It is disheartening that some people still think that homeschooling is bad for your kids. They say negative things referring to the fact that a homeschool child is deprived of normal exposure to their peers of same age level. They fear that homeschool kids would not learn to interact and work with others because they are isolated. They are thinking that homeschool kids lack the necessary social skills. Funny though, they never question or make negative comments about the academic skills, just the social one.
I have to disagree to that common myth. Yes, it is a myth...and thousands, or even millions, of homeschooling parents can attest to that. I for one, because my daughter had greatly improved, not only academically but also socially. She can carry a conversation with people of different age spectrum. Prior to being homeschooled, she was a shy girl. She has friends in school but she limits herself to only a handful. My daughter never had a slew of friends because it was by choice. She was and still is...picky with friends. I think the problem that our society has, especially with younger generations, is that they judge ones social skills with the number of friends their kids hang out with. Never mind if they are not loyal friends or if they just love to hang out with their kids because they are bored or had nothing better to do. Forget that these kids hang out with the most popular kid in school thinking they will gain acceptance. That kind of friendship doesn't last, as we mature adults can attest to.
Homeschooling is not anti-socialization nor isolation from the masses in a negative way. A lot of parents opt to homeschool their children because of the limitless possibilities that this type of education can bring to their children. They love the flexibility as well as the high academic standards that homeschooling can offer. My daughter herself improved a lot in her academics, and it shows on her report card as well as State tests results. She is able to handle a conversation with people older than her, something that she would have shied away from when she was still in traditional school. So I have to say, homeschooling has helped my child in that aspect and more.
This coming school year, she will be in high school. Having finished the entire middle school while homeschooled, she graduated with a straight "Mastered" grade which is an equivalent to straight "A" in traditional school, something we are so proud of. She is proud of what she has accomplished, and planned to finish high school the same way. She is eager and cannot wait to get started.
She had been an active member of JOAD (Junior Olympics Archery Development) at Stanford University, which she spends her Saturdays or Sundays practicing and honing her skills. She had competed in her first archery competition back in January 2008 in Tulare, CA for the State Indoor Championships and ranked well for someone who, at that time, had only been shooting for a solid 3 months prior to the competition. She bravely finished even when she was the most disadvantaged due to lack of gears. But what she has learned about striving on her own and learning independently at home, shined at that competition. She showed that even when she was disadvantaged, she used all the resources available to her, however minute they were, and learned to succeed.
She had also had her first Singing Recital in June of 2007. Even though she was sick with a bad cold and sore throat, she did her very best to sing in front of a big crowd belting the song "Hero" by Mariah Carey. She may have cracked once due to her illness, but she finished the song, prompting the host to say after her number that she was a trooper for singing even in that situation. This resulted in a loud applause from the audience. Frankly, prior to that event, she was running a fever and her Dad and I already said to her it was okay if she did not want to go. But, she insisted and that made us more proud of her. If social skills is a problem for homeschoolers, I wonder how my daughter survived her first stage fright in front of hundreds of spectator. I do believe homeschooling helped her there, because she showed tenacity in times of adversity. That day I told her going up to that stage made her a winner. She had accomplished her task after completing her song.
Fast forward to April of 2008, my daughter had recorded her first CD at Laughing Tiger Studios at San Rafael, CA. She played 9 solo piano pieces and sang a song in the end. Playing piano is one of her talents and we wanted to do a recording of her playing all the songs that tell her stories. It is very rare that an opportunity come our way and, knowing that she will not be as young forever, we wanted to capture her memory by way of a music CD. We entitled the CD "Remembrances" which I helped managed. All of the choices of pieces and written dedications were from her. I have seen my daughter come of age when we did that project. We made 50 copies of that CD to give to her family, relatives and friends. Some of these friends are from our church congregation in Daly City, CA. She wanted to give them the CD as a parting gift for we were moving to Oakley, CA about 45 miles away. We received excellent feedbacks from recipients who had asked when she will record next and hoped she would have more with vocals. Actually, at the studio even the sound and recording engineer ws surprised to hear her voice and how great she sounded he even told her she should come back to do more vocals next time.
She had her pictorial for the CD inserts and covers, which showed how she has matured and blossomed into a beautiful young lady. See the picture on this page. She did not shy away from the professional lens, even though the camera man was her uncle, she posed and smiled ---showing her dimpled cheeks. Some kids you would have to drag to do pictorials like this, not my homeschool daughter.
I know my daughter have been helped a lot by her homeschooling experiences. Interactions with people of different ages as she goes out with her Dad to do errands daily, by going to church, by doing her sports activities and indulging in her musical inclinations. She talks to people as if she was not a young girl. We were at a party once and one of the moms commented that my daughter interacted well with youngre kids, kids of same age level, and with parents. This mom had a conversation with her and would not have guessed she was a homeschool child, but my daughter proudly told her where she went to school when she was asked. Later on this mom asked me for that website of my daughter's virtual school so she can "test drive" it. My daughter made a very good impression on her so she became curious.
Now that she is a teenager, she shines out even more. She had successfully spent summer 2006 at Stanford University, where she successfully programmed her first video game on campus. She had interacted with College students as well as kids of all ages who were on that camp. She is doing another summer programming course at home doing Flash and Video Gaming, learning a couple of foreign languages and writing her fictional stories. She started her own production which she named as "Angelic Melody Production" so she can create a movie. She had been sketching her anime style characters on paper which she will use for her stories which she hopes to publish someday. Let us see what she will come up with next for the possibilities are limitless!
