Reason 173 to home school

We went to the carnival last night, the school carnival.
I was watching the 6th grade girls. They hoovered near the doorway together, looking pouty and very, very serious. When a girlfriend would come in, they would hug, but not in a "i mean it" way, you know the adolescent awkward girlfriend hug? Yeah. Then they would huddle together again, looking very pouty and very, very serious, discussing the idiot girls and boys around them. And laughing at all the right times...i.e. THAT boy was within hearing shot. Oh, My, God- the games we play even back then! I remember that! Not the hugging and whatever, i was way more of a loaner when I was young, but I remember the feelings that came with it. I hated being in such a gross situation- all these kids around me and I could either copy and fit in (or hope to) or not and hang mostly by myself. Gross.

Then we were eating. A group of boys and girls came piling into the table ahead of us, acting like a bunch of crazies. Again, watching the boys, I was thinking "This is ridiculous! I HAVE to homeschool before CJ gets to be..." and BAM- I recognized one of the kids. And then another, and omg, they are his class. It's his class!!!!! BARF! They are already ridiculous. The 5th graders were "chasing" the 4th graders and calling them names and made someone cry and OH MY GOD, THE DRAMA!!! CJ came in, tried to get one of his friends to sit with him, but he too was being "hunted" and had to run. CJ sat with mom and I and ate before taking off again. At least he'll still be seen with me (today). Barf. Homeschooling, here I come.

I know the carnival is fun, and I know I'm WAY more anal than probably everyone- my nephew has his own phone and ipod at 10 years old- but I just don't think it's fair to make kids cope under those circumstances. I know that some kids probably LOVE that and thrive- mine are doing okay. Josh is not overly social anyway- he'd rather play alone and make something than have to deal with other people's input or naughty behavior, and CJ says he'd miss his friends but not enough to make him not want to do home learning. So it's official. I'm going to buy the curriculum and we're really going to give it a go this summer and IF we survive it (which we'll have to when we're RV'ing anyway---but that's without other daycare children around), then off we'll go, at least with CJ.

Do you know what else I'm not good at (oh, there's a list like you wouldn't believe)? Keeping my feelings to myself when a child that I am not related to wipes the most yellow, slimy, goobery booger on my leg to get it off of his hand. I'm sure it wasn't good for him to hear me exclaim "GROSSS!" in horror as a ran for a tissue and then sanitized us both, but seriously GROSSSSSSS!!!! It's weird how I can handle anything better when it comes out of someone I've given birth to, or someone in my family has.

BOOGER.