The Real World
We walked to the market today and talked for a long time with the woman who sells maple syrup and happy cow beef. She asked if we homeschool and said she thought so after I answered in the affirmative. I suppose the school aged children out in the midday sun on a Tuesday gave it away. She seemed generally supportive, but did have concerns about homeschooled children being unable to deal with the "real world".
Funny... it seems to me my kids are more exposed to the "real world" than those who sit at a desk, surrounded by 20 other people the same age as them, and needing to ask permission to go to the bathroom (which absolutely blew Astrid's mind when it came up at dinner the other night). Today my daughters came with me to the bank, the market, the health food and grocery stores. They talked to vendors and sales people, handed over money for fresh asparagus and ears of corn. They had a conversation with a neighbour we met about how her home renovations were going. They found a caterpillar in the backyard and put it in a jar filled with leaves and dirt, poked holes in the lid with nails. They helped me plant impatiens, marigolds, tomatoes and zucchini. They helped make soup for dinner and entertained their baby brother while I hung laundry. They worked through the dilemma of each wanting to listen to a different CD at the same time. Which part of this is not the "real world"? How is it any less real than sitting in the same room for most of the day doing whatever the person in charge tells you to do and moving about at the sound of a bell? True, they were not with other children, but they will be tomorrow when they spend an hour and a half with a group of ten or so others who are all within a few years of their ages. And they'll spend the afternoon playing with friends their own ages. Friends they sometimes get along with and other times don't. And they'll work it out again, tomorrow, if it's one of the days they don't.
I am thrilled to have the opportunity to live in the real world with my children. To participate in life with them. To see them discover things, to peek in on the imaginative worlds they create and inhabit, to hear the older reading to the younger. I am ever so grateful to have the chance to try things I would not otherwise try, to find depths of creativity I didn't know I possessed, to learn and discover alongside my children and find enjoyment in things I would never do if they were in school.
Sometimes I worry that my kids won't learn advanced algebra or chemistry if left up to me, but I do not ever worry that they will be unable to deal with the real world.

