what do homeschooled kids do on their spare time?

Answer 1

My son is homeschooled.

The answerer who described the kid who does nothing and is isolated may be true for his "friend" but it is not the norm. It is not typical.

My son:

- Participates in a lot of church activities
- Has participated in Talent Identification Weekends at college campuses.
- Is in 2 clubs
- Does website work in genealogy and just for fun stuff
- Runs his own small business for profit
- Helps with our family business
- Creates computer video games and animations
- Attends "teaching cooperative" classes
- We've done several college campus visits and do so every year
- Goes to dances
- Backpacks
- Works on a hobby farm
- Reads good books
- In the next few weeks / months we will be going to see Transiberian Orchestra, A Christmas Carol at a stage theater, later in the spring Manheim Steamroller
- Last year we took a train to Washington D.C., Gettysburg, Philadelphia and Hershey PA.

Other options in our area for hs kids include: Civil Air Patrol, a swim team, a cross country team, photography club, art club, drama club / camp... and bunches more.

The problem is not finding social activities but choosing from among so many great options.

I think the term "homeschool" at least for us and I think most is a misnomer. Most of our learning activity is outside the home. Perhaps it should be called realityschool or community school or some such.

P.S. Right now my son is studying Spanish I using Rosetta Stone. He is working ahead because he has an MLA style essay due on Tuesday - subject Homer's Iliad - and a Jr. Toastmasters meeting and speech on Monday evening. Wednesday is youth group. This coming Friday is a semi-formal dance.

Answer 2

Hi! I'm a homeschooled highschool senior. As far as what I do in my free time (what free time I have, that is):

- I love both reading and writing;
- I work on learning HTML;
- I practice piano or organ for about three hours a day on average;
- Go hiking;
- Go running and/or cycling;
- I have my own dog that I walk, feed, and play with,
- When I can, I like to get out and hang out with friends;
- I'm a church choir director;
- and I'm also the oldest of five children, so I do stuff with my younger siblings a lot, too.

The things I don't do in my spare time:
- Play video games. (I think they're a waste of my time and energy - I have better things to do!)
- Watch TV shows
- Do nothing (the only time I'm doing 'nothing' is when I'm sleeping, pretty much).

Homeschooling is really fantastic - I get to work at my own pace (if I understand something after only two minutes of studying, I can skip on to the next concept instead of waiting for the rest of the class to catch up) and enjoy the flexibility of a homeschooler's schedule.

Answer 3

Well the wording is a little strong, but not entirely inappropriate. While it is undeniable that (at least in America) the public school system is a joke and home schooled students to test better the real merit comes from the proverbial hell that is going through middle school and high school. We do not have innate social skills and it can be literally retarding to not have learned by social yeahs and neighs of peers what is acceptable. We all want our kids to be themselves yes, but keep in mind that creepy kid in school who never bathed and would talk about how he ate a possum once was "just being himself." At the end of the day some conformity is required to exist in this world and the standards to which we conform are taught to us via school On the other hand you make an excellent point about getting a job, joining clubs and playing sports. These outlets too provide many of the social skills we need, however, with maybe the exception of employment it is worth noting that these are voluntary activities with people of mutual interest. So while yes friends can be made, it is almost entirely a positive experience with little negative being taught.

Answer 4

I'm homeschooled and I do a lot of things in my spare time. Some days I go to the fencing club and practice a bit with my foil, or sometimes I'll spend an afternoon at the library at teen events or just gathering as many books on as many interesting topics as I can carry. Sometimes I'll have friends over, or go to a friends house, or if it's close to the weekend or if my friends don't have any tests or anything the next day (in public school) we'll go out to the movies or something. I start on a lot of projects in my spare time like mural painting or computer programming projects, and I have about six friends all into programming that I spend a lot of time working with and learning from. (A lot of them are in their 20's but that's the beauty of a homeschooler's social life. You learn how to interact with people of ALL ages. Not just those born the same year you were.) I devote a few hours every night to my boyfriend, and lots more time than that on the weekends, and we usually spend our time programming, playing our guitars and such (in a band), calling up friends (usually ones in college whom we can't actually see at the moment), making travel plans, discussing science, politics, philosopy, literature, psychology, ethics, music, school, humor, the news, family, people, college, our future, and whatever else we happen to have on our minds at the time. I may not be surrounded by a mob of unoriginal, immature, clueless kids all striving to be just like the people around them all day, but I like that. I know how to interact with the typical highschooler when I need to, and more importantly I know how to interact with a more mature croud who don't spend all their time talking about American Idol, ICP, teenage rumors, whose clothes are better, whose car is better, and all the other meaningless, irrelevent things that a lot of teenagers (in my area at least) actually think are important in the real world.

Answer 5

Our son was in public school until first part of 8th grade. He does the same things now that he did then except he has more spare time and has more interests. I guess part of the interests comes from being older.
Here is the list, not in order of importance or time spent, just in the order that I think of them.

