Admittedly, I’m not a dress-up kind of person. I’m not a decoration kind of person. Hmmm. Left-brained/right-brained stuff again? That kind of creativity just isn’t my thing at all. I’m very, very left-brained. I don’t do Halloween decorations or outdoor Christmas decorations. I pretty much have a Christmas tree. Even birthdays are low key around here. So, dressing up for a fun event has never been something I’ve done before…until now.
I found this really cool homeschooling group that offers art- and theater-infused history classes. I wrote a post about it here. The group meets weekly for two 6-week sessions in the fall and again in the spring. After each 6-week section, they have some kind of gathering to share what they’ve learned. Being that it’s art- and theater-focused, creativity is usually part of the theme of the gathering. The first one we were to attend was a Medieval Feast. Everyone was encouraged to come dressed for the part to create a festive atmosphere. I decided to give it a try! Even though I may be more Renaissance-oriented, it worked as a whole 🙂
I am SO not creative, but somehow, *I*, little ole ME, actually came up with an idea and it worked! I’m kinda proud of myself. So, what you see here is my prom dress, yes, 30 years folks I kept it, now coming in handy. I couldn’t zip the back, but I had a specialized  white flouncy-sleeved shawl, and a vest I have from an old friend passed down from like 15 years ago that covered it. (Okay, I hold onto things! You never know when you’ll need them…like now! Haha!) And it worked, don’t you think? I even got to wear my brown boot-type shoes. It was actually kind of fun!
My daughter wore her old Halloween costume, and my theater son outfitted himself, which is his specialty, with all the stuff around our house, and helped his younger brother look a part as well.
One of my son’s classes was a medieval weapons class, so he showed us what he made.
And lo and behold, he got chosen as the king for the feast! He was so excited.
The feast was most  excellent and they even encouraged us all to bring food and dinnerware to reflect the medieval atmosphere. I was STUFFED!
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There were all sorts of interesting costumes, including a dragon!
My younger son enjoyed trying to learn to juggle after seeing the jester do so earlier.
And we ended with an archery tournament.
In my opinion, the whole deoinitifn, understand and concept of socialization has been misunderstood, hence the constant debates about what it is and how best to do it.I find it interesting that I don’t *think* the word even exists in earlier versions of the Webster’s dictionary. As has already been stated, for centuries families were the main source of socialization; it was never a fear that children would be ill-equipped if they weren’t spending large amounts of time with a peer group.It should go without saying that a child who is primarily at home isn’t always at home. It would take a near-impossible effort to live like an isolationist, keeping your children from normal, social interaction (think bank, grocery store, church functions, post office, etc.)Socialization is basically the necessary skills to thrive within a society. First we must ask, what skills ? Communication, courtesy (although this one is largely missed, especially when the peer group is doing most of the socializing), problem-solving and, in my opinion THE most important social skills of all self-sacrifice and self-control.How are these best taught? That’s the big hang up. It is my opinion that a certain amount of brain washing has been done to parents to convince them that they are not capable, or at least not optimal teachers of these skills.But family life provides a complete opportunity (given the normal social interactions of family life) to teach these skills, even if there is very little peer group involvement (although I know few homeschooling families who don’t supply plenty of peer group activity).All that to say, I would like to see people *think rightly* instead of having their beliefs swept along by the mainstream opinion that families aren’t adequate . Peer involvement is just extra; but not a necessary requirement for properly socialized children. That must be the baseline for meaningful discussions.