Spunky has a great post up about homeschooled kids and socializing. She says in part,
The myth that children who are homeschooled are not going to learn to socialize has been largely dismissed. It is obviously necessary for our children to learn to get along with many different kinds of people. However, I don’t think you need a large social circle, or a classroom, to learn proper social skills. In fact, I actually believe that can be a hinderance. How many of us interact with 20-25 people who are all the same age everyday for six hours? A classroom is a manufactured environment with little resemblance to the “real world”.
My kids are far from unsocialized and we’ve been homeschooling for eight years now. They are comfortable talking with and enjoying the company of people younger and older than them. They manage to hold their own in conversations - real conversations - with adults. Because of their ability to do this, I find that for the most part adults will treat them respectfully and not talk down to them.
May 21, 2006 @ 5:07 pm
I had a total stranger (who happened to be a home schooling mom) approach me, at a wildlife education event last year, and ask whether I home schooled. When I said I did, she told her husband, “See, I told you!” LOL! She said she had recognized it because my older daughter seemed so confident and comfortable talking with adults. For some reason society thinks that a child becoming uncomfortable relating to anyone except same age peers “properly socialized.”