Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Homeschool Bennies #14

Our kids get real life socialization.

Guess what?  When I want my ten-year-old to observe and imitate appropriate behavior, I do not confine him for seven hours a day away from his family with 30 other monkeys ten-year-olds.  Sheesh.  That should be a no-brainer.  Kids are immature, by definition.  I don't know if it's just boys or this applies to girls to, but it sure seems like when they get in a group their IQ drops instantly by about 10 points!  They just do not reliably make good decisions together.

Just for fun, I did a little math.  If you've got a class of 30 ten-year-olds and a teacher, and let's say the teacher is my age, 45, guess what the average age of the classroom is?  Eleven.  And the average age in our family?  Twenty-six.  Now I know that's not exactly a pure scientific application that will predict behavior... I'm having a little fun here.  But honestly, where do you think the odds are better that your kids will pick up responsible behavior vs. immature behavior?

Spending time with children and adults of a variety of ages tends to produce much better 'fruit' than being in large-groups of same-age peers.  And my kids need all the help they can get ;D

5 comments:

melanie said...

Love the math aspect ~ hee hee!

Choate Family said...

I am loving your series on the "bennies" of homeschooling! And I happen to think that the IQ level drops WAY more than 10 points when a bunch of boys get together ;-)

The Hibbard Family said...

I like that average age idea. Another thing I find neat is the people who WANT to be with my children because of their level of behavior. Older girls like to play with my girls because their maturity level is appropriate, but they are also not caught up in the cliquish attitudes. They are simply friends. That makes me proud.

leah said...

LOL! I once read (in a book called Our Daily Meds) that something like 80% of ten year old boys were on Ritalin in the late '90's in some school districts. The biggest referral source for the ADHD diagnosis? The kids' teachers, who simply couldn't deal with 20 ten year old boys at once. So they doped the kids up. I'll have to pull out that book again and get the statistic. Really, really sad: but I can see why the teachers are overwhelmed. That many 10 year old boys going nuts would probably make any teacher think they all had ADHD!

The dB family said...

Oh, it's with girls too! It just entails a lot more screaming.

Blessings!
Deborah