We've barely begun to get our feet wet into our 'official' homeschooling journey (Dale will be kindergarten age this fall) and already we have heard more times than I care to count about "socialization".
Now... I could go into all of our views and beliefs on this topic, but not today.
No, today I am simply going to tell you what I observed this afternoon.
Dale and I went to the library to turn in his latest Summer Reading Books. While we were there, a former employee of my mom's (Mimi is the library director) stopped by for a visit. This mid-twenties, friendly lady came in (with her miniature schnauzer - shhh!) to visit with my mom for a few minutes. It was the first time Dale had seen her in a year or two, so he didn't remember her, or even know that she was someone he should recognize. But that didn't slow him down any.
In the course of the conversation, Dale:
- told her all about his favorite racecar (Lightening McQueen)
- asked how old her dog was, and when she (the dog) was born
- said, "You should put my mama's cell phone number in your cell phone and call her sometime and come visit us when we are in Dallas" (meaning when we are at Children's)
- asked what color her recently purchased wedding dress is (Dale hasn't been to many weddings, lol)
- offered for her to come visit Mimi so her dog could play with Mimi's dogs, and even gave a house description and street
My sweet Dale is like this every. where. we. go.
The doctors & nurses at Children's? Talks to them all. (Now the clowns that come by to entertain every couple of days... not such a big fan of them, but then, neither am I!)
On the playground? At our last visit to RMH, two little girls came out to play after Dale and some other kids had been there a while. The other kids didn't seem to notice them, but Dale jumped up from what he was doing and said, "Welcome! Welcome my friends!" Self-appointed playground greeter!
Church? Well, this Sunday Dale shook the hand of every male over the age of 16 and wished them a "Happy Father's Day!". Even told a couple of women to "be sure and tell your husband happy father's day".
Is this prompted by us?
Not usually.
Are we worried about his social skills?
Well ... what do you think?
6 comments:
Sounds like he has his social skills all in order:) I'm not homeschooling at the moment, but you are right that is the first thing anyone says. As a teacher I can truthfully say I have met many kids in school that had trouble "socializing" so I'm not sure why people want to single out homeschooling for this predicament!
As a teacher, the "socialization" problems I notice come from children who do not attend church. Not only does Dale attend church, it seems to me that maybe God has blessed him with the spiritual gift of hospitality! And the whole playground greeter thing is so cute! :-)
There may be things to worry about with homeschooling but socialization is not one of them, no matter what the child's disposition around others.
I love it when children will actually talk to adults and it sounds like Dale is a pro! :)
:) Our Scarlett has become more social since being homeschooled.
Socialization...one of the first words that comes when homeschooling is mentioned. Do not worry! I am sure the boys are going to be just fine socially. I think it is such a shame that people even suggest that they might need extra socialization if they are homeschooled. You learn to interact with people at home, at family gatherings, at the grocery store, at church, etc. There are so many places we go everyday.
Oh well, I get so sensitive about stuff like that! Silly me!
I am on a cafemom discussion group where the topic of education came up. And "socalization" was part of the reason why Christian School was better than homeschooling.
ALL THREE of my kids are social butterflys. They ALL sound like Dale. They ALL yak at *anybody* will listen to them about *anything*
Sweetie tells everyone every detail about our vacation plans, and Bean nods her head in agrement filling in the details that Sweetie had missed, lol!
Nope, I don't think soclicazation will be a problem either. ;-) And the park is the same way. Sometimes the kids that *go* to school don't want to play with my kids, and they come back with little frowns saying that no one wants to play with them. :(
Sweetie got "lost" at my friends big church during handshaking time, because she was shaking hands with *everyone* lol!
Sometimes I think people have a picture in their minds that homeschoolers sit at home all day for eight hours doing seatwork like they do at school, and then go to bed, without any outside life, lol!
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