I'm back!

I'm sure no one even reads this anymore.. if they ever did LOL But I'm back. This year has been crazy and I haven't been doing any blogging and not any official homeschooling.. or at leat not as most would see it. We unschool all. the. time. I was just looking back and Tristan sure has grown the last year! I can't believe I have a 4 yr old! We're starting the curriculum over since we slacked off on it and I think Tristan has more patience for it now and will learn things quicker. Griffin will of course be playing along with us but I don't expect him to pick things up quite as quickly. Griffin still hardly talks but that's alright by me. He has some words and understands everything and will talk in time.

Well that's all for now.. but I'm back and we're schooling even more than ever!

Socialization troubles

I've never met a homeschooler who hasn't been asked "Well how do you socialize them if they're stuck at home all day?!" Trust me.. I asked similar questions myself while doing my research. Although I knew that they didn't just stay home all.day.every.day.

This article sums it right up:

*This article was generously provided by The American Homeschool
Association*

The Truth about Homeschooling and Socialization
by Lucinda H Kennaley

It's time for homeschoolers to tell the truth about "socialization. " It is a problem! The phone never stops ringing, the teenager's email has crashed the computer, and the front yard is patches of dandelions and dirt because there are always kids out there socializing! It's not uncommon for a home school parent to put
thousands of miles on her van hauling kids to sporting events, study groups, parties and overnights. In home school, a child's circle of friends will divide, multiply, expand and grow such that the overflow of socialization can be a worry.

The experience of a homeschooled child doing lessons is not at all like the solitude of an otherwise-schooled child completing homework alone at night. In homeschool, there are co-ops for everything from science, math and environmental studies to physical education and art. There are baseball get togethers, chess clubs, field trips, study groups and reading clubs. Homeschoolers participate in dance, music, gymnastics, scouts and 4-H with school kids, as well as plays, horseback riding, reading groups, library programs, college classes, debates and more with otherwise-schooled kids and always- schooled others. Since most of these activities involve other people, parents are hard pressed to control the socializing that naturally occurs.

In a home school there is "talking with your neighbor." There is time to engage in independent exploration, investigation and invention. There are kitchen explosions, creatures to feed and lab materials to clean. Multi-age peer groups share knowledge that results in unplanned learning. Information gleaned from social interactions can force a home school teacher to scramble for challenging new books. This leads to the library where there are - more people!

Babies freely demonstrate biological facts of life and stimulate off-the-subject discussions; elderly neighbors disrupt class with true stories about the Depression; and 6 year olds need help harvesting sunflowers from the backyard garden in homeschool. There are distractions like fixing a backed up toilet and building a barn for next year's science project: activities that usually require interaction with plumbers, carpenters and volunteer friends and neighbors.

Homeschool "jocks" play sports year round; "prissy" girls giggle into the night; "loadies" conduct regular census of the refrigerator' s contents; and "intellectuals" disappear into books even when the schoolwork is done. Peer pressure in home school assures that kids read, complete reports and field work, memorize lines for the homeschool play and perfect that violin crescendo. Together, students will read ahead in history and finish that math book early, finishing this year's school term with next year's curriculum. Imagine!

The truth is that the abundance of socialization does present a challenge to homeschool families. However, since most parents think it's good for their children to have friends of all ages, shapes, interests and customs, socialization is a problem homeschoolers learn to cope with cheerfully.

It's ROUGH having a homeschooled highly social child! Darn playgroups, libraries, grocery stores, co-ops, neighbors, and PEOPLE in general! What were thinking?! Oh right.. that's called being human and leaving your house! We all are socialized in the places we go.. school or not ;)

Now I know my ABC's

next time won't you sing with me?

Ok not quite but Tristan is starting to sing his ABC's with me and only skips the hard part and laughs during LMNOP. I don't blame him it's a mouthful LOL But he's getting the rest of it and will be singing it solo soon enough! He wants me to help him write his name, Griffin's name and mommy and daddy too. Time to really start working on letter recognition with him.

He's all about songs right now too. He loves I'm a little teapot and does the actions and he picked up the main verse of Twinkle Twinkle little star after mommy singing it just once. Not bad!

Griffin is doing great walking. I'm counting him as a walker even though he still crawls quite a bit but he does just as much (wobbly) walking too. My baby's growing up!