3.3 Teaching children well, from home

Here's an article that features a mother who decided to homeschool her daughter diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Teaching children well, from home - Health - MSNBC.com

In this article, someone brings up the "S" word--"socialization." Many think that homeschoolers will lack socialization skills if "sequestered" in their homes instead of "integrating" with other children in a public or private school environment.

I don't agree. Of course, I have a rather large family, so the kids have built-in socialization opportunities. I've actually found the flip side to this argument to be true. My children have learned to express themselves without fear of censorship from other "less tolerant" children and have grown comfortable with being "individuals" in addition to being part of a group (in this case, a family), which is no small task given the cliqueishness of our schools. This is nothing new, either. Part of the drama of growing up is learning to deal with cliques that you wish to be a part of or who may not wish to include you.

My children dance, play sports, write, draw, play with neighborhood kids, go to the amusement park, play video games, chat on the Internet, listen to music on iPods, go to sleepovers at the homes of friends...not exactly the antisocial family-in-the-mountain picture some have of homeschoolers.

Maria did go through a period (primarily due to financial restraints) when she made our own draperies, painted the whole house, and created (with the help of the kids) various decorative crafts for the house--I did tease her that considering she was also homeschooling several children, she only had to learn to kill her own meat to be classified as a full-blown "mountain woman!" ;-)