Socialisation
From HomeEdWiki
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The First Question
Often the first query that is raised about home education is something like 'What about spending time with other children and the friendships that are built at school?' and 'Will they be spending time with other children their own age?'. The assumption is that the kind of relationships/friendships that children build in schools are a good thing, a thing that is needed for a child's growth and development. This is a basic unquestioned fact, but like many things that aren't questioned it is largely false.
Peer Relationships in Schools
School classrooms are made up of 20 to 30 children of very similar (if not the same) age. These children will usually be from the same geographical area and often this means they are from fairly similar social backgrounds. Other classes in the same school mean that the children are also rubbing shoulders with students of other ages, though the age range is usually at most 7 years. Any interaction with adults happens as a part of the student-teacher relationship.
Often the person questioning about socialisation will imply that school relationships are ones that prepare children for later life, but nothing could be further from the truth.
A Preparation For Life
A true preparation for 'adult' life would involve friendships with people from a wide cross-section of society. Also, it would give children the ability to relate well to all age ranges from babies to grand-parents. This can only happen in the wider community and not in schools.
Local Groups and More
Another thing that is often overlooked is that there is a wide variety of activities that home educating families can do together. There are local groups to be involved with, camps to go on, and simply the ability to have another family around in the home for good friendship during the quality hours that are usually taken up with schooling.
So What Can It Be Like?
In fact the relationships and friendships that can be built by home-educating children are far more idyllic than those of their school counterparts.
Some group activities available to home educated children
An unrepresentative selection of some of the groups and activities which home educated children can be involved in, just to show how many opportunities there are outside of school to socialise with a similar age-group.
- Beavers/Cubs/Scouts
- Rainbows/Brownies/Guides
- Church "Sunday school" groups and youth groups
- Music / art / drama workshops
- Local Libraries, museums and art galleries may run after-school, weekend, or "holiday" activities
- Music - in some areas, the school music service may allow home educated youngsters to join the schools orchestras or other ensembles
- Sports clubs
- Judo/karate/etc clubs
