Are your kids socialized?-art co op

Yesterday, the boys, Hannah and I went to a friend's house for our bimonthly art co op. It was so much fun! They made dangley spiders and a VERY cool fall placemat that we left there so that it could be laminated. I loved watching Jayden, instead of making the green border that he was suppose to....taking the q tip, dipping it in the green paint and making a lego man and robot on his placemat...oh Jayden, legos consume your mind at all times :)

Then there was Austen, who flipped his page over, again wrote his name amazinging and then made a great border all the way around his mat...I am amazed over and over at this transformation of my little toddler to preschooler to in the works kindergartner. He loves crafts, loves painting, loves creating and loves experimenting. I just think, if we weren't homeschooling, my boys would not be experiencing all this together and what memories would be lost!

I laugh every time I do one of these co ops as I pray people who feel homeschoolers are "unsocialized" will remove that idiotic, unresearched thought from their mind. I believe they are more socialized, and that is coming from someone who ran the public school race all the way through college.

My boys play with kids of all different ages, older and younger. They are not shy to converse with adults and use respect when doing so. The boys and girls play together, there is no segregation of ages, gender or race. My children go day in and day out working together as a team of siblings. I love that they are not split up ALL day. I feel that this is really helping to solidify their friendships and I pray that it continues. I just love homeschooling. I laugh at myself because I was the one, up until 3 years ago who was very adamant against it....and God not Ben changed my heart...and let me tell you, that was not an easy thing to do. There is a lot of sacrifice involved with homeschooling...one being, you don't get that quiet time during your day when all the kids are at school....but also, I'm not stressed or running around in the morning trying to get kids dressed, homework found, lunches made, breakfast eaten....does that mean that I don't have any form of stress...of course not, but it comes in a completely different form.

Oh, and did I mention that we are apart of 3 co ops, sports, church activities, play groups and go to regular theatrical performances?? Yes, they are socialized, probably "over" and loving it :).

We just are enjoying life more and more...much of that is due in part to my 7 hours of straight sleep received last night, or that I'm finding Moriah to be much more helpful than distracting during our day, or that Austen is just growing up so fast and wanting to learn so much, or that Jayden is in the routine now where he looks forward to our "school" time. I love you so much kids...you bless me!