I'm going to be upfront and say what I think you already know I'm not a fan on homeschooling or unschooling at all. However, what you do with regards to your children's education is your business. I respect your choices, even if I don't agree with them.

I do have a couple of genuine questions though. I'm not wanting a debate. I'm just honestly curious. So here goes...

One of the issues I have is that in many homeschool environments I see (particularly those which are religion based) children are 'kept from' those who are different. Even when it's not a conscious choice on the parents' part, they naturally spend the vast majority of their time with people who have the same attitudes/backgrounds as them (ie. their friends and family). Socialisation involves mixing with people who are your polar opposite, people you don't like and who don't like you, people who will antagonize you and make your life difficult and learning how to thrive in that environment. School, like life, is a huge melting pot of personalities, beliefs, values, backgrounds, attitudes, behaviours, ect. When you go there, you learn how to negotiate, and thrive in that every day. When I hear homeschoolers say, "little Joey isn't missing out on socialisation because we play with friends, or go to a homeschool co-op, etc every week", my immediate thought is that little Joey is missing out by not co-existing with people who don't like him, or who don't share his attitudes on life. Joey is being brought up in a protective social bubble. A controlled environment masquerading as educational freedom. How do you allow for this?

My second question is, what would you do if your child/ren turned around and blamed your educational choices for them for them not being able to pursue a career path they wanted to pursue?? I realise this can happen to any parent, whether they homeschool or not, but some of the homeschooling parents I have come across (albeit mostly in the media) are as dumb as lumps and couldn't teach a dog to sit (NOT REFERRING TO YOU JF ) I imagine their children are going to be woefully unprepared for formal tertiary study.
Ask away, I will do my best to answer.

Homeschoolers are not a homogeneous group so even if we were only mixing with them (we're not), there is diversity. There are single parents, same-sex parents, blended families, low income, high income, different cultures and different religions. There are a lot of children with extra needs too (my eldest is one of them). I went to a top end religious private school, that can be a pretty insular environment.

I am going to share a couple of examples, they do involve Heaven and her children. I worry when I speak about our friendship and our girls friendship often that people assume it is the only one we have, it isn't that; it is that she is here too, she can chime in, she is aware I am sharing so I feel more comfortable talking about it then if I was discussing somebody who isn't a part of BB and might not want to be discussed here.

So we have different religious beliefs, her family and mine. We have been to their house many times, they have children's books that are of a religious nature, I have read them to my children and that is a way in which that religion has been opened up to my children for us to discuss and explore. And I am happy to do that, I will actively be doing that (Study of Religion was one of my most favourite classes in high school, I adore learning about others, about history and culture and religion is weaved through all of that). And it works the same for other cultures too, my DD1 has a friend who was born in America and we were able to celebrate thanksgiving with them last year and I will always be open to that, to finding opportunities to experience different rituals and celebrations with people in our community. As well as exploring them through books or film and TV or bringing other things into our home. I want my children to be exposed to as much of the world as I can manage with the time that we have, it is such a beautiful vibrant place out there and that is part of why we choose this lifestyle; we want to be out there in it amongst it all. And even just within my family, their cousins and relatives of various titles are from many different places and religions and life choices also (there are many vegetarians for example).

We also go to the park most days, around 3 or 4pm because it is cooling down and so we happen to catch the regular after school crowd. It is generally the same kids each day, I'm sure there are playground politics DD1 has had to navigate; sometimes she plays with them or others or her sister or alone. We still keep in touch with friends from her time in kindy (2.5 days a week year before schooling and there is actually a full blown reunion in a week LOL I just thought that was cute and funny) and from her mother's group (we are catching up in a couple of weekends time, it is harder now that they are all off to school but we do what we can). I do really hope my kids will have a varied and diverse pool of people to connect and learn from and I think just being welcome to that and aware of that will help us ensure it happens.

On the not getting along, well that happens too. My DD1 and Heaven's DD1 have had disagreements, they have had to negotiate less than pleasant situations. I mean my daughter takes time to warm, even though she is excited to see Heaven's DD1 she can't just jump into it social situations and Heaven's DD1 has had to figure that out because her excitement is expressed differently to my DD1's, it is usually gorgeously loud and physical and we let them work it out together, Heaven's DD1 is brilliant with my DD1, she gives her space, she waits for her to come to her, she gets it and we haven't had to explain any of this to her, she just gets it. Kids are far more intuitive than they are given credit for sometimes.

On the last point, I don't know what to really say. There are probably parents who shouldn't home educate. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater; those are faults with the parents, not the concept. I hope my children don't grow up resentful, I can accept them questioning or disagreeing with our choices but they don't need to be a victim of their circumstances, whatever they want to do I will help them to achieve that; I will hear their criticisms and then I will say "I hear you, now what can we do about it? How can we get you where you want to go?" - if they want to be a doctor we can work towards that or a lawyer or a engineer or anything. You can go back to TAFE and get a year 12 certificate if that ends up being important or necessary (or they could choose to go to school at some stage). I don't agree with everything my parents choose for me as a child but I respect them, I appreciate them and I understand they were doing what they thought best, I don't resent it or begrudge them. Being a parent is rarely about the choices we make but what is going on in the background, the relationship we have with our children, the intent behind our actions so I hope they will always be able to appreciate the intent even if they disagree with the choices it brought.