Guest Blog post by Chrissie Korolsky
We all want community and it can be hard to find your homeschooling people. If you haven’t already, find out what’s available to you. There may already be lots of opportunities for homeschooling families to connect in your area. Open play groups, gaming gatherings, field trips, library programs, homeschool classes, co-ops, book clubs, park meetups, open gyms, hybrid public school programs, and such are great ways to connect. Give everything available to you a couple of tries. Maybe the people you’ll connect with aren’t there or maybe the group is having an off day the first time you visit. Give them all a couple of chances to see if there’s a group that fits your needs.
If your group doesn’t already exist, build one. They will come!
First, consider your goals. Why do you want a community? What do you hope to get out of it?
- Do you want something for your kids? Just you? Both?
- Do you want a lot of interaction with others or just occasional?
- Do you prefer in person or online connections?
Second, think about the people with whom you want to connect.
- Will your community be open to all homeschoolers or do you want to spend time with families who follow the same homeschooling philosophy?
- Are you wanting to connect with families who have children the same ages and interests as yours?
- Do you prefer to connect with secular families or those who share your spiritual beliefs?
Third, determine the logistics to best meet your goals.
- How often will you meet (weekly, monthly, randomly)?
- Where do you want to meet (indoors, outside, online)?
- Do you prefer to meet in the same space or a new place each time?
- Will you be hosting the community yourself or will you share the responsibility with others?
- Does having structured time together matter or is unstructured preferred?
- If kids are included in the community, who is responsible for them?
- If you’re renting a space or needing to pay for supplies, who will provide the funds?
Finally, once the details are sorted, advertise…everywhere! Invite people to join you in all the local homeschooling groups.
Things to keep in mind:
- You have to show up. No matter what.
- It can be lonely. It takes a while for homeschoolers to get comfortable with new groups. It may take a parent a few weeks of thinking about going before they actually get their family there.
- Get there early and stay to the end. If someone arrives and no one is there, they likely won’t come back.
- Greet everyone who comes to your group. This will give you a chance to introduce them to the space, share the group’s intent, and lay out expectations for participation in the group.
- Each community is unique. Not everyone who comes to your community will want to stay. That’s ok.
- Don’t give up.
What I Built
When I began homeschooling, I quickly realized that I wanted time with fellow homeschoolers who shared my family’s eclectic, child-led, unschooling approach to life.
When thinking about my goals for the group, I knew I wanted to keep it simple. Whatever we did, it needed to be something that my family, and those joining us, could simply show up to without any special planning or preparation. The intent of the time together would be for the kids to play on their own while the parents have time to chat about all things homeschooling and parenting.
I found a community-owned hall that offered indoor and outdoor space for unstructured, unsupervised play. The volunteers who ran it offered two hours each week at the wildly discounted rate of $25 per week. I rented it for two hours each week and had a donation box set out to help cover the cost. My family was committed to paying the lease for the space for the first four months with the hope that participating families would help cover the cost via donations. My thought was that if families didn’t show up within that timeframe, what I was trying to do wasn’t going to be sustainable and I would need to rethink, rework, and try something different.
More than five years later, we still meet weekly, year-round. A few of the families who joined us in the beginning still come, new families find us regularly, and we have a core group of about a dozen families who regularly attend the weekly gathering.
What Others Have Built
Field trip host – A friend hosts group field trips to places her children are interested in going. She advertises in the local homeschooling groups whenever she’s putting a trip together. Each trip her family meets new people and explores new places.
Lego Club – A family hosts a Lego Club at their home each week. The family provides Legos, to be used during the club time, and the kids build while the parents visit.
Summer Hiking – A friend hosts a different hike each week during the summer for homeschoolers.
American Girl Dolls on Instagram – A homeschooling teen started an Instagram group to showcase where in the world the dolls traveled. Teens post pictures of their dolls in the various places they take them. This helped the teen connect with others who share their interest without the pressure of having to interact in person with people.
Travel Groups – There are lots of various homeschooling travel groups available. Many of them were started by homeschool families wanting to travel with fellow homeschoolers.
Messy Mondays – A family opens their home each Monday for homeschooling families to bring their crafts, projects, and whatnot over to work in a shared space. No planning is needed by the hosting family and the expectation is that the house, the kids, and the parents will be messy.
Board Games at the Library – A homeschool family reserves the meeting room at the library once each month for kids to play board games together. The family brings several games to share and those attending are invited to bring whatever games they wish.
Homeschool Bowling League – A homeschool parent started a bowling league for teens. Teams meet during school hours when the bowling alley wasn’t busy.
Homeschool Roller Skating – A homeschool parent asked the local roller skating rink to open during the school day one day each week for homeschoolers. As long as there are 10 skaters each week, the rink waves the rental fee.
Chrissie Korolsky has more than two decades of experience in education and educational advocacy. While her background is in public education and corporate training, Chrissie is now focused on supporting, coaching, and mentoring within the home education community. In her spare time, Chrissie can be found adventuring with her family and working with her husband to make to make their corner of the world a magical place.