I got to teach my 4 year old how to stand in line today at Homeschool Park Day.  I never realized that he didn't know how to stand in line until now.  He was off playing with the kids and I was off talking to the Mom's when he came to me crying.  After calming him down he told me "They are not giving me a turn.  I waited and waited to go on the tire swing and no one will let me have a turn!"  I thought this was highly unlikely, because I had seen a bunch of different kids on the swing and I knew they were indeed taking turns.  So I walked over to the tire swing with him.  As soon as we got closer I could see that there was a well formed line waiting for turns on the swing behind a section of the play structure that I couldn't see before.  So I asked my son "Did you stand in line?"  and he looked at me like he hadn't a clue what I was talking about!  LOL  I guess this is a hazard of homeschooling!  There are just some things like standing in line that don't apply to life at home!  I would have thought that this would have been covered at church, but as I think about it I realized that he has learned to line-up in church, but not stand in line.  (In other words he has learned to "Line up it's time to go to music time."  And then off to music time everyone marches!)

So, I took him over and explained to him how to stand in line!  He wasn't wild about the idea of starting from the back!  LOL  It was really hot, so he really didn't like waiting in the hot sun.  Several times he got distracted and wandered off from the line.  (There were about 6 kids in front of him when he got in line.) So I would have to remind him to "stay in line" and "wait his turn!" He was pretty proud of himself when he finally made it to the front of the line and got his turn!

It seems that no many how many lessons I plan out or how many books I buy there are always things that come up that I still need to teach them.  I am usually surprised with the little things that come up over time.  Even though this is a small thing, I am SO GLAD that I am the one that gets to teach them the little things like this.  It was so fun for me to see him accomplish this and see that look of pride he had on his face.  Just another reminder of why I love homeschooling!

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Posted by Anonymous

I took my three year old to the library for story time, where it was populated by several homeschool families. At the end of story time they took the kids outside to run some relays (it was Olympic-themed). The teacher asked the kids to stand in line and a little chaos ensued. One of the mom's remarked "Get a bunch of homeschooled kids and ask them to stand in line, and this is what you get!" We all giggled. (We plan on homeschooling, with a few toe dips this year.)

Alli for crumleyblog.com

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Posted by kaenhu

Ha! See--if you had put him in Little Gym classes, this would not have happened. LOL ;-)

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Posted by Anonymous

My dd learned about lines by waiting to use a public bathroom.

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Posted by http://fourlittlepenguins.blogspot.com

:) My kids learned to stand in line for their turn simply because there are so very many of them! By the time you add in my little nephew, we have enough kids for a small daycare. lol
But isn't it nice that as a homeschooler, you don't have to waste tons of time lining up?

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Posted by redmom

I had a similar experience when I found my oldest (LONG ago) sitting along the fence crying while the other kids in VBS were playing kickball. Turns out I'd never explained to him how to play. Duh!

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