I'd say the biggest downside is that they only get one perspective. In school, kids have multiple adult figures that influence them, not just the parents. That situation could be very one sided.
In general homeschooled kids feel more comfortable around their family and not new people. I know homeschooled kids who are now in their 30s and are still living at home. When asked why, they said they were afraid of moving out. True story. They're brother and sister.
peer pressure, u don't have to listen anybody telling u that ua re fat, loser, geek, etc..it is a best thing
u ahve more free time at home
it a best not alot of friends Lack of socialization. lack of friends, lack of social interaction with a peer group no social skills i was home schooled and i hated it so bad i didn't even finish ...if you r thinking about homeschooling your kids i would forget about it ...and if u r a kid wanting to be home schooled don't do it trust me !
..but that is just my opinion here is a link for you about the negative effects!!.actually 2 links bottom one may be more of what u r looking for i would say the lack of pier interaction is the main con of home school. cons are the lack of social interaction, more likely to be investigated by a child protective worker, and you have to report it all to the state. Children that are home schooled do not have interaction with others. Making life a bit more difficult for them when they leave the nest. Also, you or your significant other if you have one, needs to do all the teaching. Takes great patience. Lack of socialization. But thats really not that big of a deal. There are other places your children can socialize with other kids their age. limited social life, dont learn how to deal with all the social things that they will need as an adult, dont get the right time and attention on school work. That is what I have seen with my friends kids. I guess it depends on the parent. there are no cons, except for liberals who want to brainwash kids in public schools
research proves homeschooled kids have better social skills Your child would deffinatly not have as many friends. It is possible that he would become very reclusive and have trouble advancing later in life because he is not a people person. Some kids don't get expossed to important social situations that are necessary for natural developement. Also, your kids might begin to hate you. I know I would not like it if I had to see my mom for an extra 6 hours a day. I've only seen one negative aspect. (I have tons of friends who homeschool and my uncles were homeschooled) If you don't keep them socially active, they'll be very uncomfortable in social settings and won't know how to act. As long as you keep them exposed to the 'real' world out there and don't shelter them to the point that they seriously rebel, it's a truly wonderful thing. My uncles were mmoved away from people, kept home most of the time, and the only social interaction they had was some neighbors up the road a mile. That was their downfall. The friends showed them movies they shouldn't have seen, introduced them to drugs and alcohol, which they had not been warned about, and they thought they were missing real life. They turned to all that with full force when they came of age, and haven't really outgrown it, while the kids who introduced all of it have moved along in life a bit better. It takes a little bit of balance is all. Well i think the most important con would be lack of socialization in an uncontrolled environment. Meaning that when a child is home schooled they learn the social pressures only found inside their tiny controlled world. Where as in a public school they learn good and bad socialization. I believe both to be important so the child can learn to handle his/herself in all situations without their parents help. I like the idea of home schooling, but I feel the most negative effect is social skills. In class, kids bond with other kids. And despite the fact that there could be adverse effects such as bullies and whatnot, over time your children will not have a common bond or school spirit that other children will have. They may also be looked upon as outcast. However, studies have shown that home schooling can be even more beneficial then sending kids to public school systems. I think kids who are homeschooled may not get exposed to as many types of people as they would if they were in public schools. Some people may say this is a good thing, but they are going to have to deal with them eventually, so they would be better off learning to deal with them earlier.
