Today, he wasn't Brad. He said he was Pig. That's all he'd answer to today. His speech (like his father's before him at that age) is not clear and his sentences are rarely more than two words long. He is left handed, like his grandfather, and has been remarkably left handed since he was born.

What do you teach a three year old? Everything you can! Brad wanted to wash dishes today, so my daughter in law gave him a couple of unbreakable things to wash. He played in that warm, soapy dishwater for half an hour, piling up bubbles and scrubbing things. When I asked him what he thought about the water, his reply was "warm." I asked him what else he liked about it. "Bubbles," he said. "Clean." "Wash." He speaks in words, mostly, rather than sentences.

Brad and I will plant our vegetable garden. He loves to work. "Work" was one of the first words he said. Is this "pre-school?" It sure is! By the end of the summer, I expect he'll know what plants are good to eat and which ones are weeds. He already has picked beans and tomatoes, so he already knows some of the good things. This is a child who will eat anything. Imagine how much fun it will be for him to be able to tell someone "I grew this." Life skills like gardening and washing dishes are as important as learning the alphabet and arithmetic.

When a parent or grandparent tells me, "I wouldn't know how to homeschool," they must have forgotten what they did when their children were babies and toddlers. What is "parenting" if it isn't homeschooling? Children love to learn. They ask questions, bring you books to read to them, and try to do what they see others doing. Education begins at birth; it doesn't wait for "school days." If you are thinking of homeschooling your young child, you have already started the process.

Enjoy the spring sunshine!