Socialization up the wahzoo

I always laugh when people express concern about my homeschooled children being well socialized. I mean it's not like school is the only place to meet people. It's just the only place to meet lots of same-aged children who are raised in our self-centered mainstream culture without enough adult supervision.

Out here in the real world we meet people of all kinds and ages. And since we choose where we will meet them, we can pretty much count on having similar interests. Here are the boys at Craft and Swim with friends at the YMCA this afternoon. It's so cool that the YMCA actually has a class specifically for homeschoolers - in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday.

Later this afternoon R and E headed out to play with their school friends. P lives 2 houses away and is eleven. N is also eleven and lives at the end of the cul-de-sac. They all played on the 25 foot mountain of dirt a couple of houses behind us, where a new cul-de-sac is being built. It is a challenge for them to play there without getting caught, but so far only once have they been asked to get down. Man, its a 25 foot mound of dirt - how could they not want to play on that? They have been coming home extremely dirty every evening the last few days.

We are lucky that P and N are really good kids. Eleven year-olds who include a five year-old in their play must be! I have spoken to R about my expectations regarding his behavior now that he is playing with older kids. When I told him they probably use language that is not acceptable in our household, he responded with "yeah, they speak PG-13."

We'll see how E manages in all this. He tries so hard to keep up and the kids really are good with him, but he is only five, and gets frustrated very easily. It sometimes takes a while, but he often ends up coming inside crying. Sometimes it's so hard to be five!