It’s Monday, 5pm. You’re rushing to put dinner on the table. Why? Your boys have scouts tonight. And Thursday is Awanas. And next Tuesday your youngest is giving a presentation to his 4H club. Have I described your life? No? Oh, wait, that’s *my* calendar I’m looking at.
One of the biggest worries that people have when they hear that you’re choosing to home school is socialization. Oh, heavens to Betsy, will little Johnny ever be able to deal with other people his age if he’s never set foot into a traditional school setting? Of course he will be.
Socialization doesn’t take place in the classroom; it takes place all around us. Think back with me to your school days. What happened if you were talking in class? You probably got into trouble or worse yet, sent to the principal’s office. The only times we were allotted to visit with our friends was during the two 15 minute breaks we had for recess and the 30 minutes we had for lunch.
Finding extra curricular activities are an excellent way to introduce your children to others and to teach them how to deal with people outside their family unit. For the past 4 years our family has chosen 3: Cub Scouts, 4H, and Awanas.
4H is not just sewing or raising animals. By participating in 4H they have an opportunity to work with lots of people of all ages, from the youngest Club members at 5 to the Parents and Leaders. They also learn a lot about the democratic process, working together for the good of something, and public speaking. We were lucky enough to be in a club that was primarily home school families. Our meetings were during the day and they counted as school work! Cooking, Lego engineering, and Eco-Arts were science. Attending Club meetings, being on a committee and scrapbooking were social studies. We could kill 2 birds with one stone! It was fantastic!
They were more limited to their peer group with Cub Scouts and Awanas; those were divided by age range. Again, they learned about being part of a community, how everyone has a role to play, and that no matter how large or small your job was within that community, it was important. They learned a great deal about commitment.
I’ve heard that in some places our home schooled kids can attend classes and play team sports right alongside their public schooled peers. The opportunities for extra curricular activities for our “non-traditionally schooled” children are out there, we just have to look for them! Sometimes we have to lift up some rocks to find them, sometimes they will fall into our laps. But trust me, they’re there!
If you have found extra-curricular activities for your home schooled children, please share them with us by leaving a comment on this post! Let us know where you are and what activities you have found!
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When Barb’s not on vacation or driving her kids to extra-curricular activities, she can be found blogging about life at Barb’s Life.
Photo by Devlin Thompson
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We are also very involved with 4-H. What a wonderful group, and yes it does work into our curriculum nicely. :-)
I cannot STAND the whole socialization issues people have with homeschooling, it’s absolutely absurd!! Gosh, we have lots of choices for extra curricular activities that we have to do just that–CHOOSE!! And the great thing is our homeschool group does most of them earlier in the day so that frees up our later afternoons! This year one of our extra curriculars will be the Boys Historical War Club but our group offers a wide variety of other things too!
We are involved in SpiralScouts and we used to go to kids yoga, but have had to cut back with the cost of gas :(
We have girl scouts, Bible quizzing, a co-op group, and 2 other homeschool groups that we are part of. The trouble is finding time to school, not socialize!
This fall, I have the boys signed up for a pottery class at a new pottery place. We’re also in a co-op, and I’m hoping to start 4-H this year as well. I think there are a lot of things that would interest my boys that they have to offer.
Libraries usually offer reading programs for small children through the year. Taking them to something like this helps them learn to sit still through a story and to be around other littles at a young age. It’s great for giving mommy a chance to sit too.