One of the most often heard questions when considering homeschooling is, “Aren’t you worried about socialization?”  I’m not sure if those questions are truly about socialization, or if they’re about socializing.  There’s a big difference between the two.

While this issue of socialization seems to be on the minds of people against homeschooling, those who actually homeschool never give it much thought.  They know that their children are not going to suffer by foregoing public school socialization. In fact, most homeschool children are probably better socialized than public school students.

Socialization is basically learning to conform to today’s society.  What is it about homeschooling that would keep a child from learning to conform to today’s society? And do we really want children that conform and become little automatons?  Or do we want children who can think for themselves while having something to offer society as a whole? 

Children are little sponges, so just by being a part of a family they will begin to learn what society expects of them.  The only way a child would fail to be socialized is if they were secluded away from everyone.  The image of a backwoods, backwards, misfit homeschool family is just not accurate.  Homeschooling families are generally active in their local communities, and often involved in volunteering to help others.  These activities will help solve any socialization issues.

So if you plan to homeschool, how should you respond when asked about socialization?  Are the questions really about socializing instead?  Well, I can honestly say, my kids are very social.  Not only do we attend church every week, we have days during the week that we meet with other homeschool families, and they’ll strike up a conversation with anyone, no matter their age.  If those activities aren’t enough, homeschool children have play days, skate days, and trips to the bowling alley.  How much more social does a child have to be?

When thinking about socialization, one has to wonder, are the lessons they learn in public school really any better than what they’ll learn at home?  Since public schools create artificial societies which rarely mirror real life.  In public schools children learn about drugs, alcohol, violence, and sexual promiscuity.  Most homeschool parents are very happy that their children won’t have to learn those lessons.

If socialization is supposed to teach your child how to behave in society, how to properly respond to people, and be responsible adults, it isn’t very likely that a child will learn that from public school.  All one has to do is go to nearly any public middle school and walk the halls.  After witnessing the behavior of the students there, ask yourself which of those behaviors you would truly want your child to emulate.  That should get any parent’s attention and quell any further questions or concerns about a homeschool child’s socialization.

You’ve done it! You’ve made the choice to homeschool your children. But now what? There are different methods of homeschooling:  school-at-home, Charlotte Mason, classical, and unschooling, to name a few.  If you unschool are you really homeschooling, or is it something else entirely?

Unschooling, as it’s often called, is one alternative to public school and even homeschooling.  Also known as natural learning, independent learning, or child-led learning, unschooling is an approach that flies in the face of traditional thought when it comes to educating your child.  So what exactly is unschooling, and how does it differ from homeschooling?

The biggest difference between unschooling and homeschooling is in the mindset.  Where homeschooling is basically concerned with your child learning what it normally taught in public schools, unschoolers have a completely different way of looking at their children and at life.  Unschooling is based on mutual trust between parent and child and in finding what works best for them.

Homeschoolers might choose to use a specific curriculum as a base for their teaching.  Unschoolers, however, may not even use a pre-planned curriculum at all.  Unschoolers believe that children learn at all times, and that what they need to learn doesn’t necessarily have to come out of a set curriculum.

Another term for unschooling is delight-driven.  It’s not that a child is given complete freedom from learning; it means that the child is allowed to learn the things that interest them instead of what an institution says they should know.  Most often those who unschool learn those things that they will be using in life rather than just what is in a book. 

It may seem to an outsider looking in that an unschooler isn’t actually doing school work at all. In fact, unschoolers believe that living life is the best education a child can get, so they aren’t quite as concerned about what others think.  Of course, if you live in a state that has more requirements for homeschoolers, it might seem a little daunting to prove that actual learning is taking place.

Since homeschooling can take on so many faces, it seems that unschooling fits right in after all.  All homeschooling parents want the opportunity for their children to learn in an environment where they are encouraged to grow, develop, and flourish.  What better way than to allow your child to learn the things that interest them?  In doing so, they’ll pick up the things that traditional education believes they need to know.