rayelias said:
If I remember hearing correctly, homeschoolers typically test better and are more successful than the average "regular" student. Would you agree?
If so, I'm curious to learn WHY you feel that is true. Is it the curriculum? Is it the one-on-one attention? Is it the fact that "mom or dad" is the teacher? Is it because there's less distraction (from "friends", etc.)? Is it the students' ability? Is it a combination thereof? Or, is it something else entirely?
How do you handle "social" development? Although I was a top student in (regular) school (book smart), I was very poor socially. Can homeschoolers join "regular" school teams or clubs?
Yes, studies show that homeschool students to perform better on tests. I think it's due to a variety of factors. It can't really be just one thing, since there are so many ways to homeschool.
It helps that parents can choose curriculum. If you're at a traditional school and don't like math, the teacher can get you extra help, but you'll still have to go to the regular math class and do your extra work on the side. With homeschooling, you can find a whole new math books that approaches math the way you learn most easily. Having one-on-one attention helps, too. When students take a multiplication test in a normal classroom, if the student makes a 95%, it's great. But if that same student takes the same math test at home, her mother is more likely to realize (because she doesn't have so many other students) that her DD never gets 9 X 4 right, so they can work on 9 X 4. Of course, that's not exclusive to homeschooling. Involved parents who look over tests their children took at a conventional school will notice the same thing.
Socialization is often referred to as "the S word" in homeschooling circles because that's the issue that nay-sayers always bring up. How people approach it varies widely and usually depends on why they chose to homeschool in the first place. Some people want to have a school environment at home, and they want their children to have the same social opportunities they'd have if they were in schools, so they put their children in many activities. In some areas, you can be in clubs and sports teams in the public schools. Many private schools allow that, too. But even if that isn't an option, there's always Boy/Girl Scouts, YMCA sports teams, martial arts lessons, dance lessons, and so on.
In some cases, one of the reasons people choose to homeschool is because they don't think that the way socialization occurs at school is the ideal situation. My children are only 1 and 2, but they will be homeschooled, and in our case, our plan is to be very involved in their social activities while they're younger and then slowly taper off as they get older. Mind you, we're not going to hover over them and always be in their business, but we'll choose music classes and karate classes where we can sit off to the side and observe inobtrusively. We want our children to learn to interact with other children and to follow instructions from other adults, but we're not comfortable with letting that occur unsupervised while they're still young. If they're ever in a situation where they're being bullied, for example, we'll know right away and will be able to coach them at home so that they're more prepared to handle the situation the next time it happens. If the adult in charge says something that goes against our personal beliefs and values, we'll know our children heard it, and we'll talk about it in the privacy of our home. We DO want them to be exposed to many different ideas and belief systems, but we also want to know when it happens.
Sorry to the OP for taking this slightly off-topic, but I just had to answer these questions.
