What about socialisation?

The topic of socialisation is a very controversial one and the number one myth about home education is that there WILL be a lack of human contact and opportunities to make friends, interact with other people and learn those all important social skills. This is simply not true! Family and community life provides excellent opportunities for young people to meet and interact with people of all ages, interests and backgrounds within a 'real world' context. Children will have many opportunities to mix with other young people by being involved in sporting, cultural and other interest groups.

Home educated children will still be 'socialised', but they will be immersed in your philosophy of life, your beliefs and your habits and routines, not what a stranger thinks is best for them, surrounded by a sea of other strangers with conflicting beliefs.

At schools, students need to learn the particular social requirements necessary to manage in that unique environment. Schools, where all adults are likely to be authority figures and children are grouped according to their age, are like no other environment within the wider community.

Home educating our children presents us with many opportunities to leave our homes and see the great outdoors, whether it be shopping, at the library, going swimming, picnicking, hiking or attending the plethora of group events provided through the home educating community.

It's a little hard not to meet new people and learn appropriate interactions, through observation and modelling behaviours. Even if you never go to a group event through the community or home educating group, you are meeting new people every day when just doing your errands for living. Your children are watching how you interact with your spouse and family and friends, and also how you interact with 'strangers' and community workers.

Learning manners, considerateness, kindness, respect and other moral behaviours are mostly by example and home education has the advantage of surrounding your children with all the positive examples you can find, and using the negative examples as very good teaching lessons in the 'how not to' category.

One of the best facets of home education, is the fact that you are there with your child most of the time, so you are able to utilise most situations into a teaching/learning occasion, so your child can learn applicable skills during the event, rather than out of context, or in a static environment.