Do we need HE groups

[inhindsight]

Hi fellow Home-edders.
When we decided to Home ed our daughter a year ago.My main concern was the dreaded S-word..socialisation!!
I was not aware of any children who were home-ed but after a little while net-working, I found a couple of local HE groups. I was relieved to find others of like-mind and I naively thought we would all be "friends"(hmm).
Of course I have since found that the type of folk who HE are as different and as diverse as the reasons for Home-Edding in the first place. We dont all see eye to eye, there are "cliques" and folk are not necessarily nice to each other.
What I have come to realize is that all we need are a few real friends, whether HE or not.
When I see new folk thinking about He, they are always directed to local groups, which I agree with but I think folk should also realize you don't have to be part of a "group" to succeed at HE.
Interested in other thoughts/experiences.

I don't HE but came very close to de-regging a year ago and looked into it, groups and all. I liked the groups but there's no reason why your kids can't go to groups with all sorts of other kids. Ballet, tennis, rugby, drama - any sort of weekend or evening group.

I found the HE groups a little daunting tbh and off putting. I loved the festivals in the summer as about 30-40% of the kids were home ed. A good percentage I thought.

We have 2 boys, 12yrs and 18months, the older is HE, we worried about the whole socialisation issue, and, yup, I agree there are the same cliques you find in the playground, the same nonsense (in my opinion) in that folks dont seem to realise it is our differences that make us the same!! We have tried a couple of groups, and aside from the fact that our eldest is often the eldest (or isnt a member of a long established clique) or the baby is in the way, its taken a while to find a bunch of people who relish the differences.
I agree that people (parents)need to deschool,they dont need to be part of a group,a few well chosen friends is enough, and activities as normal ie scouts,etc. Ours does St Johns Ambulance,Scouts and Scuba diving,he has made enough friends through this to not be lonely.
Sorry for wittering,I've only had one cuppa this morning

Hi guys,
Dont feel so bad now. Thanks for the replies.
We have actually met a couple of good friends through HE and I guess we should be grateful for that.

Hi,
we're off to our first HE local group tomorrow and so far the email responses seem friendly enough, but we'll see. It's a bit daunting!

I think this is an interesting thread and I am surprised more people haven't responded. I agree with the difficulties about the HE groups. Ours isn't bad but we have to travel around quite a bit and we don't go to many events mainly because our eldest is only 5 and I like to enjoy the less regimented routine of just hanging out sometimes. I agree that finding some like-minded friends is a main incentive.

Re other activities like Brownies etc I think this is great but a) the cost can and will add up especially with three dcs and b)most things are after school hours which I find frustrating as we have all day to do these things!

Yes we've definitely needed our HE groups!
For making friends and invaluable support, especially at the beginning and when we have the odd wobbly day!

The range of personlities, bakgrounds and styles of life and education are vast and I've met people I never would have associated with in a school enviroment.

I'd be lost without my he groups!!

My children are only 20m and 3+ yet though we've started to look at HE groups. These things seem to work:

• simple craft stuff 'available' in one corner, maybe themed but not overdone, maybe some books around

? music at some point ? plenty of room to charge about ? easy refreshments (maybe fetch your own) but with a kettle available ? outside play area ? probably only fortnightly or monthly I hope to meet more people in our local area, because I don't want to travel too far, though it's nice to mix with others from different towns. I suppose I'm not looking for a meeting that is too 'organised'... seems to defeat the point. As my children get older I'll just class the HE gatherings as their 'playtime' with very little structure ? just chance to meet other children. (Not that I intend having a lot of structure at home either!)

I think its important to find home ed groups because of a shared interest rather than just because you home ed. For example we go to a natural history group for home ed children and the shared interest links everyone. Maybe a general home ed group will have more cliques and problems like that as peoples reasons and methods for home edding do vary alot and it may not always be a uniting thing.