What is Age?

Well, I've now been to more book signings than movies this year. I look at this as yet one more feather in my cap towards Ultimate Dorkdom. My husband brought me a glass of water last night while I was lying in bed, and he was at a loss as to where to set it down because of the 17 books (and he counted them) on my nightstand that I am currently reading. I love books!

My brief interchange with a quasi-celebrity went like this: my 12 year-old son and I stood in the bookstore line with a copy of Dave Barry's, I'll Mature When I'm Dead. When we got up to Dave, he asked for whom he was signing the book. To which I told him that it was for Mike, my husband. So he wrote in the book, "Mike, Do NOT grow up - Dave Barry." And I said to him, "That's perfect, I'm married to a child." To which he turned to my son who was holding up his cellphone to take a picture and said, "So who is this?" And I said, "That's the child's child. He's the only one that can work the cellphone camera." We all had a good chuckle out of that, then we sat down to listen to Dave tell us excerpts from his book. It was a pretty packed house, and Dave was very funny. My son was CRACKING UP. Until this point, Patrick was pretty much along for the ride, hoping that I would buy him something later. People sitting in front of us were actually turning around to see my son laughing so loudly. I looked around the room, and Patrick appeared to be the youngest person there -- by a lot. This observation got me thinking about why that might be. If you have been following this blog, you know that my kids partake in their fair share of kid-specific activities: everything from scouts to camp to their homeschool band. But my kids are equally comfortable around a variety of age brackets, and I think this is yet another wonderful aspect of homeschooling.

Starting with homeschool park days, kids all play together with a variety of ages -- there are toddlers all the way through teenagers. I remember one of my first impressions of homeschooled kids is how sweet they were with all the other kids at park days and not cliquey at all. Homeschooled  kids get used to welcoming new families into their group all the time so they are not standoffish with newcomers like some schooled children are. These park days are often pretty unstructured so the kids become resourceful at starting and making up new games to play, unlike P.E. classes at school where the activities are directed. Even when they go to their homeschool enrichment program, they have many multi-age classes. Right now, my kids are knee-deep in group-work building a medieval castle, a cardboard boat that they will be sinking sailing in next week, a balloon orchestra for the talent show, a reader's theater, chorus, and band performance, and that's all just this week! Sometimes they are the youngest in a group, and sometimes they are the oldest, but isn't this how it is in the real world? Don't we work with people that are all different ages? We must get along with all of them. We are not segregated by our chronological age. I'm always puzzled when I'm filling out something for one of my kids that asks what "grade" they are in. My 10 year-old is technically in 4th grade, but she looks 14 years old, acts out imaginative games like an 8 year-old, enjoys going up for children's story-time at church with the 6 year-olds, works out of an 8th grade math book, and knows her Greek mythology like a 54 year-old college professor. So what grade is she in? Here's where it just doesn't matter in homeschooling -- you can be in whatever grade you want. So on top of getting along with all different age kids, my kids also seem to really like adults -- or atleast their parents. I don't know if this is because we spend so much time together with them day in and day out, or if it's just because we are way-cool (I'm sure that's it.) However, I certainly never wanted to hang out with my parents when I was a kid, and I have to think that there is a closeness that develops between the parent and the child when the parent is also the teacher. I wouldn't trade these years for anything!