Phone
Internet
Meeting friends at their house or mall
Friends coming here
Paint ball games
Basketball (Community league and casual games)
Spectator sports-Baseball, basketball, football, soccer and racing.
Dogs (we have 6 outside dogs that love to play)
Church activities
Music
Television
Movies

Homeschool kids are just kids. They do their studies at home with their education guided by their parents and/or themselves. Their spare time activities are similar to public school students' activities.
There are many homeschool groups in our area with activities and opportunities. Our family is unable to participate because we are a 2 income family with schedules that are great for homeschooling but not so great for participating with homeschool groups. We are blessed that our son is creative and flexible in making arrangements with his friends. It works for us.
His friends are both homeschooled and public schooled. They mix together well.

Added thought: Someone previously mentioned that homeschool is not all done at home. Actually, with our schedule, we have worked out a plan for our son to go to his step-dad's workplace several times a week, to do his assignments. They have set up a work area for him and he is there about 4 hours a day, doing his assignments. It is a small company with relaxed atmosphere and he can work in peace and/or talk to people. It gives him a break from being home alone while I work at public school.

Answer 6

Whatever they want. They're just kids, they do the things that kids do...however, truly homeschooled kids tend to do a wide variety of things, simply because they're not conditioned to think they have to be like everybody else.

Some kids may put their spare time into a project, into researching something that interests them, into playing with their friends, sports, Scouts, a club, playing on the computer, walking the dog, having a backyard picnic or campout, or whatever else they want. They do whatever interests them.

Answer 7

Depends on the kid and the family. The following list is not what one single homeschooler would do, but a collection of things homeschooled kids I know do:

-read
-write
-crafts/needlework: general crafts, jewelry, knit, etc.
-art: classes, drawing, painting, other
-spend time outside
-get together with friends
-take up sports or lessons
-play
-sew
-bake, cook
-volunteer
-chat online, video games, listen to music, watch tv or videos (this includes educational stuff), etc. (like any typical kid, but usually less time with electronics than public schooled kids)
-book clubs and other clubs
-help out, clean
-go out for lunch or to movies
-think about the future
-learn something that interests them
-play an instrument (this includes those who take lessons as well as though who do it just for fun)
-dance to music
-go shopping

Answer 8

Here is a list of some of what my homeschooled kids do in their spare time:

My 15 year old goes to the movies with his friends on the weekends, hangs out with them at a youth center on weekdays after school, plays X-Box Live every night, composes music on the piano, reads, draws, goes skateboarding, surfs the Net, watches G4, the Science Channel and watches movies, plus takes Tae Kwon Do twice a week.

My 8 year old goes to the youth center on weekdays after school, likes to cook, reads, draws, plays Lord of the Rings Online and X-Box Live with his dad, watches G4, the Science Channel, Animal Planet, and watches movies, plus takes Tae Kwon Do twice a week.

Together as a family we like to keep it simple. We go for walks or play board games together. I am not a fan of constant activity.

We also have a motto: "the family that plays together stays together". We are a gaming family, mainly online games, and we see a lot of benefits to gaming (eye-hand coordination, learning cooperation and team work, problem solving etc.) so we encourage rather than discourage lots of gaming :p

Answer 9

A lot of people are answering this with their opinions and what there friends or children did/do.

I was a home schooled kid, and now I'm going to tell you how I would spend my days:

I would wake up between eight and nine A.M. (because as a home schooler you can get away with that if you do some of your work for the day the night before. )

Depending on which curriculum/curriculums you use (you can mix and match if you don't like some part of one more then the other) it can take between three to the full eight hours to finish you work.

The school work for home schoolers (according to what my cousin who went to public school said) Is more thorough and personal then public school, its taught on a more personal level (Parent/Child vs. Teacher/Large Group of Students) and can be completed and comprehended faster.

After school, depending on when I finished, I would either eat dinner like any public school child, or in the event that I did in fact finish early, I would either be put to work cleaning the house that I messed up last time I was done early, or play with my sister and mess up the house for next time! =)

Then when I turned sixteen and could drive, I would do my work the night before, finish really fast the next day, and go to my job (might I add I got all the hours that could not be taken by the public school-high schoolers, and made A LOT of money!)

(Oh, and I tested out of hight school early and started taking collage classes between what would have been my Sophomore and Junior years.)

So it basically the same, as far as I can tell. except you don't have to sit at a desk for hours without a brake. You can go run around out side if you want to.

And go to the movies on weekdays! With no one else there!!!! That was the BEST!

please note: In that extra spare time I have also:
-taken three years of piano lessons
-five years of voice and opera lessons
-at least five years of gymnastics
-three years of soccer (when I was younger)
-riding lessons
-care of miniature horses (no I didn't ride them)
-knitting lessons (don't laugh!)
-and wrote half a book, thank you very much

Answer 10

My kids are homeschooled......in their free time (time they are NOT in school) they
Play with their siblings
Play with friends
Play video games
Participate in church activities
Civil Air Patrol
Dance class
Get online
Visit family
Volunteer
Read
Help mom around the house
in other words..basically the same things that any typical non-homschooled kids do-when they are not participating in school