Socialisers R Us

Another totally lovely day!  DS2 & 3 were on the computer early on, and DS2 also drew a beautiful little hedgehog to go with his story from yesterday :)  DS1 spent all morning tidying his room, and leanred a valuable lesson in the process - he could have done it in 20 minutes but he procrastinated and ended up still doing it when his brothers had finished their Readng Eggs and drawing, and were playing in the garden.
This afternoon, it was off to Fairlands Valley Park in Stevenage... they have a lovely aqua park there which is advertised on their website as being open every day from May to September, but unfortunately when we got there the aqua playground was closed :(  Apparently the website information is wrong - hmmmmm.  Still - my lesson for today learned: next time phone ahead, don't just go on website information!
Happily though, the rest of the playground was open (and some was in shade), so we went ahead and had a picnic & play, with old friends as well as meeting some lovely new ones :)  It didn't take very long for my boys and the new (to us) children to make friends... once again, it was just so lovely to see them all playing happily.  It feels like DS2 in particular is startng to relax & lose some of the anxiety he picked up while at school.  DS1 has always been happy to play with anyone who looks friendly - and as for three-year-old DS3 - well, at one point this afternoon he barged his way into a group of five big school-children (aged about 10) and pushed them off the springy toy he wanted to ride on.  I've no idea who they were, but they were really sweet and just indulged him (I think they were a bit stunned by his attitude (as was I!)  No fears regarding his confidence then...!
All in all, it's been a really social week!  Visiting family at the weekend, low-key on Mon & Tues, out with friends on Weds, more visiting on Thurs, out meeting new friends today... and next week looks like being pretty packed too!  The only problem is, it leaves us with less time to get any 'work' done... :/  I had thought that I would get us settled into some kind of Home-ed routine before we started going to too many social events - find our feet first, so to speak... but then DS1 started mentioning missing his friends, and I didn't want it to turn our home ed into a negative experience for him, so we started meeting up with other Home Edders (as well as still seeing old friends after school hours).  Also I think now it's got sunny, we're all a lot more keen to get outdoors, and there are more opportunities to meet up that don't cost money, outside!  Fact is, we're all starting to make some good friendships, which I am more than happy about.  There will be plenty of time to consolidate learning still, and after a few days of playing outside the boys are usually happier to sit down and concentrate generally.
So, if I wanted to answer the Home Ed sceptics who are worried about socialisation, I would love to show them my six-year-old in particular, now in comparison to a few months ago at school.  I'm just so happy we decided to do this - and as I relaxed in my picnic chair this afternoon, watching the boys happily running around, I was reassured this really is what I was meant to do!  It's the good life, all right :)