This morning as I drove my kids to their homeschool program my son said, “My friend … said homeschool kids are unsocialized”. Considering the fact that the person in question is also homeschooled, I had to wonder why he would say such a thing. It was akin to my mother’s old habit of telling “yo-mama” jokes… to her own kids. I used to always stop her and say, “You know you’re talking about yourself right”. Of course, that is what made her jokes really funny.
Somehow having a homeschooled child inform a bunch of other homeschooled children that they are unsocialized was not quite a funny. So I inquired more about why this homeschooled child thought of himself and his peers as unsocialized. It turns out that this child was having doubts about his homeschool experience. He was high school age and was considering public school. He also recently moved to a new area where there weren’t alot of homeschooled kids. With all that taken into consideration, my guess is that young man was ready to move out into the world and needed to justify to himself and his friends that it was a good idea.
I think the conversation was actually good for my son. He explained that the conversation went on to discuss that the difference between public school and homeschooling was quantity over quality. You may have more friends in public school, but are they good trustworthy friends who will support you and look out for you. You may have more choices for classes, sports activities, and other interesting things in public high school, but will you get the depth and breadth of study that you get for your homeschool classes. Probably not.
And so the conversation ended with discussing how my son could support his friend who was feeling like he needed more contact with friends by making it a point to invite him more places and to also try to hang out with him more this year. I hope that that will help.
This young man may very well end up in public school by the end of this year or maybe next year. There is nothing wrong with that. Some kids are ready to break out on their own earlier than others are. Some want to see if the grass is as green as it looks on the other side of the fence. There is also a good chance that he may get over this feeling of and once he gets into the school year begin to enjoy his studies once again.
Read
Shouldn’t Kids be Exposed to Different Teachers?
Socialization of Homeschoolers in the Upper Grades
Homeschoolers Tend to be Withdrawn?
But What about Socialization at the families.com forum