Also, homeschooling can make it harder to get into college. A friend of mine was homeschooled, and wanted to become an architect. He applied to enter the architectural program at a state university, and they wouldn't let him enter because he had a GED, and they couldn't tell just what his grades would have been compared to other students. He had to enter as a regular student, and take one year of college in the standard curriculum, before he was permitted to enter the architectual program. My stepson is being homeschooled because of a disability. There are a lot of positives, but since you asked for the cons, here you go. Besides the obvious lack of socialization with kids his age, I think it's important for a child to experience an enviroment where everyone around him doesn't think the sun rises and sets on him. I'm not sure if that makes sense so let me elaborate. Since he is at home almost all the time, and everyone adores him, he's not learning the skills he'll need when he enters the adult world. I think that he'll be in for a rude awakening when he gets older and not everyone thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's hard to want to put your child in a tough enviroment, but it'll be harder when he's older. Also, if you do decide to homeschool consider getting a teacher or tutor to come to the house a few times a week unless you have a teaching background yourself. Good luck with whatever you decide. My sister-in-law homeschools her children (4... it will be 5 soon) and while they are awesome, intelligent, considerate, thoughtful people, they really do not know very much about the world. They are frightened by people that are not like them. They are isolated from so much. Her daughter is very quiet and terrified of everyone new that she meets. i homeschooled for several years and i found the negatives to be that staying on task was difficult. we were forever being interrupted by other school children on days that they were off and we had school. another was the stereotypes that others put on homeschoolers such as they are weird, anti-social etc. i do think though the social had some negatives as to make sure they had enought interaction with others you had to be on the road a lot going to sports events, getting to play groups etc. in saying that there are pros and cons to every education option.we had our children in public school for the first three yrs then homeschooled then sent them to a private 'christian' school (which was the worst of all) then back to public school (this one was in a more rural area) the public school they were at in the rural area was the best, they offered a great learning environment with lots of sports etc. i just wish we had lived where we do when they began school because we would have kept them in the public system we are in now from k to 12. i think most depends on who you and your children are. i have known very successful homeschool families and although i don't consider my homeschooling yrs as a failure they certainly weren't the best. good luck though with whatever you choose. There are many ways for a homeschooled child to be socialized... the parent has to work diligently to make sure it happens. Socialization IMO is a non-issue since more & more HS groups & coops are springing up all the time. HS'ers are more likely to get *positive* peer socialization rather than *negative* peer socialization, as well as more inter-generational socialization than a child who sits in a room with 25 same-aged children 6-8 hrs per day, 5 days per week.
IME, the biggest con is the immense freedom that HS offers in terms of a course of study. Many parents (particularly unschoolers) let children dictate what they will & will not learn, following the child's interests and not necessarily challenging the child to delve into subjects where skills or interest are lacking.
In life, we often have to do things we wouldn't necessarily choose to do. When we are employed by others, we often have to do tasks that we don't enjoy becuase they are a vital part of the functioning of the business and must be done.
Even in college, where you can pick and choose which classes you take, there are basic requirements you must meet in order to obtain a degree. One college dean I know told me he's had horrible experiences w/HS'ers over the last few years, not because they are unprepared academically, but because they don't seem to fathom that they aren't calling the all the shots. When they can't get the university to cave to their desires, they meltdown.
It doesn't *have* to be that way if parents a vigilant, but I think HS'ers are less likely to encourage their kids to jump through regulatory hoops for the sake of it than are parents in the general public.
Some would argue not all HS'ers are going to college or some HS'ers are going to be self-employed so this indepence of thought and action is appropriate, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and do what needs to be done in life, whether it's in school, employment, parenthood, or personal relationships. Mature adults don't get to follow their own bliss at the expense of everyone else. Having been homeschooled myself, I would have to say the social aspect. I went to public high school and I had a horrible time because I would not handle being around other people my age. I just could not function. I couldn't handle it until I was in college.
My parents say when i was younger I was extremely out going. My dad strongly thinks homeschooling "messed" me up because of my lack of ability to function. I hated homeschooling the whole time and all in all, it was just a really bad experience for me. Never hide the teacher's answer book in the oven! I forgot about this and then preheated the oven for pizza.
I home schooled my 12 year-old son after his achievement test scores dropped from percentiles in the 90s to percentiles in the 80s. Also I had him tested at Sylvan and it turned out that his writing ability was even worse. I blamed the private school.
So, I decided that my son needed to learn a lot and I needed to keep him home and hire some language arts tutors. The first drawback is if you want your child to excel, you have to hire someone who has strong skills in that area, just like you'd hire someone to teach piano, art or martial arts.
Language arts has about seven different areas of study. Even though I hired tutors, I still taught spelling and grammar. Having to teach something you don't know could be seen as a drawback. It was time consuming, but I did learn a lot about grammar and I am continuing with my study of grammar.
There was only one major con in this situation and it was that I felt forced to yell a lot. My son wanted to do the subjects he liked best and didn't want to do the other subjects. He wanted to sleep in, but didn't want to attend school into the evening. He was grumpy a lot of the time and his verbal groans and lousy attitude were invading my space. I had to drag him through a lot of the material.
There is something written in childrearing books to the effect that children who behave well outside of the home do not behave as well inside the home because they know they will still be loved. I don't know what the reason is for this situation, but this situation does exist and in my situation, it existed throughout the learning day. I think it is better for my son to be outside the home simply so he has more experience with good behavior.
He won writing, science and math awards in local and state competitions which is something I would expect for a kid of his intelligence, but in actuality I felt that the tutor and I won the awards.
