We have been a homeschooling family since 1997. Our oldest two children spent some time in the public school system. Our two youngest children were homeschooled from the start. I read an interesting article earlier today called Homeschool Myths Revealed. Here is the comment that I posted there:
The socialization question has always been a funny one to me. Generally, my children had just performed at a church and would be out conversing with various people (adults and children alike) in the congregation. Someone would bring up the question of schooling and socialization. My husband would challenge the person to find any one of our children that had not been out and about talking to the people. Some of my children are bold enough to initiate conversations without any prompting and one of them is like me, shy and reserved for the most part, but even he didn't shy away from talking to people of any age group that talked to him.
At one church, one of the state senators in South Carolina sought two of the children out to speak with them and was very impressed. The heart of the former mayor of Anderson, South Carolina was won over by our youngest child when she walked up to my husband at the podium during a presentation and carried on a conversation, then apologized to the people for interrupting and returned to her seat.
All of my children were home-school graduates, one in South Carolina and the rest here in Texas. The one that graduated in SC had no problems getting into the US Navy. We provided his transcript and he breezed right in. The other three had no problems getting accepted into the local college and a major university. All three have been on the Dean's List. The youngest graduated a year early, was the youngest student at the college when she entered, and is in the honor society called Phi Theta Kappa.
I think that, although many people think homeschooling limits their opportunities, the exact opposite is the case. It opens the world to them. They have developed the skills necessary to pursue what is important to them because we allowed them to study things that were of interest to them, not forcing them to study the same things in the same way as every other person in town.
Homeschooling helped them to better develop themselves as individuals.
I would love to hear about your thoughts and/or experiences concerning the way that you chose for your children to be educated, whether it is/was homeschooling, public schooling, or private schooling.
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Being a veteran homeschool mom, I totally agree with you. The socialization issue is just a smoke screen to try to dissuade parents from teaching their kids at home. All it takes sometimes is a well meaning family member or close friend to say how little Johnny or Susan will be dysfunctional, if they are taught at home and then that parent's nerves are shattered. Our children had no problem talking with anyone regardless of age, sex, or background. They often times were the first to initiate a conversation, too. All three went to college short term, but decided they would rather work. Maybe, one day they will want to go back to school. The important thing is, if they are happy then we are happy. The interesting thing that I have discovered is that many public school kids will not engage easily in a conversation with different age groups, etc. I have found that even speaking in passing to a public school child for instance in the store, they will look at me like, "Are you talking to me?" without uttering a word before sheepishly giving a vague answer or walking away altogether. Not all public educated kids are like this, but the numbers of them that are amazes me. Good post. I'm gonna be away from Blogosphere all of Christmas week, so y'all have a very Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteHi Cathy,
DeleteI hope that your children are happy with the jobs that they've chosen. What type of work do they do? Our oldest daughter wants to work in theater and the youngest wants to be a history teacher. Our youngest son ultimately wants to be a policeman, but for now has given his oath of service to the US Marines and will go to basic training in June. As long as they are happy, that is what is important. I know many people whose children decide not to go on to college, but are quite happy and successful in the fields that they've chosen to work in. Glamor and financial gain aren't the only measures of success, so even a grave digger or bag boy is successful if he/she is doing what fulfills them.
I think there is too much emphasis placed on having a degree. I believe that lifelong learning is important, but I don't believe at all that a formal classroom setting is the only place where we can learn or get the knowledge that we need to get by in this life.
There's good and bad in both the public school setting and the homeschooling setting. We just each have to do our best to be in the good category and train our children to respect others and be a Christ-like example to the others that they come in contact with.
I lost my train of thought along the way there. :) It is happening more and more lately. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I hope that you have a great week and a very Merry Christmas!