Posted by alexandra_k on June 23, 2005, at 6:09:15
In reply to Re: Does anyone homeschool their kids ?, posted by gromit on June 22, 2005, at 7:29:14
Yeah, I think social skill development can vary depending...
One family I boarded with had two boys. 8 and 5 I think (so the younger one had just started). It was in a city (their mother didn't have faith in the idea of some teacher who didn't care about her kids teaching them). She was a bit of a hippy with some fairly 'alternative' ideas.
But: she really cared about her kids, there is no denying that.
She went out of her way to make sure that they spent a lot of time with other kids who are also being home schooled. She would even look after someone else's kids one day a week to teach them art and natural science stuff around the garden and the other mother would take hers one day a week to teach them reading and math.
They seemed fairly normally socially adjusted.
The only thing that I worried about... Was their attention span. Their mother had an idea of 'free learning' where she didn't want to sit them down and *make* them do anything - instead she just did her best to answer their questions comprehensibly and help them find the answers to questions she didn't know out of books and off the internet.
But IMO you only learn concentration and control of attention by practicing. And unfortunately, sometimes that means sitting down and just working at something. And it ain't so bad. To realise that it ain't so bad and it gets better with time and after a while one can even lose oneself in it...
The other lady I know treats her kids as little people. Really. They are 9 and 7. I bet she didn't even baby talk them when they were little. She is a lecturer at uni and brings them along sometimes. They sit there quietly, listening (sort of) and colouring in in their colouring books or reading books quietly.
Last time...
They were in the room when I went in for a pre-markers markers meeting. We were worrying a bit about the best answer to one of the questions and her 9 year old piped up. I was amazed. She talks to them about all kinds of stuff - but in language they can understand.
So...
I don't know.
I think it can be better or worse or comperable depending on lots of factors...You don't have a choice because you don't live by a school? Is that right? Some people do that in NZ too.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:512886
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/child/20050226/msgs/517444.html