To the Homeschooling Moms

We belong to a playgroup and have for years. I also put my boys in sports at a local church. Though I agree that friends are important, picking good ones are even more important. You don't need a huge group of kids for your children to learn good social skills, especially when they are under the age of 8. I think children should be able to stumble and make mistakes in a safe place with support and guidance within their own family. As they age their world will expand and the skills learned today will come into play. I was a teacher at a private school before becoming a mom. I can tell you that a group of young children can easily become a "gang" mentality pushing some children out and making others feel superior. Alot of peer pressure. I think that young children need to understand and feel good about themselves before being exposed alot of children. Providing a strong foundation for the decisions of tomorrow.
I have found that most home schooled children are quite able to socialize with all ages/gender/race and not only their own peers. It's because they are in the day to day life not put away in a classroom with only children their age. They are learning not only academic skills but every day life skills with you.
And of course who is going to care about their education more than you? They will be blessed to have you as their teacher :) as you to have them as your 'students".
As for entertaining them, I don't think that it's necessary. They can learn to be self sufficient and learn to play on their own. Just my two cents. Wish you well with your decision.
C.

I am not a homeschooling mom because we have a great ISD system in my area of TX. I know of very few people in my area who home school and there is nothing wrong with homeschooling. It is a personal choice.

Even with a child in the public school system, we feel it is important to have friends and socialize outside of school as well. My daughter has friends who trained with her through her martial arts and on to her black belt, she has friends in orchestra where she plays her violin, she has her cheerleader friends on her school squad, she has cheer friends at the cheer gym where she trains, etc

The main thing is to expose them to different people, diversity, sports, etc if you home school or not. The socialization helps them be more well rounded. You can still have a child who appears to have been raised under a rock in a public school system if the parents don't help that child socialize.

Do what you feel is right for you. There are many programs for sports, homeschooling available.

Good luck

I have been homeschooling since 2001. I have graduated two kids, one just received his AA, the other is in the Navy, I am still homeschooling two high schoolers as well as a 6th, 4th, 1st and kindergartner. There are plenty of activities available to home schoolers. My 15 year old daughter is an accomplished ballerina, my 17 year old son is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and he designs computer animated shows, my 11 year old daughter cooks, and my 9 year old daughter is into gymnastics. We attend "park days" and play dates which keeps every one busy. The key is to hook up with other homeschooling families and maybe join some of the online home school groups. In truth, sometimes we are so busy with stuff outside the house, that we have to squeeze in the academics:)
I LOVE Homeschooling!

Think about it - what did your teachers in school say to you when the noise level in your classroom was too high? "Stop chatting. You can socialize later." Children do not need to attend a brick and mortar school to have friends. What they do need is the opportunity to meet a variety of people in a variety of situations, as well as some unstructured time (still supervised while they're young) to spend with the people they enjoy so they can direct their own activities and truly interact with one another instead of just being engaged in a common activity side-by-side.

Also, school is not necessarily the best place to learn social skills anyway, unless learning a pack mentality is desirable. Too many schools turn a blind eye to bullying, or allow cruel cliques to form and to "rule the school." You'd be appalled by how early these problems can take root - one friend of mine had a daughter who was having trouble with "mean girl" cliques in first grade, and my daughter experienced bullying with sexual overtones when she was a third grader! (One of many reasons we now homeschool.)

As for sports, are there community teams in your area? Here there are loads of opportunities through parks and recreation. Until junior high, there aren't sports opportunities through the schools anyway. The teams you may see practicing on school fields are likely to be parks and rec or community center teams. Both of my kids are involved in gymnastics, which they love. Many others we know play soccer, softball, or football on neighborhood rec teams. And while our little church doesn't have teams, many larger ones in the area and many LDS wards do. (Church basketball is HUGE here.)

Look for homeschool groups or co-ops in your area. And even if you don't find one that suits your needs (I didn't, because most around here are faith-based, and a different faith from our own), you can find other homeschoolers if you keep your eyes open. If you see parents (usually moms) with school age kids out in museums, parks, libraries, etc. during school hours when school is in session, they are most likely homeschoolers. Don't be shy about approaching them. We've met some fantastic homeschooling families this way.

Definitely find a homeschooling group in your area. Many of them have weekly "park days" where you can join and meet other homeschoolers; we go to two different park days where the kids play and have fun with other homeschoolers. There are also many different activities that you can enroll them in depending on what your kids would like to do, and you can take them on field trips with other homeschoolers and things like that.

One book I always recommend to people is a great one that I checked out from the library called The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling, by Rachel Gathercole. I was also worried about finding friends for the kids, but after I read this book I realized that as long as I actively get them out to park days and arrange playdates for them and other activities, they will be just fine.

Good luck, and have fun!

Choose activities.
Mine do soccer, fencing, art classes, cub/girl scouts, youth/church group, swim team, sewing lessons at Joann's, sports camp this summer, youth band, piano lessons, art camp youth helper(summer), violin lessons.
We have kids come over on the weekends. Usually these are the ones from scouts, one little boy from church.
My kids' social schedules are very full.

Entertaining them, go to museums and find homeschool groups in your area. Go to the park.
Make every grocery trip an adventure, every library trip, every trip to a restaurant. Talk about tips now. For every $20 we give $3~or whatever you feel is appropriate.
There is nothing wrong with educational software for the computer. Get some games and let him go.
Start piano lessons, violin lessons, youth theater.
Check out your homeschool groups.

I did homeschooling just teaching my 9 yr old then we used iQAcademyTX and they had things setup for the kids to meet and even see the teacher online 3 times a week.

I had the same concerns as you do. There are many different homeschooling groups here in TX. They had several playdates a week, gave homework, met together at a church or other available meeting places to teach the kids so they could interact once a week in a school setting and they had homeschool sports with some of the youth associations here. I am sure if you google homeschooling, you'll find many different avenues. I have a 4 and 2 yr old as well and they followed my oldest around when we'd have to do experiments or just watch a video. They were learning too.

Best of luck, I know it's a hard decision.