Where the Homeschooler Socializes the Socialized

I fell in a vat of chocolate.
I fell in a vat of chocolate.
What’d you do when you fell into the chocolate?
Laly do dum, laly do dum day.

Months of planning came to fruition last weekend when our Boy Scout Troop took our Webelos I & II’s from our Cub Scout Pack camping at Camp Bromelsik in Lawrence, Kansas. The camping trip was designed to help the cubs complete some requirements for their Arrow of Light award, give them an idea of what camping will be like when they cross over to the troop, and act as a recruiting tool. When the Webelos return to school and tell their friends that they learned how to throw a tomahawk last weekend, other kids might become interested.

I yelled fire when I fell into the chocolate.
I yelled fire when I fell into the chocolate.
Why’d you yell fire when you fell into the chocolate?
Laly do dum, laly do dum day.

Our troop has 4 homeschooled scouts. Our Cub Scout pack has two homeschooled scouts. One of them is Major Havoc. That means that scouting is one of those critical opportunities for the homeschooled boys to be socialized by their public and private schooled peers. This is where they will learn to give and receive wedgies, snap towels, swear, spit, and make inappropriate comments about girls. Homeschooling critics often fret about homeschooled children missing these opportunities, you know.

During the drive to the campsite, Major Havoc requested that I play my Smothers Brothers CD. Specifically, he wanted to hear Chocolate, a perfectly silly, clean, song about a man falling into a vat of chocolate. Two lines into the song and the van became silent. My camping hardened boy scouts were leaning towards the van speakers, straining to hear Tom Smothers explain why he yelled “FIRE!” when he fell into the chocolate. When they heard the answer, laughter erupted. Hours later, I knew that I had successfully warped another generation of children when I walked past a campsite deep in the woods and heard scouts singing I yelled fire because no one would save me if I yelled CHOCOLATE! I can cross off another entry on my bucket list.

It appears that the homeschooler socialized his fellow scouts instead of the other way around. Now, I don’t agree with the commonly accepted definition of socialization as it is used in discussions of homeschooling; but, in that context, the social misfit of the group - an 8-year-old, homeschooled, Christian boy - entertained his peers with a song that contained no swearing, no derogatory comments of any kind, without sexual references or suggestions of violence.

They enjoyed The Saga of John Henry, too.

Let’s hear it for the homeschooler!