Home Schooling and Socialization

Socialization in home schooling can be a tricky subject to broach with friends and relatives. On the one hand there are valid points to be made for why it is not best to have your children in a school setting with other kids their own age. On the other hand, there are valid points as to why it is NOT best to have your child in a school setting with other kids their own age.


For those in favor of socialization with kids of the same age, the arguments are that children need to learn to interact with one another by sharing, getting along with others, being empathetic to one another, and they want their kids to have fun with other kids their own age.


Those in favor of NOT learning socialization from peers of the same age believe that the same set of social skills are much easier learned from being around a multitude of different personalities and ages. For instance, to learn patience while playing board games, who would make a better role model? A grandmother who loves her grandchild and wants what is best for her or a peer who only wants to win at all cost?


Unfortunately, schools are not the same as they were when we were kids.


There are many, many negative things to be learned from peers. Smoking, drugs, and alcohol are a part of the social situations that traditionally educated students are facing everyday at school. Bullying has become a huge issue within the public school system and believe it or not, children are participating in sexual behaviors right within the school walls during school hours. These things are happening at younger and younger ages.


To add more to the spiral downward, violence is rampant in the institutional setting. To learn socialization from a violent person would be a travesty for a young person. Anger and depression are more and more common among students and the teenage suicide rate has hit an all-time high.


Most of these problems can be addressed at home as parents feel it is the right time for their children to learn of these things. Learning of them as a first hand witness is not going to make anyone's child a better person but learning socialization while under the protection of loving parents who expose them to a multitude of social situations can be a much better way to learn socialization.