Brynna Let’s talk “socialization.”
Many people assume you have to go out of your way to make sure homeschooled children get time to socialize. Let me squash that one right there. That isn’t true. It can hold SOME truth for a very rare population of homeschoolers, but it’s not exclusive to learning at home and can happen in public settings as well. There’s definitely a misconception there.
In a classroom setting, kids don’t “socialize” by default. They have specific times it is not only allowed but acceptable (I wouldn’t condone my child feeling like they can use the time the teacher is teaching a lesson as a time to socialize with heir friends! They need to respect the teacher and listen and pay attention!). So we’re talking before school, lunch, and after school, between classes, and at appropriate times during class. Teacher friends, would you say that’s fairly accurate? But it would also be fair to mention that those opportunities are almost always going to be the same age groups and even the same people every day, sometimes for the full 12+ years.
In that regard, yes, it’s true that homeschool children don’t have those same settings in which to “socialize.”. But here’s my beef with the original assumption…do we really believe the only way for our kids to learn to socialize and interact with other humans is in that setting, and that being with primarily only one age group is sufficient? And especially enough to look down on a method of schooling because of it?
I’m not saying that how it happens in public school is wrong, I’m not even going there. I’m simply comparing the two for the sake of clearing this up because people seem to think homeschool children are at a disadvantage, and that’s not fair or correct.
Let me give you some examples of how it works within most homeschool families.
Socialization=
Developing close, healthy relationships with parents and siblings, as well as aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents…the whole expanse of age groups. That’s probably the #1…learning to interact with and relate to people of all ages.
Building confidence and personal development in the security of home and family.
Having conversations with the elderly neighbor and learning to help care for older generstions.
Doing the grocery shopping and checkout and talking to the cashier as they handle money on their own.
Having video calls with friends they only met once in person but developed lifelong friendships with.
Creating book clubs where they organize and meet with friends and family.
Running the home business with the parents.
Studying local public services and going to visit them and learn from the employees.
Field trips galore, meeting all sorts of people out and about.
Vacations…oh the vacations and the opportunities to meet SO many different people and experience SO many different ways of life.
Doing a science fair with other local homeschool friends.
Participating in local sports via schools and rec departments.
Putting on plays and performances for friends, family, neighbors, organizations.
Actively spending time in church groups.
Starting up their own business where they directly communicate with their customers.
Homeschool co-ops and get togethers.
…we could go on and on.
Do all kids do this, regardless of schooling? Yeah, probably, in many cases. The difference is that this stuff IS homeschool. It’s not in addition to it. People assume homeschoolers lack socialization when in truth, they tend to LIVE it more than they would in any other setting, because it’s an all day, every day thing, just natural.
So if you might have been one that believed homeschoolers don’t socialize without going out of their way, I hope you reconsider. And if you’re interested in homeschooling but that is a concern for you, don’t let it be! You’ll discover it’s probably easier to get more well rounded socialization in that you ever thought, and you don’t have to go out of your way to do it. You just LIVE! ♥️♥️
