I've talked with several homeschool/charter teachers about this subject. Every single one of them has pointed out that traditional school kids after a certain age stop doing things like playing with dolls with their school friends even though they will still play with them in other situations. They develop a social mask of what is considered "appropriate" behavior for a child of their age and gender in their school. Homeschooled children tend to not develop masks like this among themselves because groups are normally mixed age and more accepting of such things, although might for mixed social groups like scouts. It allows them to keep their childhood longer in my opinion.
Academic fit was our main reason for picking homeschooling, but this factor is also an important one for me. Considering how Wolf works I want him to have the option to BE a child and play like a child for as long as he can/needs to instead of being forced out of it by school social pressures.
