Displaying items by tag: children socialization
A day in the life of a homeschooled child can begin at any time. Most homeschooling families try to follow a schedule of 'doing school.' This way the child gets used to the idea and is well aware of what to expect for the day. Since the amount of schooling per day that a homeschooled child receives depends on their age and therefore their attention span, for the purposes of this article we will imagine that the child used in our example is a ten year old boy.
School will encompass a variety of subjects with some subjects not being taught ever day. Such things as art, music, etc. may be taught once or twice a week instead of every day. Again, each homeschooling family will choose to do things differently from the next. That is the beauty of homeschooling. You can be as flexible as you like.
Most homeschooling families have either a room or portion of a room dedicated to school. They will have cabinets and bookshelves used to store and display their school material. They may even have a wipe-off board or chalkboard on the wall along with student-created posters,projects and artwork. There will be a table or desks for the students to work on. Typically, homeschooling families will set up the children around the kitchen or dining room table.
For this example, we will assume school is beginning at 9am. Our student is set up at the table with his school books out for the subject of reading. An independent learning assignment has been handed out with which the child has been asked to read a short story. After the child has read the story, the homeschooling parent will then ask a series of questions about the story to promote thought as well as to test comprehension. There may be some memory words for the child to look up in a dictionary. The child may be asked to memorize how to spell some of the bigger words for a test at the end of the week. It may be time for a recess break.
After the break, the student is back at the table. Let's assume that the story he read earlier takes place in Ireland. The parent may then get out a map and show the student where Ireland is as compared to their home country. This may lead to the subject of geography where the student is taught various things about the country's location, population, agriculture and other particulars. Another sequeway can easily be made into history where the child is taught about the politics surrounding Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and they came to be that way. The potato famines may come up. The parent may talk about the type of animals that live in Ireland and any similarities there may be with their home country. Perhaps some of the student's ancestors came from Ireland. Math can easily be brought up by comparing Ireland's population to the United States and the rest of the world. Ratios and pie charts can come into play.
Before you know it, the half day is up and the child has learned a lot and been free to ask as many questions as he likes. If you can get him interested in the subject, then it is all the more likely that he will retain the information. The following day, the homeschooling parent may lead off with a review of the previous day's learning and continue the program from there.
The afternoon's in a homeschooled child's life may contain playing with other children, attending a field trip to a library or museum, or perhaps swimming lessons or soccer practice. One of the best things about homeschooling is that the parents set the schedule and it can be adjusted to fit what is suitable to the child's needs and what is offered out in the community.
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Homeschooling
A very common reaction received by homeschooling families includes the negative belief that homeschooled children are not receiving enough socialization. People who don't know enough about homeschooling are quick to use this as a reason for why they think a homeschooling parent is damaging their child. In fact, a homeschooled child is no different from those attending the public school system. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to have fun with other people.
A homeschooled child is often very active in extra-curricular activities outside the home. The local town recreation department, the "Y", or 4H club has numerous activities and classes for children at reasonable rates. You may have your own children enrolled in such activities as swimming, soccer, kindercorner or music lessons. You may be surprised to know that your child has class mates you are actually homeschooled. It is not as uncommon as you may think.
A homeschooled child does live in a home with 4 walls and as such does have neighbourhood children and friends with which to play with. They also have local homeschooling groups with which they do field trips and other activities. Often homeschooling families will get together regularly at meet-ups. They have picnics, put on Christmas plays, and even visit back and forth at each others homes. Sometimes they will share expertise as well. One homeschooling parent may be well-versed in the arts and will trade teacher for teacher services with another family who perhaps is knowledgeable in math.
Instead of being mixed up with other children of their own age group, homeschooled children are intertwined with people of all ages. My goodness, how did our parents ever survive growing up in a one-room school house!? Having the advantage of learning alongside older and younger children has wonderful benefits. Learning along with older children provides the younger child the advantage of hearing what the older child is learning and even learning along with them. Younger children always strive to be like the older one and this gives them the initiative to be better than they are. Older children who have younger children in the same learning environment can be given responsibilities to help teach a younger child. Strengths they will gain from this environment are not necessarily something they will have coming out of the traditional school setting.
Socialization for homeschooling children is not a reason to not homeschool. As described above, homeschooling families do not seclude and quarantine their children in their homes. A homeschooled child is just as social as any other child. Any behaviors you may observe and try to attribute to a lack of socialization are simply representative of normal childhood and can be found just as readily in the public school system.
Published in
Homeschooling
