Misconceptions over home education and socialisation

[PeachAndorange]

Why is this the case? I’m sick of hearing it as it isn’t true ?
There are HE groups and also other activities at weekends and evenings that any children can go to
Play dates with friends
Family gatherings

All I’m hearing is that my child will be isolated and this was a negative choice .... it’s not and seems it’s just the general consensus that parents do this to isolate and it couldn’t be further from the truth

Burney

Not at all, we make sacrifices, and resources are free, you don't have to pay for them.
I've known far more poor H.edders than rich tbh, because the richer people tend to have higher outgoings.
You'd change your lifestyle if it was necessary, the same as other situations.
If one person out of a couple is made redundant and unable to find another job then you'd adjust your lifestyle accordingly.
I gave up work to H.ed our dd, we managed on a very low income.

Grasspigeons I was more challenging the idea that home ed doesn't offer the opportunity for deep meaningful friendships just because you aren't seeing the same children for hours every single day. While you may see your work colleagues every day, it isn't necessary to spend that amount of time together to form a friendship, and in fact a lot of people view their work colleagues as just that, work colleagues, and it doesn't necessarily progress into a friendship outside of work anyway.

But again, I think home ed (and everyday life itself) offers endless opportunities for learning teamwork and conflict resolution skills, and skills which will help her when she enters the world of work.

DD's drama group are currently writing and performing their own play and are having to navigate lots of creative differences. In the past they have held organised debates. At our home ed sports day the kids formed a committee and planned, organised and ran the entire thing themselves. DD does a weekly activity in a volunteer capacity in a team of adults and other children. She also does a team sport. They do team building games at forest school. She volunteers with other home ed kids at a city farm. She plays out every free weekend and most evenings through the week with a group of local children of various ages. She has older, bossier cousins During all of these activities she's met and worked with people she didn't always gel with, and learned how to compromise and how to work as part of a team. She's also had two offers for work experince placements as soon as she's old enough.

I'm not anti school. I do think home ed provides at least as many opportunities for those things as school does, and potentially more varied. When I was in school, we were usually allowed to form our own groups for team activities, so almost always chose our close friends and rarely worked with people we didn't like!

Home ed can be cheaper than sending s child to school

How do? Do you mean a private school?

I would assume in comparison to uniform costs, school dinners/lunches, maybe bus fare/commuting to school, trips/fundraising days etc. If you're very frugal with materials and attend a lot of free groups. You can also get free/discounted entry into a lot of museums and so on if you home ed. Take holidays in school term time etc.

I think home schooling works for some who literally cannot cope with mainstream.but otherwise used by alternative types who mistrust the state/ authority etc. Fine but i think kids need to learn to cope with the powers that be to a certain extent.
So its not just about getting on with peers from many backgrounds but also other adults.

Fine but i think kids need to learn to cope with the powers that be to a certain extent.

Surely, this only applies to those who want to live that kind of lifestyle. That has never been appealing to me and dh, nor to one of our children. There are very few powers that be, if you don't want there to be.
We taught ours to govern their own life as much as possible, and not to follow the herd.
It worked for us.

Aside from religious/sen reasons, the parents (usually mums) who homeschool do so because they are oddballs/socially inept or have negative memories of school.
Its always done by these type of parents as they like the control and are usually overinvested in their kids. All are SAHMS. All of their children have poor social skills and are very know it all, just like their parents.

One mum just had her first kid and it was no surprise when she announced on facebook that she was going to homeschool when her child is old enough. Both she and her husband are nice enough but very odd and she is unbearably smug and constantly petformance parents. She is obsessed with her kids and i dont think she has any hobbies of friends.

Sorry but im not convinced that homeschooling produces well rounded individuals. The parents usually see homeschooling as a project of theirs and want have complete control over everything.

@BertieBotts I guess if you weren't going to work anyway that might be true but most people have to earn a living.

I think that's what the PP was assuming though - as they were referring to one income. Although in fact if you read the rest of their post they mentioned lots of ways to earn a living around HE.

But yes in comparison to childcare school is cheap - apart from after school clubs, breakfast clubs and holiday clubs of course :)

depends where you are. School clubs are free or cost next to nothing here
Uniforms? kids would still need to wear clothes anyway
Outings: highly subsidised by the PTA

Going to school is the cheapest option by far. That's not a valid reason to choose that option obviously, but the cost is really next to nothing.

Childcare is expensive, but it would be the same cost with home ed.

username108

That's a very generalised view isn't it?

I'm assuming you know all parents who home ed in the country to be able to make that comment?

username108 what are you basing that opinion on?

Username108 and what about families where they have tried everything to keep their children in school but the school are not accommodating and can’t meet the Sen needs etc or if they do it’s constantly reviewed with a view to withdraw support every few months and is just constant stress? What about those parents because there are so many reasons why people have to de reg and home educate

For some like us it was hard, really hard to come to that place where you realise it can’t carry on and you have to walk away and make the best of it

And tbh 99% of home Ed parents I’ve met seem totally ‘normal’ and the dc have good social skills

Home educated people in general seem to have better social skills ime than those that went to school. Obviously there are variations, especially with done schools producing individuals with excellent social skills, but anecdotally home Ed seems to be good for socialisation ime.

@username108 literally ever person I know to have home educated did it because they couldn’t afford private schooling or a house in a catchment area for a decent state school. A lot of their kids went private in secondary school. They were all perfectly normal people, just impoverished.

private secondary + impoverished = does not compute