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Which is more important in early childhood (ages 5-11), to provide emotional support by homeschooling a child or a social environment within a classroom for a child?
Homeschooling remains a poorly understood concept. There are a lot of kids who are haphazardly homeschooled, in that they drift in and out of school according to their parents whims. An unknown number of home-schooling parents are motivated by a religious or political zeal that inspires them to indoctrinate their children in a dogmatic upbringing, which basically excludes classical education. Many parents are simply lazy and/or incompetent, with their homeschooled children getting virtually no education at all, but about a quarter of all kids attending school get no education, either.
Parents and schools these days keep such a paranoid rein on their children "for their safety", that the only social exposure they get is dodging bullies at school.
I think there are way too many variables within the homeschool arena to be able to draw any generalizations about the effects or the results.
Location: At the end of the road, where the trail begins.
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Most every homeschooler I know has their children involved in many activities outside the home. There is no shortage of "social interaction". In fact these kids are usually better socialized because they are not stuck learning to only relate to their peer group, instead have regular exposure to social interactions with everyone from a young baby to the elderly.
Sure there are some "bad examples" in the homeschooling crowd, just as there are in the public school crowd. How many kids do you know who have fallen through the cracks of public education? I know many of those as well.
I asked this question recently and did some extensive research that showed homeschooled children do well. Now, I have no idea what it entalls, but I understand through one person I spoke to the other day that homeschools 3 or her kids is that she does not want the children to learn about evolution and she had issues with the public school teaching her children while very young about alternative lifestyles.
Getting back to the interaction, I do not think so. You can still enroll children in afterschool activities both at school and out of school. I know that the charter homeschool kids have a nice network of parents, children that get together and go on trips, etc.
Location: At the end of the road, where the trail begins.
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If you live anywhere near a population center, there are many homeschool networks/groups to get involved with. So many that you quickly have to learn to say "No" or you will be overwhelmed! Even many rural areas have groups that get together.
The gatherings can be anything from scheduled play dates, educational trips (museums, touring a mine/hospital/factory, etc.), homeschool sports leagues, to various spelling/poetry/oratory contests...... and so much more.
Not to mention that there are some parents who home school their children along with other parents at the same time. I had a neighbor who homeschooled her children along with several other homeschoolers and they took turns doing this. In the end, it was like they had a little school of only 20 kids.
I would think that to a large degree its the type of social interaction going on in many schools that homeschooled parents want to avoid with their child. Its really not much different than people who send their children to private school or actually move to have their child go to what they see as a better school.
Some of them, yes. It all depends on the family. Some isolationists use homeschooling as an excuse to keep their kids from every being seen by anyone outside their own little group and I do have a problem with that. It's not a homeschooling issue per se.
If you live anywhere near a population center, there are many homeschool networks/groups to get involved with. So many that you quickly have to learn to say "No" or you will be overwhelmed! Even many rural areas have groups that get together.
The gatherings can be anything from scheduled play dates, educational trips (museums, touring a mine/hospital/factory, etc.), homeschool sports leagues, to various spelling/poetry/oratory contests...... and so much more.
Yes, I am a homeschooler.
I admit...I am jealous. My wife and I would love to join the ranks of those who homeschool, but when we evaluate our personal finances, we can't see how we could afford it.
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