My son got little foreign language instruction because I didn't hire a Spanish tutor and neither one of us has an interest in language. He didn't want to do music and so we didn't although the private school teaches music in middle school. We saw that as a plus because he did more writing, but some might see it as a negative.
Another problem was that I arranged for my so to do art and athletics at two centers. One closed down and the other cancelled the class due to low enrollment. So, sometimes you have to redo homeschooling plans and that takes energy.
One tutor's husband almost died in a fire and was in a coma, so melodrama entered the homeschooling picture. It didn't adversely affect the education, but one more minute in that fire and it would have.
My son would cite as a problem high parental expection. Parents care more than teachers and they do not let their students slack-off. We had a seven-hour day not including lunch. I made the school day long because I knew that my son might not be as productive as I would like. He was assigned no homework.
Unlike the other posters, he got lots of socialization because he was able to do after school activities at the local middle school and the public library. He made lots of new acquaintances, but they really aren't quite friends.
He will be enrolled in public school next year and I have retained the reading tutor for him. His ACT scores were the same as the average high school graduate, but his reading score was the lowest score. He is now a terrific writer and he is a superb mathematician. I was ambivalent about his company as I enjoyed having someone at home, but the grouch factor was upsetting.
It was a very worthwhile experience for both of us. I got to see that his attitude wasn't what it should be. Knowing this will be helpful for college planning and career selection. Also he qualified this year for entrance to the local community college which may provide an educational alternative. I was able to identify his one remaining area of weakness and to get appropriate help so that he has the best chance for college.
I plan to homeschool again this year, but this time, my daughter will be the student. The only negative aspect is that people automatically assume you're a freak.
Some homeschooling families also shelter their kids, but the two are not mutually exclusive.
Homeschooled kids have loads of friends. Adults aren't in school, but they have friends.
The only way to not be socialized in homeschooling is to intentionally live in a cloister. Only the screwups ever get any attention, anyway.
And don't be too quick to judge someone's social skills. Often, homeschooled kids just don't give a rat's *** about pop culture, or don't have much exposure to it since nobody in their peer group cares.
You get exposed to other cultures by going outside and living in the world, and homeschooled kids don't stay inside all day. At least, the normal ones do.
The freak shows steal the limelight. I was home schooled that last 2 years of High School. I actually convinced my parents that it would be better for me because I was having such a hard time in school and getting good grades. I didn't really suffer socially because I had the same group of friends since I was 13 and some of them were home schooled too. My biggest downfall was that when I went to college I actually graduated 6 months before the rest of my class, I couldn't get used to the structure of having classes all day and actually having to study. I was actually behind most of the other kids when they went to college with me. I had to take College Prep courses to catch up intellectually. I wish I would've enjoyed school and gotten good grades and had a good college experience but I guess school's not for everyone and it wasn't for me. I have found that most children who are home schooled have lack of socializtion, cling onto mom/teacher a bit too much, and they just don't learn as much from mom as they do at school teachers and through working with peers. Also, if you plan on sending them to a real high school or college, vaccinations and test scores are issues. Seriously, can you take an A better from someone's mom or an accredited teacher?? Both my children and home schooled. Some of the comments below are right - they don't have a "lot" of social interaction. They have their group of 10-15 friends that they converse with daily and visit with 3-4 times per week at different functions. They aren't exposed to smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, violence that can be found at ANY public school (please don't tell me there isn't any of that). My neice who is in grade 5 was exposed to all that crap already. They have monthly interaction with the facilitator who keeps a history of all assignments and works with the kids and my wife. I teach them Science, German and cooking, my wife takes care of the rest. I can't think of any "cons" except that I wish this were available when I was in school - I might not have started smoking at 15 and experimented with alcohol at 16. Truthfully, the only con I can see *I homeschool my kids* is that I don't get a big break for myself...
For the children, I see all positive effects.
Whoever says the kids will not act well with meeting new people, odviously have not seen my children.
My kids are wonderful with both family and non-family members.
Kids can be around other children by joining homeschool groups in the area, library activities, girl scouts/boy scouts, sports, 4-C's and so much more! :)
My kids are learning so much more than they would in a school setting. :)
I love homeschooling, I know my children are safe and they are being taught by a teacher who REALLY cares. :) There really aren't to many cons out there. The "lack of friends and social skills" is ridiculous. Are there a few homeschoolers out there like that? Sure, but there are even more kids like that in school. All the professional studies I've ever heard of have found that homeschoolers do just as well, if not better, in adult life than public school kids.
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