Home Schooling and People Skills

Home Schooling and People Skills go hand in hand. I am sure there are the home school families out there who are not teaching people skills to their children but the vast majority of home school families are participating in home school groups and allowing their children to participate in real life situations where people skills are practiced.

Homeschoolers are in the process of developing a huge network of families who "get together" for various reasons such as sports, academic pursuits, cooperative classes, and much, much more. There are local networks and others which span our country as homeschoolers connect via the Internet as well as conferences, curriculum fairs, and other special events. They draw on each others successes. One of the things homeschoolers are teaching each other is to develop people skills among themselves as well as their children.

All curriculum fairs have young people all over the place. Some are helping their parents choose curriculum they will enjoy using during the upcoming school year. Some are watching younger siblings so parents can concentrate on curriculum choices. Some are manning booths or there simply because they enjoy getting together with other homeschoolers. Overall, these young people are amazing in their ability to articulate with the adults and young people they interact with. They are concientious, articulate, and calm as they communicate with the people around them. It is rare to see young children running wild and being disrespectful of their parents.

Many of the conferences for homeschoolers have workshops on a variety of topics. Most have character building which is a particularly important topic for homeschoolers. In fact, many homeschoolers consider the development of strong character to be more important that academics. They believe (and rightly so) that once the character is developed, the academics will automatically and naturally follow. A young person with strong character is a joy for anyone to interact with.

Another way that homeschoolers build people skills with their children is to allow them access to the real world. They naturally interact with business people in the establishments that their families frequent. The children are as comfortable speaking with the grocer as with the mailman. It is not unusual for them to carry on conversations with doctors and lawyers as easily as with children their own age. Because they have never been stuck in an environment of only children their own age, they never developed a fear of speaking to adults. They are not embarassed to be seen with their parents and thoroughly enjoy going on outings with them.

Though not all families have the same views on teaching their children people skills, overall, it seems as though most homeschool families place this as a high priority in their lives. They activly seek out situations where their children can interact with others and learn the people skills necessary for living their lives as productive adults.