Never underestimate the values you instill in your children while homeschooling! You’ll see things emerge as they mature.
At the dinner table, we were chatting about types of conversations, our discussion went on to compare public school teens versus homeschooled teens and my 16-year-old related these conversations ~
Public schooled teenagers more often than not talk about their peers,
“Did you see her new …?” “Did hear about his ….?” “Have your heard about them…?”
Whereas one homeschooled teen chatting to another,
“Have you seen this artist …?” “Did you read about ….?” “Have you heard this musician?”
Now, I know that this is a generalization. My teens defend their opinions by telling me that they find many teen social occasions frustrating. They dislike the mean school gossip, they question accepted values of the “in” crowd, they get bored with continual superficial chatter. Somehow, after the introductions, they are drawn to meaningful discussions and sincere conversations.
They are not weird, unsocialized homeschoolers. They are completely normal. They listen to contemporary music, watch the same kinds of movies, dress fashionably ,,, yet they are unique, independent individuals. Somehow, homeschooling allows for this freedom.
Isn’t this one blessing of homeschooling? How do your children relate to others? Please share in the comments.
In grace, Nadene
Practical Pages 
Hi nadene – I would also say that homeschooled teens seem to have no problem (generally) conversing with adults – making eye contact, offering opinions, having a joke, etc. actually this would apply to the younger kids too.
Anna
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@Anna, so true! Homeschooled teens seem much more confident to engage with all age groups! I love seeing teenage young men and women easily chatting and playing with very young children!
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I totally agree. Less chatter about fashion and boys. Less gossip and nastiness. And yes, the teens we hang out with definitely spend most of their conversations talking about the latest book they’ve read or movie they’ve seen or a contraption they’ve been making in robotics. Our kids hang out together to share Science experiments or to do a music recital for each other. They are also off any gadgets when they are together unless it happens to be for a constructive project or they are working on a Minecraft scene for a particular time and then it’s back to play and conversation. And they listen to we parents going on and on about Fermenting Food, Permaculture, and sharing recipes and craft. We have nurtured down-to-earth children that are still, as you say, socialised and some that still like to have trendy clothes and even some who like to wear make up etc, but so many more wear what they like, don’t feel the need for make-up and I find, enjoy a much larger range of music too. And what I love is most of them have their own individual hairstyle and don’t feel the need to be exactly like the rest of their entire school grade. I find mainstream children feel the need to follow the same bands for fear of feeling left out or uncool. And I also don’t like to say all this as a judgement to others, but just in our particular circle, we’ve definitely busted many stereotypes as our girls go to Robotics and Martial Arts and our boys go to Ballet and some of the boys have longer hair than the girls and they all accept each other without even a snigger or unkind remark. My girl switched to a home school gymnastics group because she couldn’t handle the tacky conversations and giggly nonsense she said. And to keep it real, my girl can still push boundaries and be a cheeky scallywag or whinge and whine with the rest of them but I see a level-headed, mature child in front of me, speaking up for herself or showing disappointment as we all do, and she fights a respectful fight with her words if that makes sense.
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@Kym, thank you for sharing your experiences with us! I see many new homeschool parents (and their families) worry about homeschooling teenagers being difficult and even “dangerous” to their socialization. As a public school teacher, I noticed that the school teens worry about not standing out and being different, unless they wanted to “be different”, in which case they were often labled as rebelious! Our homeschooled teens have the freedom to discover who they are and express themselves in every way as unique and significant.
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