Why Do We Homeschool? [Q&A Part 3]

We’ve reached the 3rd part of the “Why Do We Homeschool?” series [check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven’t already].

Big shout out to my lovely wife and co-writer Lisa who answered most of these questions on Facebook already so this didn’t take too long to put together. Spongebob and Mr Krabs swimming in money…is this what we do?

How do you get paid for it?

LM: There are no tax breaks for homeschoolers, I’m afraid. You would’ve thought you could be recompensed, as your children aren’t using your local education authority budget, but I think it’s better this way anyway; at least in the UK by law (at the moment) you still get to provide education for your child pretty much how you like without government interference. I guess it would be ‘He who pays the piper’ and all that…

PM: So there are some things that would be free that you have to pay for (like books) and some things that you no longer need to pay for (like uniform). The good thing is you can take advantage of off-peak activity deals and holidays during term time! Image “Left Out” by Charamelody, used under CC BY, licensed under Creative Commons BY

What do you do about interaction with other children? How do you respond to comments like “children who are home educated lack social skills”?

LM: Interaction is most people’s main concern for homeschooled children, but you know what? Kids are kids…they always end up getting together somehow! They’ve got old school mates, a ton of church mates, some of whom they’ve grown up with from birth, they’ve got athletics and gymnastics mates, and also home educated friends of all ages, (I think the homeschool lot are more mature because they interact with lots of different age groups, and the majority of home ed kids we know are Christians or from that background, so the behaviour is usually better – home educated children are often around adults more than just their immediate peer age group). And of course, they’ve got each other – their own 6 siblings, so they can learn how to cope with bullying, being left out, rejection and teasing one another – important life and work principles . I know very few homeschooled children who are poor at interacting, unless there are special needs or extenuating circumstances.Are you part of any home groups? Do the children get to do P.E. or other activities?

LM: We are and either as a family or through our local home Ed group there have been lots of educational and fun activities over the years. Actually we miss out on loads of stuff as there’s always something going on but we’ve done museums, theme parks, Kew Gardens, Hampton Court Palace, boat trips, zoos, theatres, you name it! Then there’s trips with church, family days out and holidays like everybody else, I guess.

PM: There are so many activities going on around us but you wouldn’t know unless you were looking. The list is endless. Some areas have more going on than others but you’re free to attend activities wherever you like.

LM: It’s amazing what opportunities the Lord has opened up where we don’t have the resources ourselves. They’ve played hockey in a fellow homeschooler’s mini-field, then there are church picnics when someone always organises an impromptu rounders match, or shooting some hoops at the park with local neighbourhood kids, they have regular swimming group classes, weekly kick-abouts with volunteer trainers from a local Premier League football club, twice weekly athletics for our older boys, who’ve excelled to run for their borough, and my older daughter loves her gymnastics classes.

Next week is Part 4 of this series which will be the last part so please ask any last minute questions you may have in the comments section, or tweet @philmayers.