I totally 100% agree with Kate on this one. I won't go on and on about it, but I've done a lot of reading about this. When my daughter was 1 I did start taking her to gymbaroo and other structured activities, but this was mainly for me as well as it was social with the other mums. She is now 3 and has not been in any 'structured' environment and I watch her in awe as she plays independently, makes her own fun and has amazing concentration. When she does her craft at playgroup I watch the other Mums help their kids and say, 'this is how you do it'. Even then I leave my daughter to make her own creation with the craft that is there, and don't expect her to conform even now (maybe it's the artist in me!). With DS, I haven't done any activities with him yet. Because of all the 3 year old toys we have around the house he generally works it out, finds his own fun on his own and left to his own devices. Obviously I will build blocks with him and read to him and give him one on one time. I have over the years questioned myself about the whole structured activity thing, mainly because there is so much out there these days for us to take our kids to - sort of like the curriculum is there for 2 year olds now! I don't beat myself up about the fact that my daughter helps me with the supermarket shopping as that is now an activity she enjoys, and if I ask her to put three apples in the trolley she finds them in the supermarket and counts them etc. She understands the concept of money, that we earn it, then spend it and food is more important than having more toys. I also think it teaches them other life skills, such as life isn't always about having fun every single minute of the day (if it was my husband would be surfing all day!, but the reality is, jobs need to be done and that is life - well our life anyway

Left to their own devices, children are very good at organising themselves and a skill I believe is really important. The other morning when I went to my daughters room to get her up for the day she had gotten out all her nappies on her floor and I said, 'what are you doing?'. She said, 'I've made a pattern'. When I looked closely she had 1 pink nappy, then one white nappy, 1 pink nappy, 1 white etc all around her room in a big circle. The next morning she had placed a pair of knickers in between each nappy to extend the pattern! I found this amusing as given the fact that I already think we have too many toys, she still will find games and learning through everyday objects. I don't think there is anything wrong with structured activities - in fact we still do gymbarro and swimming etc, but I don't think you need to think that you aren't doing enough by Austin by not organising his day too much. We spend a lot of time at the park, beach, playground and now that DD is off to Kindy next year, I am beginning to feel really pleased that her first 3.5 years of life was being a free spirit. There's no rush

I am intending on just letting DS do his own thing and haven't even thought about gymbaroo for him yet. I decided long ago that I didn't want to hear the words, 'I'm bored' in our house. I think if kids get used to doing only the fun things all day, then they come to expect that. Again, totally my opinion and others may totally disagree. Maybe it's because I'm a teacher that I think this, but I do think there is plenty of time to be told what to do. And once you're in structured education then it's for a long long time.... stimulation comes in many forms... You do a great job so will no doubt have activities for him without even realising it. Interested in others opinions too so will be following along as the whole 'structured' thing has been quite a topic of discussion around lots of mums I catch up with... I was at the park the other day and another mother asked me what activities I was doing with my son. I quite confidently said, 'nothing'! I mean there he was, out in the fresh air and crawling after a ball and raising his hands in the air with excitement watching the older boys play footy - I would take that sort of activity any day for my son at 1 year old...