One of the things people worry about when they think of home ed is socialisation. I personally don’t think school is a particularly good social environment in most cases, but that’s by the by.
Our home ed social week looks like this:
Monday: Art class at Jupiter Artland. This is a class specifically for home ed families and lots of Audrey’s friends go. It lasts 2 hours but there is also an hour or so of free play time that usually follows it.
Tuesday: Creative writing group and an ongoing play date with a home ed family with two kids roughly Audrey’s age and one roughly Robin’s.
Wednesday: Kindergym for Robin in the morning. Then Early years group. Each week we go out somewhere different with this group, usually outdoors. There is a range of ages from birth up to 7. We spend the afternoon playing together.
Thursday: Creative writing group (alternate weeks), Audrey’s ballet and tap classes with other kids her age.
Friday: Home Ed children’s club, a big group with a wide range of ages, we meet in a hall and parents take turns to organise activities and crafts. We have lunch together. There are toys and games, and parties for occasions like Christmas and Halloween etc. On Friday afternoons after children’s club we have a standing play date at our house with some home ed friends.
Saturday: Tiger Tales stories and activities at the local library.
In addition we have extra one off events, for instance this year we are putting on a home ed Christmas show with around 20 participants. In the early summer we went to weekly workshops at the zoo. A few weeks ago I organised a Moon Festival for our home ed friends. Things like that.
Our social week is pretty full, the kids have lots of great friends. Home education is a bit of a misnomer, as we don’t tend to spend much time at home!
Home Ed Plums 