Socialization

Unschooling is interest based learning where children naturally learn from their environment and are trusted to learn what they need to learn to succeed in life.  Parents act as a resource person and role model to help educate their children in a respectful manner.  Unschooling will often look different with each family.  This blog includes my family's approach to the unschooling philosophy.  I will sometimes include ideas and challenges and sometimes I will include a blog of an actual day or event of our unschooling family.  Feel free to follow my blog if you would like to learn more.  Thank you for taking time to read my blog!

One of the biggest concerns I hear about homeschooling in general is concerns about if my child will be appropriately socialized or will they be this ultra shy, introverted, awkward individual who will surely never be able to adapt to the stressors of the real world.  There are homeschoolers where children do not socialize much and they keep to themselves, but homeschooling is almost mainstream now and it is actually an extremely social experience if you allow it to be so.  This has actually been the most social I have been in my life so far since I made the decision to jump into homeschooling.  So I am going to share today about how my kids socialize and enjoy being around others and this may give some who are interested in homeschooling, but fear that their child will not be able to socialize an idea of how it works. 

On Mondays, we spend an hour at the park with other children, mainly homeschoolers and the children have free play and make new friends by doing this.  So this week, on Monday, we went to the park and there were a few people there I knew and some that I did not know, but I assume they were mainly other homeschoolers.  I announce  park play dates on a new local homeschool Facebook group I started about a month ago that now has 75 families that are part of it.  I announce park play dates on that group, so I won't necessarily know everyone who attends, but at the last park play date on Monday, there were probably 20 or 30 children playing.  After the children play at their park play date, my son goes to recorder lessons at an old church with other children and a very nice teacher.  He appreciates the independence and goes to this class on his own while we wait for him in the nursery where the younger two children can play.  We then grab dinner after recorder class and then head to soccer where he is involved in a soccer team for an hour through one of the local colleges.  There are probably at least 20 children on his team, but the entire event is for k-4th grade and there are probably around 500 children all together.  He has several friends who do this with him who he has met through various activities he's been involved with.

Tuesdays, we usually go to the library, but skipped that this week.  Sometimes we meet up with people we know at the library, but other times the children will make new friends.  However, this week, we went shopping for Halloween costumes instead because the children look forward to this all year.  Then my daughter has a ballet class where she is in a preschool ballet class with about ten other little girls and a very nice teacher.  The boys enjoy watching her through the window as she does her class.  My oldest son was in ballet for three years by his choice and had the opportunity to be in the Nutcracker twice.  We decided to have him take a break from ballet this year and explore some new things.  Once a month, my son will also be attending a science class on Tuesdays for 3 hours where they do various experiments and hands on activities.  My daughter will also start these classes once she is five years old.

Wednesdays are usually our stay at home day unless there is a random field trip or event scheduled, but the last couple Wednesdays seem to be play date day.  Last Wednesday, a family with three children came over while this Wednesday a family with two boys came over to play.  They usually have 2-4 hours of free play with other children when we have play dates.  After the children left, my oldest son and daughter then played together for several hours.  They enjoy each other and are very good at sharing and incorporating their different interests in their play.  They both really like Scooby Doo, so I think that became the theme today.  When children come over to play, they play various free play activities often outside and there is often some chicken education involved.  Today, the little boy who came over was excited when two hens laid eggs while he was here and he was able to collect the eggs from the nesting box.  I then usually send a carton of eggs home with the families since we are averaging about three dozen eggs a week at this point in our life with our five hens.  Even though we spend the day at home on Wednesdays, there is a Lego League that meets at our local library and the person who began this program organizes field trips throughout the year.  So this is an option for us also.

Thursdays are our stay home and clean the house day, but if my daughter gets up early enough, we have the option of going to preschool story time at the library where she would have the opportunity to play and socialize with other preschoolers.  We recently decided to take a break from Cub Scouts on Thursdays because it seemed like there was too much socializing and we felt like we needed a day at home to just do things around the house.  Up until last week, my son was also going to Cub Scouts on Thursdays with a group of about ten little boys his age.  He is 2nd grade age level.  We may get involved with Cub Scouts again in the winter/spring, but for now, we are taking a break from this activity because we were feeling a little too socialized. 

Fridays are our activity day.  We usually go to a zoo or museum and one Friday a month, my son is involved in a nature class and the children will be starting 4-H once a month during the winter and spring with a fair in the summer where they will be involved in a club with other homeschool children.  Sometimes we will go out of town to museums and activities on Fridays and sometimes we will do something local and I always invite other homeschool families to join us on these adventures if they are interested.  Whatever we do, it is usually something very educational and covers either history or science or a mix of subjects.  This week we are going to learn the history of rail roads and will explore the bicentennial train and I know of a few people that we know who will be participating in this event.  We may be part of a large tour group.

So this is just an example of how my children socialize during our unschooling week.  It is best to be aware of resources in your community that will help the kids explore their interests and meet new friends.  Facebook is a very good resource for homeschoolers to exchange ideas, set up play dates and exchange resources.  The children have a lot of friends, but my seven year old son has developed social skills to the point where everyone is not his friend, but he is selective about who he chooses to spend his time with.  He seems to be a pretty good judge of character, so I give him the freedom he needs to choose his friendships.  My daughter thinks everyone is her friend at this point, but she is only four.  Baby boy just thinks everyone is funny.  He doesn't really have friends yet.  So maybe some homeschoolers are introverted little children who never leave the house and are frightened of the outside world., but this is not the case with my family.  We are very social and it seems like we meet a few new people weekly.  It is a very social experience and there have been studies conducted indicating that homeschool children actually have better social skills than children who spend their day in a classroom.  So if you are thinking about homeschooling and are afraid there will be no social outlets for your children, there is no need to worry about this.  I remember having this fear when I first started and now I just laugh about it after we have become so social over the last couple years.  The opportunities are available as long as you take advantage of them.