Seeing other unschooling kids couldn't be coming at a better time either. Everyone that doesn't homeschool is always worried that kids that do homeschool won't get "socialized" somehow. Isn't that funny how those that don't worry about those that do? And that pertains to a lot of things in life, not just schooling. Anyway, the last month the kids have been playing with a lot of kids, a lot more than they're used to. At Lake McConaughy Jonas had an encounter with a little boy that wouldn't stop calling him a girl, yet Jake was friends with this kid. The last night there he(Jonas) met a friend and teared up when I told him we were leaving the next day. He said he made plpans to meet his friend the next night. By the next morning Jonas had forgot all about it and we happily moved on. Whew. Now we're here in small town Nebraska where everybody and their dog knows eachother. Girls quickly gather around the boys at the pool and they make fast friends with a pair of sisters. I notice right off the bat a gang of tween boys that can't do anything for themselves without their leader telling them how to do it. I'm happy the boys found nice girls to play with. The lifeguards have also fallen in love with the boys by now. They tell them they want to be their girlfriends and date them. Now the other boys are starting to take notice and try to befriend Jacob. They include him in their stupid game of chicken and immediatley Jake doesn't like their rules, and won't play their way. He won't flip off the diving board and these boys are trying to make him. He calls them freaks and jumps off. The next time they're all at the pool together Jake makes friend with a different boy and this gang comes and tells the boy not to be friends with Jake, and by the way Jake, tell your mom short hair is in so you need a haircut. Jake stands up for himself and heads to the boards, where ELEVEN boys now proceed to throw balls at him while he's twelve feet in the air. His lifeguard girlfriends kick all eleven hometown boys out of the pool for the rest of the summer!
How's that for socialization? I felt horrible I wasn't there to protect him, but so thankful the lifeguards were watching out for them. It was sad to think that if my kids were in school with those boys, they could have turned out the same way. They can have their competition, greed, narcissism, and feeling of entitlement, we'll keep our peace, love, respect, compassion and empathy, and we'll be gone by next week.
5 comments:
kids are crule..there is a girl across the street from us that started a fist fight with Geneva but lost because Geneva is fisty and hit her back, all over the little girl jealous Geneva and her friend were palying with another girl. Come to find out the family is the trouble makers on the block...go figure. Hurray for Jake and standing up for himself. So is it Iowa you are heading to. sure go there after we leave. punk! lol
amy
Sounds like your (gorgeous, don't let anyone cut that hair...) kids have a wonderful, confident sense of self, which is the whole idea, I think.
Your guys will definitely be the trend setting cool ones when they're there long enough. 11 boys thrown out of the pool for the summer. Nice!!
Our main socialization problem is when my oldest becomes too attached to the neighborhood school kids and start picking up their schooly social rules. If only we were surrounded by unschoolers. That's great you'll get to be with a bunch of fun people in Iowa. I hope you're coming to NC next month for the live and learn conference.. ?? Guess it's kind of far for you.
Right On! I often tell people that even if I had no other reason to keep my kids out of public schools, the "socialization" that happens there is reason enough! I'd rather my kids actually learn to be social. Just had to delurk and let you know. Oh, and by the way, my girls are constantly being called boys because their hair is short!
We homeschooled only for one year and although we have no problems w/ the schools in our area (our kid actually thrives w/ academic competition as opposed to me that dreaded it) I do worry about the social aspect of it because kids can be really cruel.
Just today I saw the interaction of a few...how aggressive and mean they were pushing eachother out of the way (at a water park) while my daughter and her cousin seemed more meek and submissive by giving their spots away and simply moving on to another spout so I do worry about how she will be treated once she returns.
It always makes me laugh when people worry about socialization while linked to homeschooling...how can they consider the aggressive social structure of any school's playground or the unrealistic peer interaction (all the same age) of the classroom settings to be superior is beyond me.
Angela C.
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