Ahhh, the most frequently asked question by people who are thinking of starting homeschooling....

We find that there are many ways to find good activities for kids to get together. It can be a church organized activity or perhaps it can be associated with sports or a course.

Another important factor, is that "socialization" can be a double-edged sword in that homeschoolers are NOT exposed to some of the negative influences inherent in many encounters.

"Developing Your Own Support Group"
by Lauren Brenner-Katz, homeschooling parent

This homeschooling mom says, ""What about socialization?" "How can I find a support group?"Ah, isn't this what everyone wants to know! "How do your kids socialize when they don't go to school?" It's the top question asked not just by prospective homeschoolers, but also by curious bystanders who seem to imagine us cloistered alone at home, isolated from what they call 'The Real World.'"

Faces of Home Education Profile
Dancing Homeschoolers

Karen Pennebaker's offering this week in our Faces of Home Education series shows her granddaughter Linda who is involved in an Irish Dancing group. This shows how homeschoolers and their friends come together in social groups that help each of us to grow in a community.

Faces of Home Education Profile
Igniting a Career
by Linda Dobson

My son, Chuck, was 14 years-old when our neighbor and friend started an Explorer Scout Post with the local volunteer fire department where he was a member. What I didn't realize right away was how seeds that would blossom into a career were being planted at the same time. I sometimes wonder what he would be doing today if homeschooling hadn't allowed him the time to pursue his interest so thoroughly.  Then I hear a fire call. I know he is serving his community, an important lesson from his homeschooling days, and making a living doing what he loves.
Find out more

More Faces of Homeschooling series

The "Socialization" Question

Christine Field who authored "Life Skills for Kids" and many other books says:

Home is the training ground for life. We learn practical life skills there, but we also learn relationship skills: how to respect one another, how to compromise, how to fight, how to show love, how to be compassionate. Because we are relating to each other all the time, I believe home schooled children have a better handle on the significance and maintenance of relationships - better than they would have if they were surrounded by the numerous superficial friendships offered in the traditional school setting. Relationships are more than saying "hello" in the hall, or sharing a soda in the lunchroom. They are about living and learning together in all aspects of life.
see the rest of her interview

David Callihan
who authored The Guidance Manual for the Christian Homeschool speaks to the "socialization" question:

And I agree that it is a dumb question. . .
However, in one sense, we hope the question never goes away because, to us, it is the perfect reason why parents SHOULD home school their children. . .in order to provide proper socialization!

Where in life do we ever live in an environment, except in the institutional school classroom, where you place a mob of people of the same age and maturity level together for an extended period of time?  The only other place that even comes close may be boot camp for entrance into the armed services, and even then there probably are recruits of two or three ages, at least, and that is only for a six to nine week period of time before they are disbursed to their regular assignments.

In college, after-school activities, work, sports, church, synagogue, etc. etc., virtually everywhere else that we interact in society, we do so with multiple ages and ethnicities.   It is amazing to us to think that it is perfectly fine in the classroom when it contradicts reality everywhere else.  It is because of this sheepherder mentality of the classroom that we are raising children in this country that many times can't think for themselves, function properly, or act responsibly.

As one home school advocate says, "What do you get when you put a group of teenagers together in the same classroom?--A room full of fools (because they will do foolish things)."

We all know that peer-level socialization is terrible.
(At least I hope we do.) We need to go on the offensive to explain to everyone we meet this obvious down-side of the public and parochial school programs.  It is the main reason why we home schooled our children and we are not ashamed of it in any way.

see the rest of the interview
with David & Laurie Callihan

David H Albert
who authored And the Skylark Sings with Me, in a recent interview says,

"No one who has ever actually met my kids has ever asked me whether they have been properly socialized. Not one. Which isn’t to say they are perfect – or perhaps it is more accurate to say they are perfect in the way children are."
(see the rest of the interview with David Albert)

Homeschooling Kids Do Better
by Ann Lopez Schubert, M.Ed.

A study published in the scholarly literature confirms that 9 out of 10 homeschooled children surpass their age group on all measures of standardized tests. . since these measures.(are the basis of). many educational decisions. within the mainstream, this would seem to indicate that homeschooled students are beating the mainstreamers by their own rules and measures. .. the person who brought it to our attention is Professor Herbert Walberg at the University of Illinois, at Chicago. He is an internationally respected scholar who writes broadly on the topic of educational policy and evaluation, and he is on the University of Illinois, at Chicago e-mail system, as are we.

Comments

He has more "real" friends
From: Becky in Shannon, GA
As for socialization, I have seen the difference after one year. He is now learning values, morals and leadership skills that he never had in traditional schools. He also has more "real" friends than he ever did in regular school. He has gained confidence in his school work ( for example, his ps teacher told him he couldn't draw, so he always hated it.. now he loves sketching and is improving dramatically with practice). Though he still states that he "hates" school, he helped with choosing the curricululum and we have rearranged our schedule to include mini unit studies each month to break up the bookwork. I believe this year will be better (I know more than I did last year). I feel so much better helping him build a firm foundation for adulthood.

Meet the Author
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Homeschooling"
by Marsha Ransom
hosted by Joe Spataro
interview & FREE excerpt
Marsha Ransom, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Homeschooling, is the mother of four children, two of whom have always been homeschooled. She serves as a homeschool resource for her local library and writes articles for Home Education Magazine, The Link: A Homeschool Newspaper, Women's International Net, and Homeschool Dad Magazine. In this interview on the Zone, Marsha discusses how she came to write this book, developing your program, homeschooling on a budget, what is happening with her homeschooled children, her future plans and a FREE excerpt which tells you how to set up a homeschool cooperative.

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The Big Book of Home Learning
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