Well, what do you think? Can homeschoolers play sports in public schools? We're going
to talk about that. I am Nicholeen Peck. I've raised all my children homeschooling them.
And I know the answers to that question. But I want to share with you even more. In this
video, I'm going to talk about our family's working with the public school. Even though
we've been homeschoolers all the way along. And I'm going to talk about the skills they
need to succeed at school sports. But if you stay with me to the end, I've got a special
bonus that is going to help your children with their social development too. So, I've
had 3 children who've had connection with school sports. We had one child who was into
basketball doing basketball over the highschool. We've had one child doing soccer and being
on the soccer team at the high school. And then we've had one child who was in the show
choir and start in a lot of the musicals and stuff over at the high school as well. And
you know what? We homeschooled all the way along. So, the one child that was in the show
choir, she did go over for one period a day and she did do the show choir period at the
school. But other than that, all the other children just went over practice or rehearsal
for whatever happen to be involved in. And it worked out great. In fact, the teachers
were amazing to work with. Now, I know this could vary from place to place around the
world and around the country. But hopefully, teachers understand that we pay taxes. In
fact, I knew that. I thought we pay taxes. In fact, I don't want my taxes for education
to be taken away, far from. I'm happy to pay taxes to support education and to support
community and the other families that I live by and I like to have the options to have
some of these opportunities for my children. So, because I'm a taxpayer, they can't really
refuse me because I am complying with all of the laws in the state that I live and so,
they work with me. And they've been wonderful. I've never any problem. In fact, there are
some homeschool parents who have even been coaches on the track team at our local high
school and stuff like that. So, they're pretty good at working with us. There might be more
homeschoolers at your school than you think. In fact, there's a lot of touchpoints that
homeschoolers often have with our local middle schools and high schools. I'd like to spend
a minute to give you something that you maybe didn't bargain for in this video. And that
is how your child can be successful and ready for these sports that they're going to be
potentially at the public school. I mean, obviously, we can never bank on that, right?
But there are things that they need or that if they had in place would make them even
more appealing to coaches. Now, at the end of the day, they've got to make the team just
like anybody else. You can't just go in there and say, "I want my child to play for you".
And that's it. And they have to accept them on the team. Just like all the other students,
they're going to have to try out. So, how are they going to make impression on the coaches
and how are they going to be successful socially on the team? Well, one key thing that you
can teach them in your home is calmness. So, in our family, we learn to govern ourselves.
I actually teach Self-Government. In fact, this channel is dedicated usually to videos
about self-government. But there's such a demand for what Nicholeen Peck does in her
homeschool. And for me to answer some of these questions that I started talking about homeschool
issues as well just to benefit some of my listeners that hear me at homeschool conferences.
But really, I teach parenting mostly. Specifically self-government. And I teach people how to
control themselves, how to calmly communicate and be understood. These skills of self-government
are vital to your child being successful socially and in their sport setting. Because it gives
them a different kind of confidence. The coaches notice it when a person is self-governing.
You know, for you to start yourself governing path, below this video, there is a link to
the Calm Parenting Toolkit. It's a free toolkit to start you off on your self-government journey.
So, if this is your first exposure to Teaching Self-Government, I highly recommend you take
the parenting toolkit, put it to use and then see maybe what else you might want to learn
from there. So, there are 4 skills that your child is going to need to be successful in
a team setting at school. In fact, they need them for the whole life anyway. In fact, if
you learn these 4 skills, your homeschool is going to be drastically different in a
good way. Because you won't have to argue over them getting their stuff done, not doing
their chores, stuff like that. Because these skills help the child learn how to obey your
authority. They need that. They've got to honor parental authority or they won't be
able to honor the authority of the school and the coach. And when they go there, they've
got to be ready for that. So, teach them how to follow instructions. That's the first skill.
Then teach them how to accept no answers and criticism, teach them how to accept consequences.
Because you don't always win, you don't always get to play as many minutes as you wanted
to play, etc, etc. You don't always get the part in the play that you wish you would've
gotten. They need to know how to accept consequences and no answers, and then how to disagree appropriately.
So, if they needed to talk to a coach, do they know how to do that in a respectful way?
In a way that's clear so that they can express their opinions but not get emotional so that
the coach maintains respect for them as well. Hopefully, most people who run youth sports
programs or arts or drama program or dance programs, they are really impressed by a youth
who know to communicate. If they can make eye contact, they can keep a calm face, voice
and body, they can openly express themselves and problem-solve with an adult, whoa! That's
good social skills. That's what's that's called. And they want a person like that on their
team because that person is going to be a leader with their character and their skills
for the whole rest of team. So, even if your child is a new kid on the block when it come
to the team, the coach may take them just because they see leadership qualities that
they possess, which hopefully they learned at your house. And if these skills are new
to you, remember that calm parenting toolkit that's underneath this video that you can
click too. Or you can always go to teachingselfgovernment.com and you can find more information there. Remember
that bonus that I talked about? Well, here it is. You get to teach your child how to
have proper social skills and social development. So, I know that when we decide to homeschool,
we say to ourselves, "Ugh, all that social stuff" because they always say for the school,
"They need to go to school because of the social" and all of that kind of thing. But
in reality, the social is not the most important thing and we know that. We know the family
connection, the bonds, the security, the confidence, the moral compass that all those things are
the most important things. But let's think. How do we learn those things? Well, we've
learned them in our family. And we learn them socially. So, family is the fundamental unit
of society and it actually is the perfect place to learn social. Think about it. Would
you rather have your child learn social skills from you or from same-aged peers or from the
media. That's pretty much the only choices that they have. And if you don't do your job
at social development, they will learn them from same-age peers and from the media. So,
just having a friend around is not how we teach social. So, if you want to prepare your
child to really lead out and to get on that team and to have a successful experience on
a school team or a school arts program, then what you want to do is you want to teach them
how to have good social skills. They will succeed there. And it is up to you to teach
it. There's 2 different kinds of intelligence. There's intellectual intelligence and practical
intelligence. All the things that we've been talking about in this video have to do with
practical intelligence. Learning how to master yourself and control yourself, how to accept
no answers, disagreeing appropriately, be calm and have proper social skills; those
are all practical intelligence things. The people who run the world, the leaders of the
world excel in practical intelligence. Homeschool parents should not think that they don't have
to worry about social skills. No. They should excel at social skills. And if there's one
thing that I've been able to give my children, I think that's it. As I've seen them grow
now and graduate from my homeschool, I see that their social skills, their practical
development have been huge for them. Did you like that bonus? I hope so. So, there's more.
If you've loved this video, you're going to really enjoy my next video which is Does Home
School Effect Getting into College? What do you think? Well, I know the answer because
I know have had 3 of my homeschoolers go through college. So, let me tell you what I know in
that next video.