What About Socialization?!!

We took the car in to be serviced today at the dealership. After all four kids emerged from the van, the guy looked in and said, "Any more in there?" Apparently four kids is a lot.
We went in and got settled in for the wait with our free popcorn to watch TV in the kids lounge and an old lady poked her head in the room. She said she just wanted to look at my adorable children. (They are adorable, aren't they?!) Anyway we talked to her for a bit and she asked Colin if he was in first grade. He just shrugged his shoulders at her so I told her that we homeschooled. She looked at me very seriously and said, "Oh, I just don't think that is a good idea." It was very funny, but I didn't laugh. Luckily I have read about this happening enough to be prepared. I simply told her that we weren't going at it alone, we have a great co-op that we learn with and she left. There it is - I have had my first encounter with a complete stranger who knows what is better for my children than I do. People are very interesting.
We talked about this experience after scriptures tonight and did some role playing to help the kids know what to say when they are asked what grade they are in. Colin said next time he would say that he was in Core Phase, but he didn't know what to say if asked what that was. I explained a little about leadership education to them and told him that Core Phase was like the core of the Earth with the other phases around it. Then he wanted to know what Love of Learning was using the layers of the Earth analogy. I didn't know so we each went in different directions to find out. I found a Childcraft book about the Earth and Colin can back with two encyclopedias - the E and the W. We looked it up and talked about each phase with the proper layer of the Earth to compare it to.
I love that he knew where to look for the information and actually wanted the answer. His first thought was to Google it, but it was too late at night to get started with that. :)

(Mom and Dad - Thanks for those old books, they are getting some good use now. You guys are the best!)