Friends galore

It never ceases to amaze me how many people bring up the issue of socialisation when the topic of homeschooling comes to the fore. In our homeschooling experience socialisation might rank as one of the top-5 things not to be concerned about! It helps a lot that we have 4 children and that I am not homeschooling an individual child – our litte clan is a mini-school of its own. Our 4 children love each others company and can entertain themselves for long stretches of time! Ofcourse they have their squabbles and need adult intervention at times, just like other children all over the world. Learning to solve conflict with respect and good, clear communication is something we are consistently working on. We’re learning 24/7!

Nothing could have prepared me for the wonderful, relaxing afternoon I had yesterday when we got together with other homeschooling families at a home in our neighbourhood. We walked through this lovely big South African home onto a small, intimate little back verandah overlooking the back garden where the central feature was a welcoming swimming pool. Crocheted chair and cushion covers and soft cushions on benches surrounded a coffee table on the verandah – the perfect chill-out zone for the moms (and one dad!) who were there. From the minute the children arrived, the older girls began to organise games for the children to play. Everyone took part and one game flowed into another for at least an hour and half. There was no fighting, no rough play, no one excluded …… only huge doses of fun and energy as the children ran around and around and around! And I was able to relax and enjoy some adult conversation and get to know some people who were new to me. It was fantastic!

This was not a miss-match of children from big and medium-sized families who didn’t know what to do with themselves, or children who were socially incapable of interaction with others. Here was a group of children between the ages of 14 and 2 who weren’t gravitating into groups according to language, age or gender. They were all able to interact together in a fun, orderly and meaningful way regardless of their difference – something that has become something of a trademark to me of homeschooled children. Its wonderful to see children who can entertain themselves, older children facilitating activities for the younger children as they so naturally display and exercise their leadership abilities. What an inspiration to my own children! And boy did it make me miss the Lange children all over again!

I wish that some of my friends and family could have been flies on the wall yesterday, just to see for themselves what I was so fortunate to experience again. People have often asked my children to if they’ve made friends and who their friends are. Ethan’s response is one I’ll always remember: ‘Sofia and Kiara, The Langes, The Foleys, The Dendles, Colin and Jane, Lisa and Baby Levi,Yvonne, Maria, Nikolas, Joseph, Tony, Naomi, Rebekah and Ben ….. the list would go on. Thankfully most people were impressed with the long list of friends he had and never enquired about their ages or they would have found that they ranged from one to 65 years old and included Ben the dog! My experience has been that homeschooled children are not restricted by age, gender, race or ability and have socialisation skills beyond their years. And because of that we had a really wonderful time together with our new friends yesterday!