"She's so good at that!"

We were pleasantly surprised to see that we now have neighbors "next door" in the townhouse adjacent to ours. We are on a corner unit, so we have no one on one end (just windows with undending vista of the ocean!!) and on the other side it's been empty. But yesterday morning we found a nice family there- a mom, dad & 2 little girls (age 3 & 5). It was nice to have some "life" next to us!

Of course, me being the busybody outgoing person that I am, I immediately took the first opportunity to visit with them. Where are you from? What are you doing here? Blah, blah. A few hours later on we all ended up in our backyard on the beach with our sand pails and shovels not far from each other. As I visited away with the "mom" her 2 girls were off a distance away digging and building a sand castle. The "mom" turned to Grace and said, you can go ahead on over there and play with them if you'd like. And, without hesitation, Grace said, "Okay! I will!" And off she ran up to girls, waving, "Hi!! I'm Grace"- she greeted them- and jumped right in there with them and started digging away.

The "Mom" turned to me - eyes big and wide- and exclaimed, "Wow! She's good!! What a sociable girl!"

Now- fastforward about 45 minutes into my conversation with the "mom" I come to find out that she is a public school teacher and much to her surprise, she comes to find out that my "sociable girl" is home schooled.

To those of us who educate our kids at home, we already know the benefits of home school precisely FOR socializing... how much easier it is to socialize them not only just with kids their exact same age- but a wide range of kids AND adults. They are out in the world most of the day, and in most cases they become much more comfortable interacting with a wide age range of people.

Though we've only been home schooling for a year, I have already been confronted with the "S" word (aka "socialization" to home schooling parents) so many times I've just gotten to the point that I don't even try to explain myself anymore when people wonder how on earth my kids will possibly "get socialized" and turn out to be well adjusted adults.

Now, I just let the kids actions speak for themselves. And, 9 times out of 10, they prove that yes- they are good at that.