How My Local Homeschool Group Works For Us

by Robin

I belong to an eclectic local homeschooling network e-list. The e-list description states:

We are an eclectic and inclusive homeschool support list for homeschoolers and those seeking information about homeschooling. We are a secular (not religiously affiliated) list valuing diversity and tolerance. We appreciate and accept that everyone homeschools and parents in accordance to their own methodologies, styles, philosophies and conscience and are united by our common love of our children. Each individual family and child is unique and valued here. New members are welcome!

Our goal is to provide an open atmosphere where all feel free to share information, ask questions, organize, coordinate, plan and/or participate in events and activities that best support their families. We hope that the network will serve as a gathering point for ideas that anyone or any group of individuals can take off with as they desire.

Please feel free to create what you need here! The more the merrier. Remember that it only takes two families to make a play group, field trip, park day, etc. Several events have started that way and some happily continue that way. Co-ops and planning groups are asked to plan off-list but encouraged to post events to the list.

As Earl Gary Stevens describes in his article Our Non-Directed Support Organization published in the 1995 May-June issue of Home Education Magazine, our network is a non-directed support venue. We have no organizational structure. We have no fees. We have no requirements to join other than one be a homeschooler or interested in homeschooling. Anyone can create, plan, organize what they need. Anyone can inform others of and invite others to activities or events that they might wish others to join them in.

What makes our network work is the desire of parents to meet the needs of their children and their families. What works is allowing people to define what works for them and to create what they need. So far this year, as individuals, as groups of individuals, and as separate planning groups we have created and invited others to the following:

• Park Days

• Game Days

• Brownies

• Junior Girl Scouts

• Cloverbuds 4-H

• Geography Club

• Liberty Belles

• Our World Magazine

• Roots and Shoots

• Homeschool Skate

• Homeschool Bowling

• Homeschool Swim

• Seasonal Parties and Events

• Middle School Book Club

• Middle School Events and Outings

• Waldorf/Earth Centered Festivals

• Various Field trips

• Putt-Putt Day

• Homeschool Yoga

• Odyssey of the Mind

• Various Learning Co-ops

Each creation listed above has its own community, and we participate with others across these communities. No one person or group of people controls the list or the activities that we plan.

The network list serves as a venue for people to connect to plan and coordinate. One group of planners does not monopolize the list or the flavor of the list. The specifics of planning are taken off the list to other venues ( either personal meetings, personal emails, or to smaller more specific on-line planning venues). This keeps the network list clear of planning chat details that others may not be interested in or able to keep up with and hopefully keeps the network list relevant, concise and easy to stay tuned in.

What I like about our network list is that it allows people to be different. It also allows people the freedom to be individualists who create and participate here and there as they feel comfortable, and it allows people who like to plan and work with others consistently to do so. No one personality or style rules the direction of the list; no one personal or group desire or need rules the direction of the list; no one homeschool or parenting philosophy rules the direction of the list. We are all free to be who we are and to create what we need with others who have similar needs.

We, for instance, are “unschoolers” and do not plan group oriented teaching/learning activities. We like to plan for play time with friends. We participate in Park Days, Our World Magazine, Roots and Shoots, Seasonal Crafts, Waldorf/Earth Centered Festivals, Junior Girl Scouts, Middle School group activities, and field trips that appeal to us. Many families are more structured and directed in their learning objectives for their children and plan activities that mirror their goals. Some like to plan learning co-ops with others. Some might participate less in organized activities if they spend more instructional time at home, or within the community at large. Other homeschool organizations and community facilities offer classes for homeschoolers, and there are many activities outside the homeschool community that list members participate in such as dance, gymnastics, fencing, and so on. I know some families who participate in almost every activity listed above while some participate in one or two, tops; and yet still others sporadically participate in activities as they feel comfortable fitting them in. We all are free to create and participate in what we need. If one park day does not work for you, create another one. If you want to organize a Spanish class with a local instructor, create it.

I like this freedom. To me it represents the spirit of homeschooling and reflects and supports the reason we all homeschool. We like to be in charge of our lives, and we all want to meet the individual needs of our children and our families as we best see fit. We are free to create and free to change direction at any time. If plans don’t work for us, we can ditch them, revise them, and move freely forward in the direction that best fits individual needs. This is what the freedom to homeschool allows. No strings attached. No obligations other than to oneself, one’s children, one’s family, and one’s community as much as one desires.

What I also like about a non-directed, “create what you need” venue is that it allows for diversity of thought and action that keeps doors open to ideas and perspective, while allowing one the right to be who I am today. I am constantly learning from others. I am coming out of my shell of insecurities as I learn from others taking charge of their own lives. I am reinforced daily that what works for you may not work for me, or maybe sometimes, I can learn a thing or two from you.

Robin is a homeschooling mom of two and a natural living enthusiast currently in the school of hard knocks taking graduate courses in Lyme disease. 

Comments

[Cindy]

It's good to see this type of "support group" still exists. This is how it was for me in the beginning IRL. Now, it seems that all support groups are so formal. I never "got" that. I've been seeking community lately, and wondering how I could create it. I wanted something like you are describing, so maybe an on-line forum is the way to start. I like how it can be whatever anyone wants it to be without anything falling directly on one person. That's what I need; to contribute here and there, participate here and there, but without the commitment of full responsibility. Who has time for that?

Thanks for sharing and planting a solution!
-Cindy