The ‘S’ Word (Socialization)

From my own experience, it may have been about 14 thousand times that I have been asked about the “s” word when family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers find out I homeschool.

It wasn’t too long ago I was at a local park with my children and I met a mom on the playground. My kids were socializing with her children and running around having a good ole’ time. When the mom found out I homeschooled one of the first questions she had was “What about socialization?”

No matter how much I hear this question, I always welcome it and look at it as an opportunity to break down the typical stereotypes that many have about homeschooling.

I continued the conversation by asking, “Where else in society will our children be placed in a room all day with people their same age? (but not necessarily the same maturity and academic ability levels) I went on to explain that in the real world, we interact with people of all ages. In the workforce we don’t divide employees into 20 year olds over here and 40 year olds over there.

As I homeschool my children, the world is our classroom (as I have read on bumper stickers and wholeheartedly believe) and my children are constantly interacting with people of all ages. For our family, this type of socializing is much more realistic and applicable to the real world.

Of course, I’m not implying that children in traditional school settings don’t know how to interact with others in different age groups; only that homeschooling gives my children much more freedom and practice to carry on conversations with all age groups.