Dispelling Untruth

It is a common occurrence that always leaves me smiling inside for my kiddos. And on the flip side of the coin, it leaves me grumbling at the skeptical nay-sayers.

My kiddos were enjoying this sunny, Spring afternoon riding their bikes in a neighborhood not our own. In no time at all, one of them came to me asking if they could play with another kiddo who was hanging out alone in her front yard. All within view of where we were working, we were happy to "ok" the opportunity to make a new friend.

Four girls who'd never previously met, spent a fun afternoon visiting, playing and getting to know each other. Everyone came away happy and smiling.

So why do I grumble? I grumble because one of the more frequent comments heard by the skeptics ... critics even... of homeschooling is {read with your best nasally, whiny voice}, "what about socialization?" If you are one of those, you might want to stop reading now because I'm about to offend you. You've been warned.

That whole "socialization issue" is the biggest bunch of garbage! In my opinion, those who bring up the issue are simply regurgitating mindless nonsense they've heard from uneducated resources. That's right... I just went the long way around the word "ignorance". I always want to respond, "you ought to watch less television." I don't. But I want to!

I watch and listen to my children interacting with others- other children of all ages and other adults- and they are far from socially inept. It's not just my children. We met with a large group of homeschooling moms and kids (Sonlighting moms rock!) at a park in October. There were over 25 kiddos from infants to teenagers and they all were able to make friends and play. In fact, there were far less "age boundaries" among this group of "unsocialized" homeschoolers than observed in other settings. They're not perfect and they need guidance from time to time, but they do remarkably well- often exceedingly so. (Obviously, there are children with disabilities and special needs but surely we don't need to debate that!)

Funny too... there's that whole "Peer Pressure" issue. That issue is a valid issue and can have both negative and positive connotations to it. Most often, the connotation is negative and rightly so. Does it make sense to think that 5 year olds can teach 5 year olds how to properly interact in social situations? Come now! It doesn't take a high IQ to see the error in that thinking.

Children learn how to act and interact in social situations best from those who have already learned those skills themselves. In general, those good lessons will be from those older than themselves. It starts with mom and dad.

So after one of our daughters returned to play after a potty break, I said to my good-man-Charlie-Brown, "Ha! Our children sure need some socialization, don't you think?" and we both enjoyed a hearty laugh!

Socialization... Grab that shovel over there and let's muck out some stalls, shall we? ::wink::