The Early Years of Education

[Breanna]

Am I alone in feeling that the earliest years (say, ages 4-6) should be primarily play-based and unstructured, based primarily on the manipulation of physical objects rather than pure pen-and-paper desk work?

I welcome discussion and advice, my daughter is years away from this stage, but I have been thinking about it and working on a curriculum plan as I doubt I'll have time to do it when I'm busier in the future. I've been trying to get it all worked out during my first pregnancy and my daughter's early years of life, and I don't want to rely on a premade curriculum as I've looked at them and they're all full of multiracialism in the illustrations, even in the math word problems, and lots of references to stuff like female police officers and the like. So far I am intending to base much of it around things like the Grimm's fairy tales, pagan mythology, runes, medieval legends, and so on. Also those 'Dick and Jane' books from the 1960s.

Are there any homeschooling parents on here? What was the general structure of your child's education for the early years?