The issue of socialization is quite possibly the most misunderstood aspect of homeschooling.

Popular opinion assumes that children need periods of interaction with a group of peers to acquire social skills. By contrast, however, many believe that extensive peer contact during childhood can cause undesirable peer dependency.

Do not be deceived: `Bad company corrupts good morals.' (I Cor. 15:33 NAS).

Young children are more likely to be influenced by the majority than to be an influence on them. Children who receive their education outside the home are prone to accept their peers' and teachers' values over those of their parents.

Some advantages of freedom from peer pressure can be self-confidence, independent thinking, the ability to relate to people of all ages, and better family relations.

Godly principles of interaction can be taught, demonstrated, and reinforced at home by parents. Children can learn needed social skills by interacting with siblings or other children and adults under their parents' supervision. Young people who have had this type of training have adjusted very well to adult life.

You can help your children build lasting Christian friendships with people of all ages as they interact with church and family friends.

Dr. Brian Ray reports that numerous studies have found that home educated children are as well adjusted socially and emotionally as students in conventional school, or better.

Andrew Nikiforuk stated in Chatelaine magazine (March, 1994) that given the strong emphasis homeschoolers place on character development, the argument that children schooled at home are brought up in a bubble and can't cope in the real world just doesn't hold.

Author Ray E. Ballmann states that homeschoolers on average score higher than their conventionally schooled peers in tests that measure both self-concept and sociability. A young child learns good sociability primarily by watching and mirroring. Do you want your child to model after you or after his peers, after his teacher at school or his teacher at home? What kind of socialization do you want for your child, positive or negative?