Why do people think that homeschoolers don't get socialization?

Question

This is just a question of curiousity. Anyone that actually knows anything about homeschooling knows the opportunities for socialization. How many of these people even know anyone that homeschools? I went to public school and was always told I was there to learn, not to socialize! I plan on homeschooling my children because I care about their education! Seems to me homeschool children are much better socialized for REAL life. How often do public school kids get out in the real world and socialize with people of all ages. That's true socialization. Not cooped up in a building all day with kids their own age and punished for socializing with them. A lot of people say how will homeschooled children deal with rude people as adults if they are sheltered from them as children. Well, I say if those rude people had been homeschooled they wouldn't be rude. It was public school socialization that made them that way.

Just an answer to what someone posted. I am not trying to put people down who choose public school. My children where public schooled until this year and I attended public school. The only thing I have a problem with is people who know nothing about homeschooling and think that the parents are just sheltering their children from real life. Not everyone is lucky enough to have good public schools in their area, if you are, good for you. I chose to start homeschooling because I don't like the schools in our area. They are way behind academically and they are violent. My children are bored and scared. That's not what I want.

One last detail. It's so hard not to want to add my own comments on some of the replies! Anyways, I have 4 children, 3 girls, ages 11, 8, and 6 and 1 son, age 5.

Answer 1

Well from experience, I was home schooled for most of my "school years" and no, I really had no social life, which has made it hard on me to this day. BUT the reason for this was my mother never felt like putting any effort into my schooling or social life for that matter...Now as an adult, I still plan on homeschooling my children for personal reasons and beliefs that are not important to this question...I plan on incorporating as much social, interactive programs with my children as possible...Homeschooling can be a great choice if you take into aspect all the important details, such as GOOD education, social interaction, and have an open mind...You don't want to raise a clone of yourself, the child NEEDS to think for his/herself....Also you need to be apart of the child's learning experience, my mother just sat me down at 8 years old and told me to watch a video and learn, I graded my own papers, I did my own progress reports, we lived near a post office, so I went and mailed the tapes back, I did basically everything....SO, if you are thinking of taking this approach, and you are a lazy ***** (excuse my stars) like my mother, than NO, I don't think homeschooling is the way to go, but of you care at all for your children and get them involved with as many educational activities as possible, than YES, by all means...GO FOR IT! Hope this helps and God bless!

Answer 2

I can't answer for anybody else, but as an adult I chose to have
my daughter in home schooling. In regular school, there were
lots of girls after my daughter because she could get along with
boys an not girls. These girls did not like her for some reason.
Anyways My daughter had bad grades starting from 5th grade
until the middle of 8th grade, it wasn't because she didn't know
how to do her work, it was because to much distraction. I decide to put her in home school, where she had all the attention she needed to do her work. From fails to passing grades, she became an A, B, C student and Graduated. As for socializing
she didn't need until her work was done. If she went to the mall
she would socialize out side of the house, and met nice and rude
people. Today she is 21 and works at a shoe store and still meets nice and rude people. All that counted was her getting
a good education and a good job. Now she's a Mother of two
and it is her turn too figure out what kind of school she should
send her two daughters, as they become teenagers.

Answer 3

Because some homeschooled kids don't get any socialization. I was homeschooled and had no friends for almost my entire childhood except for my little brother. I turned out OK but my brother still has no friends and has a really hard time talking to people he doesn't know. He's 22 years old now.
Nowadays there are tons of homeschooling groups you can get involved in so this isn't a big problem anymore. My aunt also homeschool her kids and she enrolled them in these programs so her kids always had tons of friends. Our mom didn't enroll us in anything so we didn't really learn how to interact with other kids. We were always more comfortable around adults because that's what we were used to.
Homeschooled kids can end up without social skills if you let them but it's up to the parents to keep this from happening. There are several groups that you can sign your kids up with where they can meet other homeschooled kids and make some friends. If you don't have one in your area enroll your kids in a dance or martial arts class or something like that where they can meet other kids.

Answer 4

You bring up a good point. I think some homeschool parents are concerned with making sure their kids are socialized. I also know some who don't worry about it. I did always think that homeschoolers were just being protected. I never thought about the possibilty that the public schools in the area might be dangerous. The parents I know who homeschool live in a great district. They just don't want their kids exposed to the filth of the world. I personally disagree with their decisions. I, too want to protect my children from the filth of the world, but I also want to enable them with the knowledge of how to handle a variety of people.
Bottom line is - it's your kids. You have to do what you feel is right for them. If you want to homeschool - good luck with that! :) P.S. I wish all parents paid special attention to their kids' behavior. I will send my kids to the public school, but they won't be rude!

