What I love about Middle School is that the teachers usually specialise in their subjects and can share that excitement, and that the students are (finally) being encouraged to think abstractly! Socially it was a larger group at the public school, and DS found some really good and interesting kids to hang out with.
I would want this for DS, but honestly, I worry that social issues would outweigh the benefit of this. I do tend to overworry alot about my DS, although, I keep it mostly in my head so as not to project on to him.
among other interesting happenings in our old neighbourhood, four (very nice, really) little boys on our former street were fond of staging mock executions (blindfolds, kneeling, toy guns to backs of heads) on the boulevard out in front of our house. Their mothers thought this was cute and funny; I did not.
Yep, these types of things happen here, as well. Relocating is not an option for us, though. I don't mind 'gunplay' so much when it's reminiscent of cops and robbers or army or whatever - but the re-enactments of what's seen in movies/TV/videos that I most definitely don't let my DS watch is over the (my) line, imo. You know, the kids all get together and play with the dart guns and it doesn't have that vicious, raw violence feel to it - to me anyway. There is just so much violence and mean-ness out there and it's affecting the children at younger and younger ages.
they don't watch TV (the odd DVD is OK--maybe one every couple of weeks in the winter), they use the computer hardly at all (Google Earth, Dancemat typing, Word Perfect), nobody has any video games or iPod thingys (I don't even have a cell phone!)....
Uhh, we use all these things. But seriously, our belief is everything in moderation. And we make it a point to be involved and know what's going on. Not so much the helicopter syndrome, but for example, we check on DS at the playground across the street, just to see that everything is going along OK, or to recognize if there's a situation in which my DS is behaving in a manner that's inconsistent with our values or what we've tried to instill in him. We check to make sure he's safe, but also that he's behaving as he should.
I believe that social skills and how to treat people are not skills with which teaching ends at 3 years old. There are always new social situations that present and require knowledge of how to handle them, and we try to provide that for DS.
Keep in mind that if the child you are concerned about is your oldest or only, that could be a factor in your perceptions of the situation. I have three and I can promise you that my youngest has grown up and "lost his innocence" way earlier than my oldest ever did. Older brothers chip away ALOT at that innocence! There's nothing the older kids in school can tell him that his brothers already haven't.
Oh, most definitely. And I don't expect that he won't find out or be exposed to these things just as we all were at one time or another. And I'm also not naive enough to think that he doesn't/hasn't share(d) info he's acquired, even if we've told him it's not his place to do so. But we do try to preserve the childhood and not concern him with things that he has no need for at the various ages, kwim? And it seems so upsetting to him sometimes (depending on the info he's learned), I think because he knows that it's probably not age appropriate, however, now he knows it. Does that make sense? I guess it's like knowing something and then wishing you really didn't...
My younger child has all the smart mouth my almost 9 year old has though and is definitely more "worldly" than he was as a young 5, just by virtue of being a 2nd child. So I totally agree with CFK! I guess it's not so much about "safety" for us, as it is about them just being safe and comfortable in their own skin.
LOL, DS is an only, so we don't have quite the same thing. However, there are times that things come out of his mouth and I can usually figure out where/from whom he heard it. It's not all bad and we just use those times as teaching opportunities. Then, there are the times that I'm shocked and think I'm never letting him leave the house again because I just can't believe that things like (whatever it might have been) are out there...instead, we try to learn from those too. <sigh>
