Homeschooling Advice

After spending a few weeks at VBS and seeing how other children act, socialize and just plain are, I’ve started thinking. This is especially true since my daughter doesn’t seem to want to join in group activities. She just doesn’t want to do something that she doesn’t like or has some element of the unknown to it. Most people don’t seem to understand how to work around these things with her and I don’t expect them to have to either. However, I often wonder if others blame my daughter’s actions upon the fact that she’s homeschooled? Of course, this is not just my imagination either because I’ve seen this happen online and heard it happen in the “real” world too. Lots of people simply seem to think that homeschool children are “dysfunctional.” They point to the fact that some of these children are unable to “relate” to certain things or people. However, most of these people do not stop to think that these children may have been this way before they were homeschooled or that they would still be this way even if they were attending a traditional school. This is not what they do though. Instead these parents, who are deeply rooted within the traditional school system, choose to use this as yet another reason for them to be comfortable with this school system. After all this is easier and requires less energy for them to do.

As homeschoolers our children seem to mature much faster in many ways. For this reason they oftentimes don’t want to do the same things that children their own age do. This is because many of the children who are their same age are oftentimes “behind” socially and intellectually. While we, as parents, would never think that our children would pick up on this, they do. Of course, this does not mean that our children are not ready to play with others, it is just that these others are oftentimes still stuck within themselves. It really is not our fault that our children are about a year ahead, if not more, when it comes to social, conceptual and motor skills. Just take a moment to think about this. Then think about how my daughter must feel since she missed the cut off date for entering Kindergarten because of when her birthday fell. Now, if she would have had to wait another year to start public school, can you imagine how this would play itself out?!

My daughter is a very outgoing child, but not on the same level as other children her age. This is probably why she is great with babies and gets along well in supervised settings with older children, plus can carry on conversations with any adults that will take the time to talk to her. It is not because I have put her in all kinds of activities either. Instead, it is because she does not have to spend her whole day in a classroom with children who are her same age. So, if you are trying to make a case against the socialization of homeschoolers, do not look at my daughter because you will not be able to draw any conclusions based upon her.