How to Start a Homeschool Support Group

Homeschooling has become a popular alternative to traditional classrooms. It can be enriching for children and rewarding for parents, but sometimes children miss the social opportunities that traditional education offers. Homeschool groups are wonderful outlets for families who want their children to interact more with others in their grade level. Homeschool groups also offer ways for homeschooled children to go on field trips usually only available for large classes. If there's not a homeschool group in your area here is some easy advice on starting your own.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Find other homeschooling families who might want to be in a support group. Ask friends to help you locate other people homeschooling or call churches and ask for advice. Try listing a request for other homeschoolers to contact you on community bulletin boards. You may want to run a small ad in your local newspaper. A small newspaper may even be interested in writing an article on your efforts--this will be sure to generate a response.

2. Get a contact list with emails together for people interested in joining the group. Plan an initial meeting for parents and children to get acquainted. Send out emails asking people to come.

3. At the meeting, talk about your goals with the group and ask for input from other parents. You may want to have play dates or social gatherings at a park each week and a field trip event every month. These will be times for children and parents to meet and socialize.

4. Pass around a list at the meeting, asking parents to sign up to plan and organize at least one get together. You may want to have 2 lists--one for play dates or parties, and one for field trips. Each parent should take a specific week or month.

5. Once everyone has volunteered, make an activity plan for each month to email all the members. Let everyone chip in.

Tips & Warnings

• Plan a monthly parents-only meeting for support and teaching strategies.
• Try to have at least 20 children in the group. Having a large number of kids makes it easier to schedule field trips. Some destinations will only accommodate large groups.