A point of view was brought to my attention that I had not considered before concerning socialization and homeschooling. An older gentleman, once a public school teacher, was concerned that minority children who were homeschooled may experience culture shock once they enter college. The gentlemen I refer to is an African American man who raised two children. He sent his children to private school up until such time he felt they needed more exposure to other children of the same color. He was concerned that a black child would never fully be accepted by white society. If that is the … Continue reading →

New home learning parents often struggle with the question, “But what about your child’s social skills?” Give this question a little thought, and you’ll realize that any child who lives in a family will learn appropriate social skills. Socializing is something that happens in a family context as well as a school context. If the family happens to have other children, this will be even easier: having siblings tends to introduce the need for cooperation, taking turns, and playing together! If you’re concerned about your young child’s social development, here are a few of the social activities that he or … Continue reading →

Who says homeschooled children are sheltered? Who says they lack world experiences? Raise your hand if you think homeschoolers are so insular as to never feel the sting of social experiences. What about the “real world”? How is this little story for real world experience? My 13 year old daughter plays volleyball. During one of the days at volleyball camp my daughter overhead a girl saying to another girl, “I cannot believe they let people like that in here.” People like what? My daughter realized the “people” that girl was referring to was an African American girl who just walked … Continue reading →

The school year is almost done, and summer is coming! Families who homeschool might choose to spread their school year throughout the year, or they might choose to take the summer off. However, kids never stop learning, and summer is a wonderful time to take advantage of learning opportunities that appear annually without fail. We call them summer camps, and they come in all shapes and sizes. There are day camps, overnight camps, thematic camps, academic camps, or run around in the woods sorts of camps. There are camps for everyone, but are there camps that suit homeschoolers? What should … Continue reading →

I’m sure that you’ve heard the concerns. If your child does anything alternate, whether it’s an alternative school or homeschooling, that child will be weird. He will not fit in to social norms. He may vote the way he should vote. He will not be able to make polite conversation at cocktail parties. Goodness, who knows? If your child is terribly weird, he might be so innovative as to invent a new nonprofit organization that works to change the world. He might do research on neglected diseases. He might develop a product like Apple, or Facebook – a little product … Continue reading →

How does your child do when you turn her loose? In school, kids have to self-advocate. In fact, in all groups children have to self-advocate to a large degree, especially if you are not around all of the time. Self-advocacy is a good skill to learn, but it’s one that is hard for young children. In fact, it’s one of the reasons that I’m tentative about letting my daughter loose into the school system. She’ll have to navigate large groups of children on her own. As an introvert, she doesn’t have the natural inclination to introduce herself to many other … Continue reading →

One of the biggest concerns people have about homeschooling is the lack of social life the child will have as a result of being taught at home. Studies have debunked the myth that homeschooled children are not socially adapted … and other studies show these children to be behind their peers in social skills. It all depends on who runs the study. But that’s a topic for another day. The point is, human beings do need a certain amount of interaction with other human beings. I mean, look at Tarzan. He wasn’t the most civilized individual, having been raised with … Continue reading →

Young or old, persistence is something that we all need to work on. I am inherently a dabbler. I love to try out new things. Unfortunately for my parents, as a child this meant that I wanted to try every activity there was to try and wanted to stick with nothing. This was very frustrating for all of us. My daughter does not seem to be as much of a dabbler as I was. If anything, she is a homebody. However, we do attend classes outside the home and sometimes she wants to quit. In that instance, I’m in a … Continue reading →

Some days, you just don’t feel like you’re getting anything done. This problem is particularly pronounced around this season, I find, since it is possible to run around like crazy and still have a lot of to-dos on your plate. You’re getting things done, but there are more things to do than there is time to accomplish them all. There are also the days like today, when the weather is snaining (that’s snow mixed with rain) and you just don’t feel like accomplishing anything. It’s dark and cold, and did I mention that snain? Yuck. Cabin fever sets in and … Continue reading →

People homeschool for so many reasons. For us, it’s not so much the focus on academics or religion that is the draw. It’s more the focus on family and attachment. Yet, if you say that you want to protect your child from the bullies of the world and allow your child to grow up connected to family, some people think that this is wrong. But why would it be wrong? Like all small mammals, young children are supposed to be with their parents in the early days, not only in a community of peers who are just as confused about … Continue reading →