Answer 5

I agree. My kids are home schooled and they are plenty 'socialized'. And why do people define socialization as only interactions with peers? My children can have conversations with people of all ages and can speak and be understood better then most public school kids their age. NOT that I am putting anyone down. I am just saying kids needs more than just peers to learn how to communicate and relate to others. They won't always just have peers to rely on in the real world.

FYI Home schooled children usually score better on tests too!

Answer 6

One reason is that they hear the "home" in the homeschool part.
They assume we stay indoors like moles, we are scared of the light and of people, that we baricade ourselves behind racks of Bibles and books....
Children schooled by parents behave better. They don't have the time at school to act out like public school kids do. Most regular parents have no clue how their children behave at school, or who they asociate with, they may be shocked, if they knew!
Homeschooled children are often around younger siblings and older family members, and they attend outside classes and event, thus they are better equipped to handle all types of people, babies, toddlers, children, teens, adults, and the elderly. That is true socialization, because that is what the outside world is like. Kids get to misbehave when around a bunch of immature kids their age. That is not socialization! So do not worry about other people's opinions, simply do what is right for you and your children! Have fun!

Answer 7

Actually, I wish people would understand that homeschooler kids do interact with others. I'm not homeschooled, but my cousins are & for homeschooled kids they certainly keep busy. I'll admit, I wondered about socialization in the very beginning when they first started out, but now, wow! They get out there and interact with a lot of people, they play sports, they're really into 4-H. And the thing is, it's different kids almost every time. Every year for ball, there's different kids on their team. Every year, new kids join their 4-H club or they meet new comers or just plain new faces at the fair. They've really gone beyond everyone's original expectations for interacting & meeting people.

Answer 8

They think the children don't get enough socialization?. Not true. What they get is selective socialization; selected by you, the parent who loves them more than anyone in the world and have their best interest, truly, always in mind. As the parent, you have responsibilities, obligations and believes, and you are totally entitled to that and to decide what is best for your chiildren. I had to and still do, face opposition from all, family and friends. Particularly those who were teachers; as they put it "Schools don't teach children the bad things" . True; those are not officially in the curriculum. But the " herd mentality is" and the "Cliks to victimize some kids because THEY are not cool" are and is to what they have eventually to comform to if they want to belong. And children WANT TO BELONG, and that is how they get to listen and LEARN the wrong things, from their peers.
I homeschooled my children for various reasons, too long to discuss here.
I know they missed some things, but haven't we all?. Some of the things (and I am being somewhat sarcastic) I know they missed are:
*Disrespect your parents 101,
*Become promiscuous 200,
*Get involved with negative and damaging people 106,
*Learn by experimenting with drugs 108,
*Learn to be a comforming part of the herd 109,
*Don't think for yourself 107,
*Have no respect for others 105
*Depend on others to make you happy or entertain you 111,
*Abuse and fill your body with alcohol, drugs, tatoos and piercings because that's what "everyone else does" 210,
And the list goes on and on; I am sure you have plenty to add to these. Besides, the idea of homeschooling is not to make the educational process the same as public school.
Listen to your instincts, I did. My children may have missed some things, but they are healthy, well adjusted, strong and clean in every sense of the word. They don't have to go and ''clean up their lives'' neither to overcome any addictions, etc. The way I've always have seen it is: Catch up with academics is always possible; to catch up with life and reform, eliminate bad habits and mistakes in life is a lot harder. If people ever "really "do.
Candide

Answer 9

I home schooled my son. We loved it. People have opinions about home schoolers but the opinion is based on ignorance. If you have not home schooled you have no idea what it is like. There are some bad examples of homeschooling but there are even worse examples of public schools. I'll never regret teaching mine. My son has a degree now and is a model citizen and husband. It is up to the parent, however, to make sure the child has a well rounded education. Good luck to you. m

Answer 10

More power to you. You are right, schools are not really a place for socializing or learning. My son socialized in sporting activities and his short lived attempt at music lessons.

He went to school and got stupid, his vocabulary at 5 was incredible. At 2 his vocabulary included, nocturnal, diuranal, pachyderm. At 5, he used workds like negotiate and oxymoron. Then he started school and began to talk like a 5 year old. And where he was way ahead of his class, he was forced to dumb down to the class. Instead of advancing his skills, he had to regress - he could do division in his head in pre-school. In school, he had to use crayons to learn to color and count to 10.

I was a single Mom, if not I would have home school.

Keep up the good work!