Since we started homeschooling, I've really been wanting some sort of regular get-together of local homeschoolers. There are plenty of one-off excursions we can, and do, go to, but the trouble with those is you might meet a family on one excursion, and then not meet them again for another 6 months. There are regular sports organised like ice-skating, but they are an hour's travel away and quite often for older kids than Billy. We have gotten together with other families on and off, but everyone gets busy and things fall by the wayside.
I really wanted some sort of regular get-together where they came together to do different activities and got to meet the same kids each time - to give them some consistency and help the isolation factor. And to be honest, I wanted it for myself to be able to interact with adults a bit more :)
After 6 months of wishing, and chatting with a couple of other parents who I found out also wished the same thing, I finally bit the bullet and decided to organise something myself. I found a local community hall that hired out quite cheaply and sent an email to our local groups asking for interest. We set a date of every 2nd Monday (starting today) and I crossed my fingers that someone would turn up.
I wanted to have an activity up my sleeve 'just in case' and had previously bookmarked this great kite-making page.
We made one this morning just to make sure it worked - here was our test run - they worked fabulously. Especially since today was *really* windy!
So 12 o'clock saw us at the hall anxiously waiting for some other families to turn up. I needn't have worried - 13 families turned up - a total of 30 kids!! Mostly primary school aged and younger. It was fantastic and I was so relieved!
Everyone seemed really enthusiastic. We've planned out the rest of the term as a group with some great ideas. We chatted, the kid's played. We made the kites which went really well (except for having only 1 pair of scissors!) and they flew them. We chatted and the kids played some more.
I really hope this is the start of something good - it's certainly a promising start!
3 comments:
Excellent planning! Glad so many turned up.
Homeschooling is amped up a notch here too, starting with the "family tree" we did yesterday. They're at daycare today, but tomorrow we're doing a section on space exploration. I'm quite enjoying this.
I wanted to start something so Kiki wouldn't feel left out next year when M&M goes to big school
Isn't it fun?!
That is really wonderful that you can meet with like minded families and kindred spirits.
You must be congratulted for bringing this together. Many good things could flow from your efforts.
Part of me has always wanted to homeschool my children.I guess we naturally do it in so many ways.
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