HOLLY HILL, S.C. — A teddy bear picnic held in Holly Hill on Tuesday is giving homeschooled children an outlet to socialize and make new friendships.
“We need more activities like this for social interactions and to kind help build those social skills," said parent Israel Wright.
Wright homeschools his children in the Orangeburg County town of Eutawville. His family attended the second annual teddy bear picnic in the neighboring town of Holly hill at Gilmore Park that brought hundreds of local children together.
It gave homeschooled children an opportunity to connect and play with others.
“We’re driving places to go get our kids involved in the community. Get them engaged socially and we just decided we wanted something local and I didn’t wanna drive," said Root and Arrow homeschool coop director Emerald Dennis.
Families came from surrounding areas like Ridgeville, Eutawville, and Vance. As the director of a local homeschool cooperative, she says she's noticed the rising popularity of homeschooling in these communities. This is why she coordinated the event.
“One of the challenges when you have all these kids all the same age all doing the same curriculum at the same time, is that kids can either go ahead of the group and get bored, or they can fall behind and not be able to catch up. But when you home school, you can avoid that," said Dennis.
The Holly Hill Library hosted a story time, and there was a petting zoo and other giveaways. It was all made possible by a $15,000 grant from Save the Children, a statewide organization focused on being a political voice for kids.