How can I socialize my homeschooled kids?

Question

After reading so many well-thought out responses from the homeschool opponents about homeschool kids being unsocialized (including the one that directed us to the very informative South Park episode about homeschoolers), I'm now asking those well-informed individuals to heIp me brainstorm how I can socialize my kids without putting them in the institutionalized setting of public school.
...Or were people not "socialized" before the last two or three generations. One-room schoolhouses were much more similar to homeschool than modern public schools.

So here's my dilemma:
With Awana, team gymnastics, soccer, basketball, dance, church, church activities, kids' choir, homeschool co-op, traveling to France and China with other kids and their families, local field trips, piano, guitar, and drum lessons, drama workshops, playdates, birthday parties, etc., I just don't have time to socialize my kids.

Any suggestions?

Fair enough, farien3.
I was thinking spending time in China (with Chinese people) and France (with French people), as well as regularly socializing with friends from Russia, Ghana, and India gave my kids experience with diversity. I also thought that the many hours per week that they spend with kids and adults from completely different backgrounds and belief systems representing several different races, who are/were public schooled would've been quite a bit of exposure to diversity as well. We also study about different cultures and religions from around the world. Our youngest child is adopted from a different country and is a different race than the rest of us, and we spend time studying her culture and language as well.
But, alas, I guess that's not true diversity. I guess we have to be placed in a room full of people our own ages that live in our general areas for 35 hours per week to be properly exposed to diversity. =)

Forgive me, hillary. I'm not sure why my question is so offensive. I'm not trying to dis public school, only to point out how ridiculous it is to say that homeschooled kids aren't socialized. As a former public school teacher, I used to be in the dark about homeschooling, too. Since I've researched the issue, I've learned about the actual statistics of test scores, socialization, and the success of adults who were homeschooled. We homeschool our kids, in part, because our research showed how incredibly successful homeschooling can be. I'm happy for you that you're having a great experience in PS, but I think it's quite presumptuous to assume that my HS kids are not. We also do some great projects, and amazingly, yes, we do have other kids to do them with.
I have many adult friends, and none of us have had to deal with bullies or high school social issues in the workplace. High school is SO not real life, so one doesn't need to experience it to prepare for real life.

Sorry, Dawn, I didn't realize you'd added to your answer.
I'm certainly not trying to be Super Mom, really only trying to make the point that the classroom setting is not the only place that one can experience socialization or diversity. I don't know how much time it takes to become culturally aware, but I know my kids are WAY ahead of where I was at their ages with what I had been exposed to in public school.
And our travels have been for other purposes with the fringe benefits being that my kids were able to become more culturally aware.
(BTW, yes, my kids actually do serve those less fortunate than themselves. They've been exposed to unbelievable poverty.)

Answer 1

Hello, I am a Private School Teacher, former homeschool teacher. I can see your dilemma... It sounds as if you have all of your priorities out of place. You will need to pray this through, take some of the hectic gym, basketball, dance and all the other enourmous activities out of your schedule so you can donate time to socialize your children. Can you put off perhaps the guitar, drum lessons or drama workshops for another day? Or perhaps the playdates and birthday parties can be placed on the back burner so that you can "Make sure your children are in the mix"??? I mean, surely you can find time to ensure your children make friends and socialize by dismissing or delaying church activities or choir?

Hope I helped... Try to make time for your kids, would you???

:)

God bless you mom, I think your great! Keep on "not" socializing!

Answer 2

To the highschooler who posted that homeschoolers are not exposed to different ideas and beliefs:
I will be a (homeschooled) junior this fall. So far, I have studied: nonWestern cultures, all the major world religions and philosiphies (including postmodernism, relativism, etc.), all major political points of view, and alot of other broadening topics. Here is a sampling of what I have read: The Divine Comedy, Walden and Civil Disobedience, The Crucible, Up From Slavery, Moby Dick, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Black Like Me. I have always been taught to examine ALL viewpoints before taking a position--on anything. My parents don't sugarcoat anything. Ever.
To say--without out any evidence--that I am not exposed to different ideas and ways of life is just stupid.
Oh, by the way, about 80% of my friends are minorities. Roughly 10% have lived overseas, and the rest are white but unique nontheless. Are not all people different on the inside as well as on the outside?
To make hasty generalizations is a form of faulty logic. You should know this.

