Homeschooling only children?

Question

How do you feel about homeschooling an only child? I have worries about it, I don't want my son to be lonely or not feel as though he had enough socialization. Socialization and making friends is so important to me, as I still have the same friends from elementary school. However, public schools nowadays just scare me. They were bad when I was in school, I was just such a goody two shoes I never joined in on the antics. We have programs in my area such as some nature schools. I'm just not very sure what to do, I don't even know if I SHOULD homeschool, I can't say I was the best student. Also, I really enjoyed public school. I guess I just want to get some advice from other parents about what they're choosing to do. I think all options are good and valid. My biggest worry is him being an only child.

Answer

In addition to joining some kind of sport team and or church, your local library is also a great resource to socialize kids. They typically have weekly programs for kids

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I will say that if you do decide to homeschool your kiddo, there are manyyyy ways to get your child in social situations and they sometimes have Facebook groups for local homeschooling parents to meet up with their kids. If you do online some of those schools set up activities for the kids to meet up and make friends. Just have to do research and looking around!

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If you are open to nature schools that sounds like a great alternative. They offer a unique experience for hands on learning and children thrive in outdoor learning environments.

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Unless you have a big homeschooling community near you, where you can do joint activities, homeschooling would be doing a disservice to your child.

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So this is just the experience of a friend, as I have three going on four children. We are part of a homeschool co op where they have two full days of class instruction and the other three days are homeschool days. With that being said she has decided to put her daughter (only child) into full time school because she is bored at home. They do plenty of activities throughout the week in addition to the two full days and still feels like her daughter is not stimulated enough on the HS days. 
I would say if you’re interested try it! And if it doesn’t work out it’s ok to try something different. I WISH we had nature schools in my area, they seem absolutely amazing especially for younger year kids

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I work with dozens of kids in a coaching capacity and through various volunteer positions. I have 2 school age kids who are in public school. In my experience there’s a major difference in home schooled kids socially and intellectually. They don’t wait their turn, they don’t understand simple concepts like lining up, are impatient and think they are in control of every situation. They also can’t hold a conversation with adults and don’t understand banter. I’ve only met two kids who I wouldn’t say that about, and in both cases the parents had big time money, so the kids didn’t go to public school but the parents paid for them to have the experience. They were in every type of class and activity you can afford. Went to expensive summer camps and also came from giant extended families, siblings and cousins. so they were educated by professionals outside of a school setting, not your typical home schooling. I don’t think most people are equipped to homeschool but it’s trendy and people believe a lot of things about school that aren’t true (like litter boxes and gender reassignment surgery for examples) I understand the fear of a school shooting. But truthfully that could happen any time you leave the house. I wouldn’t make a major decision out of fear.

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in my town, we have sooo many ways to get kids involved, i have two boys currently and planning on homeschooling too. some ideas we’re looking into is nature schools, volunteering at different places, sports (the school near me has an option that homeschooled kids can play with the school like normal), sports outside of school, church, library, music classes, we have a thing called a CO-OP here and it’s basically like VOtech, the kids choose a class and they go 1-2x a week for whatever class they choose, and the classes are normally ones like AG, gardening, robotics etc etc. we also have a school here that allows homeschooled kids to come to actual school part time, so they go 1-3 days a week. 
I absolutely hate math though and was never super great at it, so once I get to a point where i’m not able to/comfortable teaching them i’m going to look into hiring a tudor for them to see so they will still learn math lol 
homeschooling is a really great option, all of the kids I knew that were homeschooled is sooo smart, the hardest part is making sure you get your kid(s) out of the house often.

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We have homeschooled our only child. (Well, she’s been an only child but that’ll change next week lol) She is almost 7 now. She does a lot of extra curricular things where she makes friends. She is in gymnastics and we go to church every Sunday. We regularly schedule play dates.