The question used to be "What about socialization?" It turns out, it’s all about socialization.

As Christian home educating mothers, we may not do everything right, but we do several things right. In an interesting twist, the very thing we homeschoolers have been accused of neglecting ---- socialization ---- is what we have cultivated, encouraged, and attained. For instance;

• We allow our children to play outside, without an overwhelming fear of abduction or injury, because we believe the words of 2 Timothy 1:7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

• We will usually limit their hours of sitting in front of a computer or television and talking/texting on a cell phone, because we believe there are better uses of their time.

• We almost always have a “recess” built into our school days, because we mothers can’t be everywhere at once, so they sometimes get away from us and play between learning sessions.

• We normally don’t push our preschoolers into formal learning, (we’re too busy with our other kids!) or assign hours of evening book work for our elementary children, because the dishes, laundry and other chores need completed.

According to an article entitled, Busy children need more time for play found in a weekly magazine, the above related factors, i.e., parents’ fear of allowing outside play; more hours in front of a screen; eliminated recess at school; and an emphasis on formal learning in preschool, are reducing playtime for our nation’s children. Highly scheduled lives and shortened playtime with other children is producing a generation of socially inept (their phrase) young people and is a factor behind high rates of youth obesity, anxiety, attention-deficit disorder and depression.

I think that’s encouraging! The “experts” cited in the article have unintentionally validated many of the aspects of home education!