I’m going to go on a little rant here for a moment.
If you’re not Homeshooling I don’t think you should have an opinion on the subject. You don’t know my kids. You don’t know how they react to other people. What would my 8 year old learn from your 8 year old? He’s got friends of all ages. Kids who are homschooled are not “weird” or “unsocialized”. Quite the opposite. No, you’re right, my kid isn’t like “other” homeschool kids because each kid is different. Each one of my boys are different from one another. They may be a little shy but do you go to strangers that you don’t know to say hi or ask to go to coffee or something? No, I’m going to say no you don’t. So why should I force my kids talk to people or kids they don’t know just because you think they should “socialize”? Which they do on a daily basis. Oh I know, you were just gonna say “what I meant was” no, no you meant every word you said. I could go on and on about the public education but I keep my opinions to myself because they’re just that: opinions. So please, next time you want to play homeschool expert be sure you got experience first.
Had to get that off my chest.
Life & Writings of Kate 
I homeschooled my daughter last year and she begs to go back. We live overseas now and that’s just not something that’s done here. I’m making a transition to be at home again after working outside of home for the past 6 months so we’ll be doing some unschooling and then over the summer we’ll really be able to get into some fun learning things when we go back to visit my mom in AZ. Whenever I have conversations with people about it, they always understand. They might not agree and make that choice for their family but I’d like to think they leave the conversation more open-minded and informed than they entered it. They just don’t understand and that puts them into rejection and judgement mode. My daughter still begs me to go back to homeschooling because it was so much more fun than regular school… 😉
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My newest response to the great socialization question: “you’re right! Socialization is a huge problem. We make sure we spend at least a few days a week at home so we can get a break!” Really confuses them lol! I actually had someone from the school system tell us that we “need to broaden his horizons, not narrow them more” when trying to convice us to put our kid in the system. You can’t reason with attitudes like that!
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😀 I like that response! No, you can not reason with those attitudes, for sure.
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My best friend hs’ed my 3 god kids. They are truly some of the most amazing kids I’ve ever met. Highly intelligent. Social but selective (shouldn’t we all be?). Creative. Amazing. All 3 were different and had differing needs in so many ways (educationally, one needed un-schooling and the other two varying degrees of structure). I admired my friend’s ability to give each child exactly what they needed.
I greatly admire hs’ers and their commitment to their children.
People need to learn to let people raise their children as they see fit and stop being judgmental of what other parents do.
Wishing you all the best.
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I believe that we should do the best for our children. If my kiddos want to go to ps I would let them. My 8 year tried ps and it wasn’t for him. He enjoys learning at his own pace. He is self motivated because I don’t push him.
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I can understand your frustration, but I’m sorry, I had to laugh. I homeschooled mine from 3rd through 8th grade, and I’m familiar with the common ignorant criticisms of homeschooling and the ignorant assumptions about homeschooled kids. And I know and cherish the benefits.
My laughter came from wondering where the heck you spend your time that you run into so many people you don’t know who openly attack your choices? At public school fund raisers? Lol
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You’re right. It shouldn’t bother me. It’s mostly lack of support from my family. They like to criticize everything I do. I don’t live near them and rarely get to see them or talk on the phone but they seem to know what’s best for my kids. I ignore it for the most part but it’s hard. I don’t have any family members that have hs’d so I can understand the questions but not the criticism.
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*but I could ask the same about ps.* didn’t quite finish that sentence
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I completely understand. I homeschooled my son until the 7th grade. Then he went to a virtual school so he was still at home and I was still involved. Not only do people who have never HS’ed before not get it, but even some other HS’ers don’t. The beauty of HS’ing is that we all get to do what is best for our kid. We had a very traditional style. We had set hours and a schedule. Some people do not. Their kids thrive with more freedom. My son needed structure. Maybe as parents in general, we should just realize that we all know our kids and what’s best for them. I live by this rule…if a parent doesn’t ask for my opinion, I don’t give one.
🙂
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Very true! I just don’t get why my family is so against me hs my boys. I think they think we’re locked away from the world. We may be introverts but we belong to hs co ops and we meet other homeschoolers. I don’t think my family understands that I do like being with my kids. I’m often asked -well when are you going to have anytime to yourself- I usually retort with -when they go to bed-. I get that people who don’t hs question it and wonder why. But I could ask the same. I don’t.
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