Homeschool parents, where do your kids get their social interaction?

Oh my gosh, where to start..... I have homeschooled for the past 15 years and my kids got their social contacts in the same manner that you do as an adult. My kids were/are out and about in the community on a daily basis. My kids are friends with the other kids in the neighborhood. My kids are involved in church and church-related programs. My kids have always been involved in library programs (summer reading programs, teen programs such as music montage, poetry readings, book discussion groups, film making, helping to write for the teen newsletter, etc), selling lemonade at their lemonade stands, going to grandparents and other relations, and just living life. My kids always went to the store, the post office, the hardware, and other social situations where they interacted with others, if just in a business sense. But this taught them much. My kids held magic shows, made their own skits and plays and props and invited the neighbor kids over to "pay" to see them, and just all kinds of crazy things. My kids spent the night with friends. They had friends spend the night here. They had slumber parties. They "camped" out in the back yard with the neighbor kids. They went to a day camp from the church down the street (which we do not belong to). They babysat, mowed lawns, and raked leaves for people in the neighborhood and beyond. They belonged to 4-H, helped me when I volunteered, and some chose to play sports. We had a ticket to the public pool, went on day trips, and often took walks in nice weather and had a picnic on the courthouse lawn while their peers were in school. My kids now have jobs. One is married. One is looking for a different job than the one she has. They are just like any other kids except they are born leaders and sure of themselves. They are not peer-dependent. And they have a wide variety of friends whose ages are not all the same. I just lived life with my kids, gave them a lot of freedom, and was always out in the public arena with them. If you are social, they will be, too. Unless you live on a deserted island or in a cave far removed from life, your kids will learn social skills without them having to be contrived. Just let them play in the neighborhood, hang out with their cousins, and go shopping with you. It'll happen. Most people have been brain-washed into believing that kids are well-socialized because they attend schools. This is untrue. Kids who attend school are cut off from the daily happenings of life. They do not interact with other people who work, are in the community, or who do service work. These kids are locked up in classrooms with other kids who are the same age. This age segregation causes peer dependency, peer pressure, and the so-called "generation gap" because these kids are NOT socialized properly with people of all ages and backgrounds. The only adults whom they interact with the majority of their day is with teachers, and this contact is very limited. This kind of socialization is contrived, unnatural, and not conducive to truly socialized people. Kids in school are only allowed time to socialize right before school, between classes, on recess and lunch, and after school. Most of a kids' life is kept busy with a teacher dominating and controlling what they do. Kids are not socializing most of this time. Real socialization is what happens when one is busy living life on a daily basis while interacting with their families and in their communities.

We have homeschooled before, and the girls took dance classes, were in involved in church groups, did 4H club and took voice/drama lessons. Also, did a homeschool co-op group at one point. We have also planned a lot of events here to encourage other kids to come and play here. Parties, game nights, pool parties, skating night, etc. Sometimes you have to work a little harder and be the family that plans to party. But most of the time, they all come!

First, they play with others in the neighborhood. Second, they play with kids at the park. Third, they are members of a 130 member homeschool choir, so they interact some during choir, and a LOT after choir on the playground. Fourth, they take some structured classes like dance and swimming which are fun. Again, they meet kids this way and the playing progresses from there, not necessarily during class time! Fifth, we get together with friends all the time, we hang out and visit while the kids play. Sixth, I helped create a homeschool group in our area over 5 years ago now and many of her "best friends" come from that group. Finally, you can meet people all over the place, just like with dating, do things that you enjoy doing and you'll run into others with common interests. You DO have to make an effort to find playmates, they are not ready made from a classroom of 25 at school. But in doing that, it more accurately represents real life, where you have to work to keep friendships going. I feel these friendships are more interest based rather than convenience based (i.e. neighbor or classmate that you see all the time just because they are there!) and will last many years. am still friends with 5 or 6 kids I went to school with, and those were all kids I had something in common with, not just friendship because of convenience. Good luck and have fun!

Art classes. Tae Kwan Do Volunteer work Homeschool Park Day Science classes Sewing classes Horseback riding Kids in the neighborhood My child has made close friends in all the above situations. I would also like to note that shutting children up in school all day does not promote good social interaction. It does promote abnormal stress, fear and competition.

Spot on about ballet, my daughter enjoys it but after 2 terms she doesn't even know the names of most of the girls in her class! The home education group events are much better, a general weekly gathering on Mondays (which is free play with optional activities provided) and French lesson on Wednesdays (which is a half hour lesson followed by free play). I'd say in general anything which isn't too controlled by adults should be a good bet for real interaction and nothing beats letting them run wild for a bit.

Actually ballet & tap dancing, gymnastics and other sorts of classes are good because the child meets others with similar interests/experiences and they immediately have a topic of conversation to start with. Various classes & groups at the Y, figure skating lessons, ballet, gymnastics, town sports teams (Little League, etc) seem to work best for pre-school through high school. Older kids gravitate to things like clubs like photography, computers, etc -- something where they have a common interest. And kids left to their own devices generally meet and start doing things with other kids, especially if you start early and do it often -- picnicking, shell collecting, sand castle building at the beach; camping; boating; fishing, etc. Go anywhere other people with kids are!

Our very social groups include: Boy scouts once a week, plus two weekends a month. Girl scouts once a week Cub scouts once a week 4H every other week Library club every week With our unschool group, park day once a month, craft day once a month, cooking class once a month, creative dance once a month, skating day once a month. Did tae kwon do through the parks and rec department, twice a week. Very social, less rigid than professional groups, fifteen minutes of free play at the beginning to burn off energy. Did band twice a week, again very social because they discussed every week as part of the class. Same for orchestra. That doesn't include all the extra free time they have when their friends are out of school, so they pretty much play with neighborhood kids every day of the week.

My son takes art class, gym class and swimming lessons at the Y, attends a weekly playgroup that I created just for him, and we belong to a homeschool group. We also spend lots of time at the local playground. I time our visits there with the time that the Head Start kids are there, so he can interact with them. Once he is old enough I plan to sign him up for Cub Scouts and also gymnastics.

I have soccer two nights a week plus games. I have baseball two night a week plus game. We go to a home-school co-op for some extra activities at least once every two weeks (I wish it were more).