llabesab16

I went to a small private school until the middle of fourth grade, and I was homeschooled until eighth grade. I was a little shy entering the eighth grade, but it quickly wore off. I am not trying to brag, but I have many friends and a girlfriend, and I am student body president. I do not think that homeschooling hurt my social skills at all. My brother's girlfriend was homeschooled all the way through school, and she is doing just great in college this year as a freshman. In fact, I think that homeschooling allowed me to construct my own knowledge and learn comfortably. I entered public school with a much greater verbal reasoning skills and writing skills than my peers. I am so thankful that my parents chose to homeschool me. I would not have traded it for anything. It also allowed me to enjoy other things, such as outdoor activities an cross-country trips with my family. It was an unbelievable experience, and my mom was a better teacher than any highschool or middle school teachers that I have had. However, I was fortunate. I know some homeschoolers who are not being taught what they should and who have terrible social skills. I guess it just depends on the situation.

hifi

why homeschool?
our county has 10,300 people, one outdoor basketball court, no three way signal lights, no fast food of any kind, three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school with a barren and bleak curricula.
the elementaries are outstanding, the middle pretty good, the high school offering is, well, missing.
my son went public until 9th grade - i pulled him before 9th grade started after looking at the curricula and meeting with the counselor, a cheerleader of students unprepared to face competition outside of this county.

legendofmax

Homeschooling could be so powerful if done correctly.

dis-grace

You mean friggin weird people aren't the funnest? ;p

But yeah, homeschoolers can be out of the loop as far as certain aspects of socializing. I feel that this happens when their parents keep them sheltered or let them interact only with other homeschooled children. Otherwise, it's not a big issue.

ferrisbueller

A lot of my cousins homeschool because they're very intense evangelical christians. Their parents refer to their home as an incubator where their kids are kept away from non-Christian ideas. I think that going to school allows for a free exchange of ideas that isn't present in a home-school environment.

futurewarrior

My mom homeschooled me through the 5th grade. I started "real school" in the 6th grade at the same private school I will graduate from this year. I am very grateful for the excellent education my mom gave me in elementary school. I found that the social transition wasn't bad at all. If homeschooling parents get their kids involved in rec sports leagues or other social activities like mine did, "social weirdness" isn't a problem.

maributt

for you ps people, i'd like to iterate that you can't possibly know how much i appreciate being homeschooled. likely the only homeschoolers you notice are the awkward ones who dress like pilgrims and are in fact, socially inept. however, these people also attend your schools, but you're not lobbying the schools to change them.

the rest of us may blend in (see facebook group: I smile when someone says they never would guess that I was homeschooled)

again, if you've never been homeschooled and are for some reason against it, shut the hell up until you've tried it for a year.

Just2Fitz

good luck in college home school people

_Lotus_

I left regular school for a charter school program called Opportunities for Learning at the end of 7th grade (I left one week before graduating on to 8th haha). I would probably be some loser if I kept on in regular school. I'm sooo glad I found OFL. I'm all A's, finishing high school a year early, and I'm taking college classes. And yes, it was my decision to leave. I remember before I left, I wanted to be in a band. I didn't even know how to play an instrument! Since getting back on the straight and narrow, I want to major in computer science and minor in political science.

Zimmer07

My sister took her d out of school in 3rd grade b/c teacher was reading the RL Stine horror books to the kids (in 3rd grade, can you believe it??!!). She homeschooled her d and let her stay involved in the soccer and basketball. D wanted to go to hs for her jr and sr years. She played hs basketball and was the class president and valedictorian. Noone could accuse her of being weird or socially inept.

BTW, my sis barely got a 900 on her SAT when she was in school, she raised and educated a brilliant d who got a 1525 on the old SAT. So, it can be done and done well.

worth2try

Those of you saying you learn better because you know what you need to learn, you must have all been much more mature than I was. At 14, I claimed that I will never care for medieval history again in my life. Had I been homeschooled, would I have been allowed to omit things that I found dull/useless? Did I know better than a teacher?

maributt

1525? wow, so she was homeschooling before 94?

worth2try, when i was too young to know what i should've learned, my mom just had me follow the standard stuff for 5th or 6th grade.

however, as i started becoming interested in educational methods/pedagogy, my parents let me take control of my own education.

of course, not all people study up on what are the best educational resources and are not capable of self-directed learning

samsmom

I pulled my daughter out of public school in 4th grade because her teacher was horrible. As a couple of examples of horrible... he threw a desk at a student, when a student asked a question about an assignment the teacher went into a closet pulled out a road safety cone and put it on the child's head as a dunce cap... etc... The administration would not do anything to correct this, or allow us to change classes, so we pulled her out.

As an parent who was totally unprepared to take on this task, it meant a lot of work for me to come up with a good strategy. In some ways it worked very well, and in others I bombed!

In math, this 4th grade teacher was teaching them addition and subtraction by some method counting the knuckles on your hand... I never got this, but during the 1/2 year I taught her she excelled in a way we never expected and she learned everything she would be shown until she reached basic Algebra 1. She was very proud of this accomplishment.

In English, vocab went well, writing was so-so, and reading was good.

History was fun for us both, we did the middle ages and I found some great material so we learned how people lived each day, what their clothes were like, their houses, their food, and heck... even where they went to the bathroom. She ended up loving this. Then we went into the American Indians, and she found certain groups of them fascinating.

Science, I totally bombed out here. I tried following the curriculum that the school used, and they studied rocks, formation, etc... and we tried to identify what type of rock we found, and could not do it. Then we went into plants and trees, and I don't think we could identify an oak or a maple... Once again, horrible!

She did another science thing at an outdoor camp once a week, and also at a science center they had a once a week thing for homeschooled kids. This probably was a better option than me teaching her anything about science.

She also did an outside art class, and continued taking gymnastics. The school would not allow her to participate in any after school activities.

I sent her back to school for 5th grade when I knew she would not have the same teacher and they gave her a great teacher. They also had to put her in an advanced math group as she had already learned it all already. This teacher helped her w/her writing better than I could. For some reason she would accept his criticism, but not mine. Must be a mother/daughter thing!

When she went back she was relaxed and confident, and actually did not want to go back, she would have liked to be home schooled for another year, but as an only child I thought it best to be with her peers.

There are lots of reasons to homeschool, and lots of styles of doing it. I was very structured and we had certain expectations each day. Other parents would let them play with Legos each day and call it learning. You will find some kids are self motivated and others are not. It can be a great option for parents and children.

tia3

Are there any "friggin weird" kids in your high school? If so, I wonder why just being in the traditional school environment doesn't correct that? There are certainly plenty of socially experienced kids around them to help out. High school certainly does offer an interesting social experience!

tia3

The previous message was meant for Corraborator. Sorry for the sarcasm. Good for anyone who dares to think out of the box for their child. I did it for my D. for high school. Sometimes, when the only system you have is a public school that is an uncreative and limiting bureaucracy and your child needs to bloom - it's worth the risk. And it can be a great success.