This is the MOST commonly asked question that every Home Educating family hears, and it's the one that really makes me laugh.
How many times did we hear the words "school is for learning not chatting!"
I know I did... all... The... Time... Mostly from exasperated teachers who were sick of us talking in class!
In school we were given a 15 minute break in the morning and an hour for lunch.
That was it.
The majority of our school social time had to fit into a 1hr 15 minute window... A time in which we also needed to use the loo, eat lunch, return library books and do anything else that wasn't lesson oriented.
1hr 15 minutes.
Not only this, but school 'socialisation' also boiled down to the same 30odd kids, who are the same age, and who just happen to share classes.
I look at Home Ed children... And I look at their socialisation and the contrast is just astonishing.
First of all, they are given so much more time! When we meet friends, it's often a whole day affair (or at least a few hours!)
The kids meet together and they play together and they learn together. Children of all ages are welcome, so yesterday when we met friends at a play centre, there was a range of children aged from 3 to 11 (often the teens like to form their own meets)
I love watching the older children help the younger children, getting them involved in whatever they are doing in little ways.
I love watching the little ones having someone to look up to and learn from.
I love the joy in what they do.
The way everyone is seen as an equal and accepted.
Yesterday we took along some board games and the children played them together, but more than that, the PARENTS got involved.
The kids were socialising with adults who they see as friends too.
I know a lot of kids who don't know how to talk with adults comfortably, I love seeing these kids able to do that.
We also spend a lot of time around random people; shopkeepers, taxi drivers, bus drivers, public transport passengers, museum attendants, random people in the street... Our whole life is made up of interacting with a variety of people, building a social knowledge that is founded in daily life!
An added bonus to Home Ed Socialisation is that I get to spend time being social too!
Home Ed families often form a community that supports each other... I have friends who are there for me through thick and thin and that's a pretty special thing!
So yeah, socialisation really isn't a thing Home Educators tend to worry about... We've got it covered!
Have you got any Home Education questions? Anything you're curious about?
Are you a Home Educator who needs a little support?
Ask us anything!!!
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