The child who is respected in her love of learning, her time of concentration, and her self-discipline, will allow other children to do the same, recognizing their needs. Sociability comes naturally. Now, if a home schooling parent wants to bring their child to swimming class or exercise class to be with others, this does not have to be done until a later time. I had coffee mornings in my house and with a round robin plan so that all the mums took turns, and my son, who was being home schooled, would sometimes leave the group and go do his Montessori work. It was so cute and so predicable.
However, by age four and a half, socializing becomes a real need, or even at five, but really it is not necessary before that age.
The modern world is full of lies begun by the socialists and communists as what the child really needs. Their ideologies form deviant people who are only created to be sheep and not thinking members of a vibrant society. One reason why every Pope has condemned socialism since 1845 are the false teachings concerning the formation and respect of the individual. You can go to my other posts on that; but the over-socialization of the child creates deviancies and does not allow for the natural growth of the other three marks of the normalized child. In a big family, the toddler is well-socialized, and this newish idea that a toddler needs other toddlers is not based on research but ideology.
Most mothers want socialization themselves if they only have one or two children and they push this for their own needs, which can be very detrimental to the growth of the child. A parent knows by instinct when the child needs sociability. And the virtues are there because of the other three stages. This one builds on the other three.
(4) Sociability.
There is only one specimen of each object, and if a piece is in use when another child wants it, the latter—if he is normalized—will wait for it to be released. Important social qualities derive from this. The child comes to see that he must respect the work of others, not because someone has said he must, but because this is a reality that he meets in his daily experience.(The Absorbent Mind, p. 223).
And I add; virtues of kindness, generosity, patience, , mercy, humility, compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, justice, charity, forbearance, integrity, bravery, love, faith, hope.
I have witnessed rooms of children working separately quite happily, then stopping for songs or prayers, as in the schedule. Do not ignore the needs of your toddler because of the needs of the older children. That stage forms her for life.
To be continued....