Are homeschooled children missing out on social interaction?

Just want to point out that, at least around here, homeschool/unschooled kids are not sitting at home with their parents. They are involved in unschool co-ops, large communities, tons of other kids-centered activities, as well as UU church, etc. So, there is no real shortage of “socialization”. Plus, I suspect that there is an unquestioned assumption among many people that dropping a kid into a class with 35 other kids to sit for 6 hours and train for state-mandated testing is the zenith of socialization. Just keep in mind that this is a rather new phenomenon. There are other models. There is also the question of addressing an individual child’s needs. Since every child has different needs, the one-size-fits-all method may not be appropriate.

That depends on how the parent chooses to homeschool the child(ren). If they sat at home all day, then that would not help their social development, but that doesn’t have to be the case. There are recreation league sports teams, homeschool co-ops, and community activities available if families choose to take advantages of those opportunities. They might not be as convenient as the built-in socialization provided in a traditional school environment, but they are out there.

Not if the parent arranges for group activities elsewhere such as church, scouts, YMCA, Little League, karate, dance classes, Grange, and the like.

A guy I used to work with was home schooled and I asked him the same thing. He said there is a group for home schooled kids and there are about 500 of them in my area. He participated in more group activites on a weekly basis than I ever did in a public school. He also had more friends than most kids I knew.
On a side smart a$$ note: I also asked him what he did when/if he skipped school. He said he hid under his bed.~

@tom_g : What is UU church?

As Lonelydragon has stated, it’s up to a parent to either take the ball and go with it, teaching their child at home, or just abandoned their child’s education and do nothing.

Social skills are social skills, unless children are locked in their house 24/7. Socializing comes natural with children. It’s up to a parent to make sure their home-schooled child is kept up to date with the latest social skills, when out in the public. I will agree that there is experience like one on one contact with other children.

I have know several parents(good parents), that have homeschooled their children and have been equal or better than public school or private school teachings.

The outcome all depends on the parents and what they are willing to give to their children, at home.

Home schooling is really the best way to go IF the parent is actually capable of teaching. I honestly think that most parents aren’t. Having said that don’t think the kids miss out on too much. I assume they go out and play in the neighborhood and with other kids at other times. I don’t know why anyone would think that socialization in a school setting is more valuable that socialization in other settings.

@jca: Universal Unitarian Church

I home school my kids and honestly we could be out there “socializing” every day of the week. There are that many activities organized by moms and dads within our home school community.

The difference I’ve seen between a large group of home school kids and a large group of school kids is this: the home school kids play with one another across every age. Teens play with toddlers, tweens play with teens and toddlers etc, etc. They all get along…for the most part. But the school kids tend to stay with their same-age peers.