#25/31 Learning from Others

Sometimes homeschoolers are a little too insulated.  

We generally don't use any profanity in our house, nor do we use slang for anatomical terms.

I remember when Chris and Kate were about 9 and 11.  A neighborhood kid used a word that they didn't understand.  So they asked us what it meant. It was slang for a "male private part".

James and I decided that we needed to give these kids a real education, so we calmly taught them every single foul word we knew.  (Don't forget James was a sailor....)

We spent a week politely saying things like:
"Where the *&% did I put that #$*@-ing washcloth?"    It was great fun!

Fast forward a decade or more, and we are having the same problem.  Well, it's much lighter weight than male body parts at this point.  

One of Hannah's friends (typically developing) was at our house the other day.   He was saying something about farting.  In our prudish house, we use the babyish term "toot", or the more formal, "passing gas". (As an aside, as a child, my circumlocutory family used the term "effluviate" for any malodorous fumes.)

Hannah figured out what "fart" meant by using "contextual cues".

She and L. had a great time making farting noises.   They used the word "fart" lavishly. For quite a while.   It was a bonding time of sorts.

They later had fun playing paper airplanes, PlayMobil, and Hot Wheels.  And no residual effluvium.  It was a fun play date.

L's mother later inquired whether her son behaved well.   I said yes, aside from teaching Hannah the word "fart", but that didn't count. Hannah was long overdue to learn that one (and learned it well, she did!).   I'd much rather have her laugh when it is appropriate than to not understand when something is funny.