"We wanted to homeschool but he/she is just so social so they need school!"
"How will your homeschooled kids make friends?"
"If you homeschool, your kids will be antisocial."
These are all things that people have said to me as a homeschool mom. Socialization is one of the biggest reasons people are hesitant about homeschooling.
And I can see why, there have been many misconceptions about homeschooled kids being weird. I knew one homeschooled family while growing up and yes, they were weird. But guess what? They weren't weird because they homeschooled, it was just the family that was weird. They would've been like that had they attended public school. I went to public school K-12 and I cannot tell you how many weird kids I knew!
It isn't how a child is schooled that makes them weird or awkward, that's just how some people are.
When most people think of kids being socialized, they think of kids the same age in a classroom together. But this is not socialization.
Socialization means learning to interact with different ages of people in different settings and situations. It is learning how to function in society as a human being.
When I was in public school, I remember all to well getting told, "Stop talking to your neighbor!" or "Everybody focus, we aren't at school to socialize!" or "If you keep talking to your friends, you'll have to move seats." Sound familiar to anyone else? Kids do not get to properly socialize at school.
On the flip side, when a child is homeschooled they get many, many chances every day to interact with different aged people in different places. I take my kids everywhere with me during the day. They see how to interact with cashiers at the grocery store, how to play with new kids at the park, how to talk to the librarian at the library, or how to talk to a teenage volunteer at the museum. They are exposed to different situations and different aged people.
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