Home Schooled Kids and mothers?

Question

The way I see it is the parents are to blame for the children being inmature and not socalized. The parents are looking for friends. Any experiance on the mothers and if they have any adult friends? How about the kids? My neighbor is a raging closet alcholic and has a 12 year old that is so behind, the neighbor four year old thinks he is retarded? Why in the world would parents want to keep their children in this environment. Eventually the children will have to face the real world and will not be prepared for reality.

Answer 1

Wow how UNINFORMED you are. As a Homeschool parent, I take slight offense at your INSINUATION that we are in any way similar to your RAGING CLOSET ALCHOLIC.

I may not approve of the public school system, but I homeschool my daughter for MEDICAL reasons. My daughter has many friends her age, can hold her own with adults, is well informed and plans to be a Palentalogist when she grows up.

My daughter faces the Real World everyday as do most homeschoolers and as most homeschoolers, she will be prepared to face the world better than her peers in the school system since she can concentrate on her studies and not have to worry about tests that do nothing but pigeon-hole children and slow down the learning process.

I have my own friends as does my husband and we support our daughter with her aspirations and my husband supports my homeschooling her. The only time we shield her is when her health is in danger.

Do NOT judge all homeschool families by what you have seen with your neighbor because that is NOT how we operate and instead of condeming her, offer a helping hand because that is what a TRUE CARING neighbor would do.

Answer 2

OK how is placing 20-30 kids of the same age in a room with one adult better? Is this an example of the "Real World". Is that what you'll find in the work force?

Yes I home school. I have 2 kids that are in school now and 1 to join them in a few years. My kids are very well "socialized" we belong to a home school association with a membership of over 200 families in our parish alone. No their not all religious freaks as some would think but most of them are well grounded people that home school for a myriad of reasons.

Your alcoholic neighbor is not the best example of us in general. If that's what you believe than you are horribly uneducated in the home school life.  I for one rarely even have a drink. As for the "real world" its a mix of people all different ages, creeds , races, and religions. How will the public school teach children to deal with that when all their lives kids are segregated by age and ability? How will a kid understand and appreciate the abilities of a handicapped person if they never meet one but instead just see one in the hall now and again? Unless a child is exposed to the elderly and handicapped their not truly "socialized" after all part of it is how to deal with different people and treat them equally. A home school mom can do that better than any public school.

To make it better where on earth are you ever going to find a more thorough education for kids? After all a home school mom can turn cooking into math, and science just by measureing and explaining the chemical reactions that take place in the kitchen. Only a home school mom could figure out that sorting the dishes is math and folding the laundry fractions! Every day work becomes home ec and life skills.

Answer 3

Nothing at all immature about making a major assumption about an entire group based on contact with a single member of that group.  So who do I "credit" for your excellent level of maturity and vast knowledge of all things?

I am a homeschool parent, and yes, I have lots of friends, from all walks of life. If anything I think our family is more in tune to what our friends and families are up to because we invest a lot of time in them.

I wouldn't want to grow up in an environment like your neighbor's, but that isn't what my homeschool is like, nor any of the other homeschoolers I know.

Answer 4

what exactly is your question? Are you trying to say that home schooled children are behind and have bad mothers? If so then I would have to disagree with you, my friend lived way out in the country and home schooled all her children, every single on (5 of them) were the most well behaved wonderful children and they all grew up to either go on to college or have very high paying jobs and wonderful families...Im really not seeing what your seeing.

Answer 5

Okay, so you know one stupid woman who has managed to s***w up her life.   Know anyone in the public school system that has an alcoholic for a parent?  You do??  Oh no - better shut down the system huh?

That's an incredible, wild generalization.    

I am a homeschool mom.  Yes I have my own friends.  My kids have their own friends too.   My 14 year old just spent the entire summer working at camp.     My dd babysits all the neighbour kids as she is the responsible one on the block.  My younger girl has more friends around here then anyone.

Real world?  My kids are more a part of the real world than their friends who sit in a peer-pressured, same-age classroom all day.

Answer 6

I'll try to keep this brief

Alcoholism is one issue; homeschooling is an entirely different unrelated issue. Alcoholism is a genetically-influenced disease or illness.... in most cases

Research has proven that homeschooled children are generally more intelligent, have better life skills and are more socialised than those schooled traditionally.

They are also preferred for (acceptance into) university and tertiary studies because of their mature attitude, and superior study skills ie they know how to find out things for themselves as their natural curiosity has been allowed to evolve&discover.

Homeschooled chidren socialise within a broad range of ages, cultures, abilities&disabilities and tend to be more accepting. Plus the added bonus of a more relaxed and less stressful lifestyle means happy children!

No we don't lock them in  a cupboard for 24 hours a day!!! We go out on lots of excursions or else we would go crazy.

A little bit of human compassion and kindness towards your neighbour would not go astray!

