Community and Socialisation for Home Educating Children
Quick Answer
Community plays an important role in home education by giving children opportunities to build friendships, learn alongside others, and stay engaged through shared experiences.
Introduction
A common question when considering home education is how children will interact with others.There is a common myth that home educated children lack social opportunities. In our experience, home education actually provides a wider variety of opportunities to socialise than schools.
In practice, home education allows families to build social opportunities in a more flexible way. Rather than being limited to a single environment, children can connect with others across a range of settings, ages groups and activities. Not only that but socialising can take place when it suits your child rather than being at set times of the day.
This page outlines how community fits into home education and how many home education families approach it.
Why Community Matters
Community supports several areas of a child’s development, including:
– mental wellbeing
_ social confidence
– communication skills
– collaboration
– motivation
It can also provide useful support for parents through shared experience and ideas. It is important for parents to feel supported as home educators too.
When your Home Education Community needs differ from your childs
Depending on how you start home education, you may or may not have had time to plan your ideal home education scenario! Even if you were planning things for a while before you started, it is only by actually being a home education parent that you can start to know what that means.
At the beginning you might feel like you need a lot of support and reassurance, whereas your child might be reluctant to join too many communities. Over time, both of your needs will change.
If your needs and your child’s needs are not lining up and you want more of a community than your child is ready for, you will probably need to reach out online to start with. You can always arrange to meet up with anyone that you feel you align with if you have a rare child free moment. Obviously make sure you are careful and meet in a safe place the first time you meet someone in real life.
If your child wants to be a part of a community more than you do, that can be really tricky. For some home educating parents the idea of joining a community can be scary. You might consider:
– choosing more structured activities for your child so you can wait on the sidelines rather than being actively involved
– going to the same group once a week and giving yourself down time
– discussing with your child which activities are the most important
It is important that if you do find groups difficult, that you do not feel guilty for this, and do your best, accepting that your best is good enough.
Different Types of Community
Families often combine different types of community, including:
– in-person meetups
– structured group learning
– online platforms
– informal gatherings
Each offers different benefits depending on the child and the situation. You can explore different social opportunities for home educating children on this page.
Avoiding Isolation
Home education does not automatically lead to isolation, even though you will probably have people enquire about your child’s social life over and over again! It is true that you have more opportunity to make choices around your child’s social life as a home educating parent but we believe that that is a good thing! There are lots of opportunities to meet other children and other families.
Families often include:
– regular group activities
– consistent meetups
– shared learning experiences
– get togethers with family and extended family
The good thing is that in most areas of the UK there are lots of options, so you should be able to find something that works for you and your child.
You can explore practical approaches in How to Help Your Child Build Friendships When Home Educating.
How Learn Laugh Play Supports Community
A sense of community is at the heart of Learn Laugh Play and we believe it is one of the things that sets us apart from companies that offer online classes.
Learn Laugh Play provides:
– live classes (with the option to interact with other class mates during the lessons and clubs)
– shared learning experiences
– enrichment activities beyond the lessons themselves
– opportunities for children to interact with other home-educated learners
– a messaging service for all children (with parent consent and supervision) so that they chat directly on the website to any of their class mates
– weekly tribes which are mixed age group sessions focusing on being a small close knit community and supporting each other
You can explore this further on our Classes page.
Conclusion
Community is something families build as part of their home education approach, using a combination of activities, groups, and shared experiences.
You can explore more detailed guides on specific aspects of community throughout this section by using the links on the top right of the page.
More Information
- How to Help Your Child Build Friendships When Home Educating
- Online vs In-Person Socialisation: What Works Best for Home Educated Children?
- Only Children and Siblings in Home Education: Understanding Social Needs
- Social Opportunities for Home Educated Children
- The Importance of Community for Home Educating Parents
