Homeschooling Only Children

Hello T. L,

Hummingbird wrote:

"Homeschooling also limits "ideas" being heard from other children.
I love the homeschooling concept, but it definitely has to be done right in order for the child to be ready for the real world at some juncture."

Seriously? What does she mean by "done right"???? According to whom?

The home schooled children I know have a far more broad spectrum of "ideas" than the average child in a school setting. Just visit a school. The kids almost all dress alike, watch the same shows, talk in sentences filled with ummm...like...ya know...cool.....etc. They all know the latest about pop culture, but many can't tell you where Washington, DC is. Ya know, that is really cool and a great expression of ya know, like, great, um, ya know, ideas!!!

One thing is for sure......They don't "cling" to their parents, in fact, they usually want nothing to do with their very uncool parents. With social examples such as these, I most eagerly want to throw my child into that amazing "real world" Hummingbird cites to make sure my child isn't limited to the ideas of people from EVERY age group.

I have a daughter who is 10 years old and she is home schooled. I homeschooled my older daughters as well, and get compliments from people like Hummingbird who have preconceived notions about home schooled kids being "weird", clingy, and unsocialized. My older girls both managed coffee shops for the same coffee store chain at the young age of 19. They were the youngest managers of that chain to date. They outperformed their teenage coworkers, amazed their employers, and could relate to customers of all ages, thanks to their socialization gained through home schooling.

We chose who they socialized with, and didn't just throw them into a group of 30 kids their own age to "socialize". The social aspect is a HUGE reason we chose to home school them and for us it has turned out to be the best decision we have made for all 3 of our children.

So, in answer to your question, our 10 year old daughter who is the only child in our home now is home schooled. We get together with other home schooling families and our schedule looks something like this:

Monday - School at our friend's house. We use the same curriculum.
Tuesday (every other) Science Class with 8 children.
Wednesday - School at our friend's house.
Thursday (every other) Speech and Music class with about 30 children
Friday - School at our friend's house. Grammar and writing class and piano and violin.

When we aren't schooling with other children, we do our school at home, just me and her.

My daughter loves her schedule. She doesn't want to go back to the private school she attended through 2nd grade. We are able to teach her many things that won't be learned in a regular school. Yesterday we made soap, and next week we are going to a friend's house to make home made caramels and dipped candy canes to give away for Christmas.

However, the one thing I have to say is that we all must do what is best for our families. Home schooling is not for everyone. Public school is not for everyone. Private school is not for everyone. I am thankful to live in a country where I can choose what is best for my child regarding her education.

Best wishes to you and your family!

~P.

5 moms found this helpful

I have a neighbor with an only child. She is 9. She has been homeschooled to this point. I find the child very clingy and insecure. Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not.....
Just making sure your child continues to get socialized in large groups would be the most important thing to consider while homeschooling. Homeschooling also limits "ideas" being heard from other children.
I love the homeschooling concept, but it definitely has to be done right in order for the child to be ready for the real world at some juncture.

3 moms found this helpful

Our oldest is older than his siblings, so we started homeschooling him before they were born, so as far as long-term, I have no idea.

We have a friend whose son is 14 and he is an only child....and they homeschool. He LOVES it.

Everyone is different.

2 moms found this helpful

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs

1 mom found this helpful

I know people who homeschool with only 1 child. They seem to thrive. We have huge and very active homeschool groups out here so that helps.

1 mom found this helpful

My kids go to public school, but my BF's little brothers are homeschooled and LOVE IT!! They had been having problems at their private school, so my [almost] MIL decided to homeschool. At first I was worried about the boys not getting enough social interaction, but their mom is super about making playdates and even study groups with the other kids in their grades. The boys love it, and honestly, I think it's great practice for college as far as having the self discipline to make yourself get your work done. My [almost] MIL has days when she wants to rip her hair out because she never gets a break, but overall I am pleasntly surprised at how happy they are with homeschooling and how well the boys are doing, both academically and socially :)

1 mom found this helpful

I homeschooled my oldest for a while(3rd grade) but with a new baby in the house it became impossible after a while. She is back to school and is very happy, I haven't seen any negative effects from the change other than she loves to be around children her age.
I'm imagining only children are easier in the sense that there are no interruptions from other siblings but I would be very careful about making sure the child does attend activities with other children, swimming, dancing, ballet etc. My homeschooling experience was very positive except that I found the interruptions hard to control, also my daughter lost a little bit of motivation because she is so competitive, she missed being first in the class since she had noone to compete with.
It has to do with the child's personality above all, I'm not competitive at all so I didn't think she would miss that but she did.
Anyways good luck, I love the homeschooling idea if my girls would have been closer in age I'd probably hadn't stopped.

Yep... I homeschool my only. (DS8)

I think he's pretty normal. Most of the time he absolutely loves school and HS'ing.. and sometimes it's "I don't wanna do school today!"

I'll add more later... but one of the reasons he LOVES HS'ing I need to go take care of (in the winter we snowboard 4-5x per week and just bring our studies up the mountain with us). We're still doing half days on the mountain to recondition or we'd already be there.