Serious S and Socialization (the school type, not the medicine type)

Another memory from Winter Camp: The Webelos leader thinks he is a funny guy.  He likes to pick a few kids out of the crowd and tease them, probably to show affection.  Unfortunately he picked S.  And my S can be a serious guy, especially when it comes to lighthearted teasing.  All weekend the leader asked S what his name was and if he was sure.  This, of course, came in handy after S's accident, but was purely annoying up until then.  To the point where S was seriously irritated and getting angry.

S with his sledding injuries (black eye developing)

So for last night's pack meeting I helped S prepare.  I told him to answer the Webelos leader's question with the leader's own name.  I taught him how to respond in a James Bond manner (you know, like Bond, James Bond).  When S told me he wasn't going to do it, I offered to pay him a dollar- but only if he did it in front of me and I could hear.

I told some other leaders what S was going to do and they offered to add money to what I already offered to pay S.  Hmmm... sounds like other people are irritated by this guy's teasing too!  But I didn't want S to think he could get paid by everyone every time he did something...smarmy.

So when I went to the front table with kids in tow to organize the Tiger awards, Webelos leader was there.  The first thing out of his mouth was, "Hey! What's your name?"  S responded in a calm and cool manner, "B***, J** B***."  The leader, who was all set to say, "Are you sure?" sat there with his mouth open for a second.  He dumbly repeated his own name.  And then he started to smile.  When he saw me pull a dollar out of my pocket and hand it to S with a big flourish, he knew the joke was on him.  And he laughed.  It was all in good fun.  The leader isn't a bad guy, just a little rough around the edges.  He did, after all, carry bleeding, sobbing S up the sledding trail to me after the tree incident.

One might think that my kids are too serious because they are homeschooled.  I assure you, they are not serious all the time.  But they do have their moments when they look like they are suspicious of whomever is talking to them.  I know they are just thinking of what they are going to say next, but they do look too serious when they do this.  I don't think it is a homeschooling thing.  I think they were just born this way.  They do have two sisters (hi girls!) who went through public school that take things very seriously themselves.  It took years of humor from M-who is very serious himself-plus a year of a funny school teacher to help A stop being so serious when she was younger.  Homeschooling just means I can catch the teasing issues faster and help them deal with it right away than if the teasing went on and on until the kid cracked and started fights or developed anxiety.  Education and socialization shouldn't be mixed.  They are both too important to have one affected by the other.

That's enough homeschool talk for now!