Hi,
I'm one of the wierd ones who HEs and has children at school (ds2 chose to go to school last September after we moved house). I still have 3 at home. I also work p/t as a registered childminder, run an online business selling wooden toys and co-organise buying co-ops.
Ds2 has made noises about returning to be HE as he's a bit bored by school. Ds1 may be going to special school p/t, will have to see how it goes. My younger two will never go to school.
I'm a little surprised by Notanotter's comments about the little HE girl who is 'crying out for friends' - this certainly isn't our experience of HE.
Ds2 has always been very popular and has never lacked for friends both HE-ed and at school, in fact, at times it is hard to keep up with him. He also goes to Cubs, swimming and has guitar lessons (all of which he did whilst HE as well).
Ds1 struggles a little more on the social front, but then he would if he was at school, he doesn't have the same enjoyments of social activity as ds2 and being on the autistic spectrum doesn't really help much on that front, but he does have friends who he visits, he just prefers things to be a bit quieter. He goes swimming and is hoping to start playing bowls. The Local Ed. Authority representative that we met up with a couple of months ago described him as a "very intelligent and articulate young man who you must be very proud of."
Even my 2yr old dd is busy, we go to playgroup once a week, she goes to a mini dance/movement group and we usually either visit friends or they visit us every week.
Added to people we meet at the playground or at other 'dates', we get out quite a bit.
IMHO a widescale 'lack of socialisation' within the HE community is a myth. As with any sector of society there will be a small minority of families who choose to isolate themselves (and their children) from the wider society as a whole, but the fact that you may have come across one such family does not mean that all HE-ers choose to do the same thing.