Answer 3

It all depends on how you define "socialize". Webster's defines it as fitting or training for a social situation. By that definition, I would say you're doing a great job. BUT, if you define it by the standards of many others, it would look more like peer dependence which is predominant in the public schools. This looks more like kids who know that inorder to survive they must learn the right words, attitudes, music, movies, TV shows, piercings, friends and clothes. They know that if they don't conform they will be outcasts and likely be bullied. When homeschooling opponents speak of socialization, apply this definition. For all others, apply the real definition. Keep up the good work.

Answer 4

This is the wonderful thing about homeschooling is they get more socialization than children stuck at school in a classroom all day with children their own age. This whole socialization is a bunch of hooey. I just laugh at people when they bring it up. They just have no idea. They have been so brainwashed. Only idiots would bring up such comments on homeschoolers not being socialized. The only way they wouldn't get any socialization would be to lock them up. I doubt you would find many of those type of people and if you did they would soon be found out and out in jail.

Answer 5

It seems to me like you're thinking on a global level. With technology it's easy to accomplish these tasks! One idea would be to set a date with a cousin(or a family friend around the same age) of the child's. Both children get on the computer with thier webcams and talk about their day, what's new, and what was funny on Nickelodeon last night. Another idea is to do the same sort of set up, but with kids in Africa! There's programs for these sorts of virtual pen pals, you just got to Google them. Another idea is to make the drive every so often to a library story time. Here it's weekly. Maybe you could make the drive everyother week, or every month. The kids can have some hang time with some other kids, and maybe you and another rural mom can start chatting. Maybe the two of you can set up some monthly playdates for the kids and moms to get together. Hope I helped!

Answer 6

You listed many activities that show you already ARE socializing them...in fact you get to pick the hcaracter of those associating with your kids. Homeschooled kids do better than other children oin socialization tests because they are exposed to people of all different ages. Where else are you put together only with your age group in life?
The answer I like to give when people ask me about socialization is...Do you send your kids to school to develop good table manners? No!! Kids learn socialization skills from being with parents, older sibs, etc. of all ages who are already well socialized and know what good behavior is.

I homeschooled for 18 years and now teach in public school. I know who is better off!!!:)

Answer 7

I'm glad that I went to public school because I got different view points from many different teachers. On the other hand, I believe that homeschooled kids get a better education.

For all the opponents of homeschooling - I didn't get good socialization in school. I grew up to be a social misfit because I was constantly ridiculed and rejected at school. Sending a kid to school doesn't guarantee socialization.

Answer 8

I know what you are getting at, and I believe home schooling is great!! Keeps the kids out of the negative in the environment, and the bullying and the violence and the drugs and the other crap that is going on in our national schooling system at the moment!!! I wished I could have been home schooled as a child because going to school and being around other kids didn't help me in society but hindered my learning, hence the online college courses I am now involved in taking.!!

Answer 9

YES.. I love it. So many people think that we just keep our kids holed up in our homes all day with no social interaction at all. I guess they figure that parents that homeschool sit in our living rooms "teaching" our children for the 6 hours that their own children are sitting in public schools never leaving our homes.

Answer 10

All I have to say is that I wish I was homeschooled. I was picked on fiercely by my classmates all the way through my years. Even as a senior in HS, I was getting picked on (you would have thought that they would have grown up by then). But if your kids are doing all of those things that you mentioned, I say let people say what they want to say and just don't listen to them. I bet money that your kids are going to grow up more maturely than those of the people belittling the homeschooling.