Hi All,
I am a newbie on these boards and a relative newbie to homeschooling(about 3 years or so). We homeschool due to academic reasons. I am finding these discussions very enlightening. I have to say that as a family we have certain goals in homeschooling (part of that includes community service in the homeless shelter/ soup kitchen / library etc. for my sons) and I do more to propagate those rather then actively trying to serve the homeschooling community. The only clubs I arrange, and are part of, are the social meetings(with my friends and their kids) as my sons have very different academic needs then most kids their age. Even these social meetings initially included many families, but after paying for too many no shows, in too many events, now I only invite people that I know are reliable. Initially, I did pay for and arrange community robotics classes, book clubs, theatre classes etc. but I soon realized that different homeschooling philosophies and situations in life made group classes (especially free ones) difficult to say the least. Now I still have these classes for my children, but I pay for them in a setting where they are with like minded individuals (or kids who are interested in their particular niche science groups) for the most part and whose parents subscribe to the philosophy of the class.