'Vantage Number Three: Socialization!
If you are just joining this post, check out the first post in this series: Advantages of Homeschooling - Part One: Academic Opportunities! If nothing else, it will explain Kipling reference above :) Click Here for Advantages of Homeschooling - Part Two: Inspiring Teachers! and Click Here for Amazing Homeschool Curriculum.
As important
as academics are to me, I'm always astonished that the first question every
asks about homeschooling is... what about socialization? My kids have
more social opportunities than we could possibly ever keep up with. From
the time they were toddlers, I took them to homeschool park groups -- they're
easy to find in every area. My kids met other kids and I met Moms who
were homeschooling. We all had fun. We've gone on week long
campouts to Big Bear, 4-night beach campouts and our annual CHN homeschool
conference weekends. We've gone on more field trips with these groups
than I can count. Usually 1-2 a week for years. Museums,
universities, hiking trails, boating events, pumpkin patches, botanical
gardens, the list is endless. Right now, my kids have rehearsals at least
twice a week with their homeschool orchestra. They just did a performance
last week and will do several more at hospitals, retirement homes, churches,
malls (anyone who will listen, basically), over the next month. My youngest daughter goes to a week long fiddle camp every year up north.
My kids have tons of friends, but..... unlike at school, they're friends are not all born within the same year they were! They have friends all over the map: older, younger, same age, adults, etc. They are in the world and not locked in a classroom all day. They benefit greatly by mentoring the younger kids and being mentored themselves. Parents are never too far, so bullying, etc. is very minimal, especially the really mean, kind that kids can suffer from in middle/high school. People have told me that shielding my children from this kind of abuse will hurt them because they won't know how to face the "real" world. This is total BS. Never, at any time, after leaving junior high or high school, have I ever encountered the kind of petty, soul-shredding bullying that young kids manage to inflict on one another.... not in college, not in the workplace, nowhere. The real world is not like that at all. I figure, why not skip that nonsense. It's brutal if you're at the bottom or even mid-way up the social ladder and if you're at the top, I think it's even worse.
I talk about this in greater detail in another post, so if you'd like to read more on this topic, click here for "Homeschooling and Socialization."
If you are just joining this post, check out the first post in this series: Advantages of Homeschooling - Part One: Academic Opportunities! If nothing else, it will explain Kipling reference above :) Click Here for Advantages of Homeschooling - Part Two: Inspiring Teachers! and Click Here for Amazing Homeschool Curriculum.
As important
as academics are to me, I'm always astonished that the first question every
asks about homeschooling is... what about socialization? My kids have
more social opportunities than we could possibly ever keep up with. From
the time they were toddlers, I took them to homeschool park groups -- they're
easy to find in every area. My kids met other kids and I met Moms who
were homeschooling. We all had fun. We've gone on week long
campouts to Big Bear, 4-night beach campouts and our annual CHN homeschool
conference weekends. We've gone on more field trips with these groups
than I can count. Usually 1-2 a week for years. Museums,
universities, hiking trails, boating events, pumpkin patches, botanical
gardens, the list is endless. Right now, my kids have rehearsals at least
twice a week with their homeschool orchestra. They just did a performance
last week and will do several more at hospitals, retirement homes, churches,
malls (anyone who will listen, basically), over the next month. My youngest daughter goes to a week long fiddle camp every year up north. My kids have tons of friends, but..... unlike at school, they're friends are not all born within the same year they were! They have friends all over the map: older, younger, same age, adults, etc. They are in the world and not locked in a classroom all day. They benefit greatly by mentoring the younger kids and being mentored themselves. Parents are never too far, so bullying, etc. is very minimal, especially the really mean, kind that kids can suffer from in middle/high school. People have told me that shielding my children from this kind of abuse will hurt them because they won't know how to face the "real" world. This is total BS. Never, at any time, after leaving junior high or high school, have I ever encountered the kind of petty, soul-shredding bullying that young kids manage to inflict on one another.... not in college, not in the workplace, nowhere. The real world is not like that at all. I figure, why not skip that nonsense. It's brutal if you're at the bottom or even mid-way up the social ladder and if you're at the top, I think it's even worse.
I talk about this in greater detail in another post, so if you'd like to read more on this topic, click here for "Homeschooling and Socialization."
Keep reading: The Follow-up to this series on the Advantages of Homeschooling is a post about some of the great curriculum that helped me homeschool!
Click here for all the info: Amazing Homeschool Curriculum!
Click Here for Part One of this series: Advantages of Homeschooling - Part One: Academic Opportunities!
Click Here for Part Two of this series: Advantages of Homeschooling - Part Two: Inspiring Teachers!
And don't miss my curriculum suggestions. Click Here for Amazing Homeschool Curriculum
No comments:
Post a Comment