Celebrate your child's love of learning

© Wondertime

Sure, routines are the stuff of life, necessary for maintaining structure and sanity with children, but bending the rules can be wonderfully liberating.

Instead of a wake-up call dictated by schedule, let dawn's first rays draw everyone out for a misty backyard safari.

Let go of the notion that picnics are for lunchtime: Take breakfast or dinner into the great wide open.

Skip the raincoats: The next time it rains, pull out the bathing suits and let the kids get as wet as they want.

Bring the outdoors in: Adorn walls, dressers, and bookcases with flowering tree branches (apple and cherry blossoms smell great).

Read a bedtime story under the starry night sky, flashlight in hand. Simply being outside in pj's is a thrill for kids, more so if you're in pj's too.