Alcoholism is an illness (psychological) and these people need love and support, not criticism and condemnation. (However I have to say that I personally do not drink alcohol)

We are into our fourth year of homeschooling, and my youngest son originally left school (Grade 1) because of bullying mainly from his sexist anti-male female teacher! School made him suicidal!!!! We have schoolie friends and by comparison my boys are far more articulate and operate at a much higher level than their schoolie counterparts.

To other homeschoolers, well done and congratulations, I've enjoyed reading your comments on this issue, and support your (positive) views

Belinda B.Sc. Tasmania Australia

Answer 7

I'm sorry but I'm not quite sure what your question is......

Answer 8

interesting.

The way I see it you're making presumptuous, sweeping assertions about millions of people of whom you have absolutely no firsthand knowledge, based on a single dysfunctional family of your acquaintance, and making yourself look like an *** by doing so.

I'm not an alcoholic, my child's quite advanced,  and we both have many friends.

Answer 9

some homeschooled parents/moms shelter their kids like my aunt she homeschooled since her oldest kid was in kindergarten and my 12 year old cousin still sleeps in the same bed with his parents!!??? and if me and my 14 year old cousin say or do something he snitches every time of course my cousins are like my brothers and sisters because im around them alot,but yea some homeschooled parents try to be frinds with their kids that might work for awhile but no u cant be like that with ur children if they have any frinds they will come to the cold hard fact that their parents are conrolling their every move....but on the other hand i was homeschooled for 4 years before this year and my mom was gone all-day so i did wat i wanted ...and most of my frinds that are homeschooled arent controlled by their parents,, theyre parents realized that they canmt conrol their kids forever....if u look at it the homeschool moms who have younger kids shelter them cuz they havent yet learned that they cant control their kids forever but the ones who have experienced their older kids rebelling the see that  the kids have a choice to do good or bad

Answer 10

I'm sorry, I don't understand the focus of your question. Are you talking about immature and non-socialized kids in general, or specifically with homeschoolers? I'm not making the connection between homeschooled kids and mothers with parents looking for friends and your alcoholic neighbour.

Alcoholics keep their kids because they don't know any better and because neighbours who do know what's going on are fearful to call social services/child protective services to rectify the situation. Or were you referring to homeschooling as the environment and not the alcoholic home? Your questions are very confusing. Homeschooling in itself can be a fine environment; depends entirely on the family. If the family is screwed up, their homeschooling will be screwed up.

I know a lot of homeschooling parents. They (and I) do have adult friends because at homeschooling activities, the kids go off and do their thing while the adults sit around and chat. Then the adults who connected well continue their relationship by setting up other times to get together, chatting online, calling each other on the phone, etc. Also, many of us have other activities and have friends who aren't homeschooling parents. Most homeschooling parents aren't weirdos who don't know how to have friends. And most homeschooling kids have friends who are kids.

ADDED:

Omg, I just read your answer to somebody else. Do you really believe that homeschooling parents are for the most part like your alcoholic neighbour? If so, you are sadly misinformed. You are stereotyping a whole bunch of people on one person. Do you do that with people of other races or religions? from other countries? How mature and "socialized" is that?

Answer 11

I don't think you have any idea what you are talking about.

I was homeschooled all through my school years and let me tell you,it takes alot for a parent to homeschool their kids.

My mother gave up so much to give my brother and I a decent education,and also to make sure we had common sense to go with it.

I learned so many more things being at home than I ever would have at a public or any other school for that matter.

And as for being inmature and de-socialized...hah!!

I was very mature for my age the whole time growing up and actually I probably grew-up too fast if anything.

I possibly was a little under socialized,but I made up for it when I got my first part-time job at 14.

I got to experience responsibility at a younger age than most kids my age.

I'm 22 now and I would hope to think that for me,homeschooling was a very good decision for my mother to make.

Answer 12

Statistically, homeschooled kids do 1-3 grades better than public school kids, and therefore I would say that, overall, homeschooling is better. I homeschooled both of my boys last year and actually taught my (now 6 year old) son to read. That is an awsome feeling, knowing I taught him to read. The six year old is pretty high above average intelligence. We haven't had him tested yet, but we suspect he may be genius (as am I and my sister). The 12 year old has learning disabilities and slips further and further behind the other kids his age with every year in public school. Last year, when I was homeschooling him, he made leaps and bounds toward catching up to his grade level. When I had to go back to work, and had to put them back in public school, and was in his first A.R.D. meeting, I showed them samples of his recent work, and samples of his work from a year before, and they were amazed at his progress. However, even though it was a great school and they worked with him as much as they could, given how many other students they had to deal with, he started slipping behind again. This year I am only homeschooling the 12 year old, because he needs too much attention for my attention to be devided. This is hard for me, because I know that the geniuses are more underserved in public schools than the learning disabled,( "Time" magazine, "The Genius Problem" August). We make sure all the kids spend plenty of time with other kids, through church and scouting, neighbors,  ect...There are SOME parents who either homschool for the wrong reasons or who don't have the patience and work ethic to do it properly, but this is the minority. Homeschooling is a big committment, and a FULL time job. Anyone who doesn't have the time, patience, or committment shouldn't do it.