 Oh no! I forgot to socialise the kids! That's right - I remembered. All good. But seriously, how do you properly socialise someone? Do you know the difference between socialising and socialisation? Do we really get that in school? Just some thoughts for today. Do you ever worry about socialising your kids? Come join the conversation on our most popular blog post on socialisation vs socialising! Huge discounts on homeschool summit tickets this week only!
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 When big kids are happy teaching little kids all on their own *gives self big pats on the back* When we first started considering home education, our story was very similar to one you will hear from most people - a lot of discouragement and 'why would you want to do that?' "how will you cope?" "all day every day with your kids? that is CRAZY!". So I took my time making a decision. I spoke to my husband in a million theoretical conversations that never seemed to go anywhere. We had no reference point for what I was dreaming of doing. Nobody else that homeschooled had anything good to say about it (I have since learned that they were schooling at home through distance education - not my favourite kind of home education... and not theirs either). But I knew in my heart that there was something there that we weren't seeing yet. So I took a lone trip to a local homeschool group and almost fell over with shock and excitement to see one very tall 15 year old boy running around with children of all different ages. Could this be something that happened in the 21st century? weren't all teenagers too cool nowadays to play with little children? No. No they are not!  My mind was set from that day, and that one beautiful experience of smashing down pre-conceptions that teenagers are some kind of alien species who have no interest in younger children. From that day I learned that older children intrinsically want to teach younger children. They might not have the patience of parents yet (some parents - sometimes!) but when I snapped this photo of our 14 year old with his 16 year old unschooled friend, teaching our 4 year old daughter, I had one of those yes homeschooling is absolutely the right thing for us feelings, and gave myself a little pat on the back for taking this road.  When I had my very first homeschool/ unschool website a long time ago, a very experienced professional web designer created this brilliant web design for me. It featured a mother, father, and 2 children, all in a school-like environment reading books. I couldn't go with it. I tried to explain to him that well-dressed (ironed clothes, Dad in a suit and Mum in a lovely pressed blouse) didn't speak to me, or our blog readers at the time (over 3000 most weeks, back then)... Yes there are books, and documentaries, and some days I have enough energy to get up and do my morning beach walk, brush my hair and put on a nice top (ok, so maybe not all of those things on the same day, but some days I get self-care in and look half presentable). But our children don't sit around in uniform-like clothing, at desks, reading and writing with a straight back and feet firmly on the floor (most days, unless they want to...). Home educating is so much more than that! He said "but if you put pictures of beaches and things, nobody will know what that is about! That doesn't look like homeschool to me!". Ah my friend, but it does... |
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