Socialization ...

The girls and I had a really good talk today about homeschooling. They were telling me today that sometimes when they tell someone for the first time that they are home schooled they usually get a response that is puzzling to them. They hear things like "Really, that's too bad that you never get to play with anyone" or "Wow! You never get to go anywhere" or the most common reaction that I get all the time is "Aren't you worried about socialization?".

We'll that's why I refer to the fishes. Many people don't realize that "regular" school is an artificial environment. You are only around kids your same age, from usually your same economic circles and mostly the same ethnicity. Once you finish high school, life isn't like that. College and work environments are very diverse. What my girls are learning is how to relate well to each other, other kids of various ages and ethnicities. The girls run my errands with me, they know how to do grocery shopping, make a bank deposit and other real life stuff. The girls get to see how my husband does his job (he works out of our home) and how I run my clothing design business. We take several extracurricular classes outside our home, and we do spur of the moment field trips every week. We have our "official" educational field trips that we do with a several different large group of home schoolers and we've even managed to find quite a few friends to hang out with in our own neighborhood.

I have nothing against teachers or traditional schools, it's just that I don't think most people understand what really goes on in a home schooling home, well at least mine. I hope this little post of mine will get you thinking about the labels we put on people and how it makes them feel.

For now, I think the girls get it. Natalie said "Oh, next time someone feels sorry for me because I'm home schooled, I'll tell them that they shouldn't feel sorry for me because actually they go to school in the fish bowl and I go to the school in the ocean".