Are you in more than one homeschool group?

[Ghee]

I see people refer to their "group" and I get the sense that they just belong to the one. I've found about five groups and they each offer something slightly different. None demand weekly meetings, all dues are either cheap or non existent, several were for ages that all my kids could attend but two were geared to only ages appropriate for one or another of my kids (with siblings welcome to come along and play with other sibs).

 

I'm just curious to see if most people have just one group they do everything with or if they cherry pick from various groups. I won't be doing all five, I don't think.

[Ellie]

Back in the day, I belonged to one support group--not a co-op, but a support group.

 

I've never heard of a support group that "demanded" meetings. :blink:

 

I would only be a member of a support group that all of my children could participate in. The exception might be if there was a support group that was for high-school-aged children.

[Farrar]

To join the list I moderate, we technically require that you come to *something* organized by the group. But it's pretty loosely enforced. The idea being that we don't want to be an online information list - there are others of those.

 

I belong to a co-op, but it's just five families, but we used to be in a second co-op as well, also small. I mod a local list - it's pretty light - there's a couple of field trips ongoing through it. I'm on three different local listservs as well, but those are just for information sharing.

[Harriet Vane]

I am part of two co-ops. Neither offers support meetings. Both offer classes and social activities for kids/teens. I joined two specifically because they offered the classes my kids need (or, in some cases, offer me a forum to get a small group to teach the classes I want my kids to have).

 

When I lived in the city, I was member of two groups. One was almost entirely a support group for adults that also offered field trips and fun opportunities for the kids; the other offered classes once a week for kids/teens and had quarterly get-to-know-you loose support meetings as well.

[GoVanGogh]

I am in three.

 

First one: Very local to my area. Has monthly meeting through the school year. Monthy meetings are great and the ladies are wonderful, but not a lot of activities or field trips going on.

 

Second one: Covers about a three county (urban) area. No monthly meetings. Lots of activities and field trips. Large number of families in this group, so hard to get to know anyone but great for info about outside activities.

 

Third one: Specific to the educational method we have chosen. Monthly meetings. Very small group.

 

No co-ops for our family.

[unfrumpable.]

I belong to two groups. One group is my main every week group. We have about 6 families that participate regularly and our kids have become good friends over the past year (the group started around a year ago, I had just moved to this area, it worked out well). We meet every Thursday for a very relaxed coop (different subject each time), field trip, play time, etc. Our kids are all elementary aged or less. Sometimes someone will be doing something else on another day and post about it to see if anyone else wants to join in. I love this group and am so happy I found it.

 

I also belong to a larger group (probably over 100 families). The larger group has a fee. It has many field trips, park days, a regular coop, science fair, holiday parties, and other school type activities throughout the year. They cater to all ages and have an active teen group as well as graduation ceremony, scholarship, etc. This group I really only interact with on field trips. I've been to a couple of more social events and I did not particularly care for the behavior of many of the kids. Turns out the board has received dozens of letters complaining about behavior on park day, so I feel good that it's not just me (I didn't complain). There is some crossover between the two groups, three members of my smaller group belong also to the larger group. One is a board member and one teaches at the coop. I am debating whether to join this group again for the new "school" year. I most likely will, as the field trips are pretty good. I am also debating whether to do their coop. The only reason I want to do coop is for my son to get a taste of classroom learning. But, I'm not sure if I want two committed events every week and I'm not giving up my Thursdays. :)

 

These two groups more than fulfill my homeschool group needs, so I don't go looking for any more. However, it did take a couple of tries with other groups before stumbling upon this one. Prior to this we lived in Jacksonville, FL and secular hs group choices were slim and we kind of floundering. The main and most active group for elementary aged kids was trying to mandate attendance requirements, so many of us left. Just before we moved, one of my hs friend was starting a new group and they are going strong now.

 

I think it's best to visit different groups and see where you like it the best. If you just want to go for the field trips or the occasional fun class or what not, I suppose the group doesn't matter as much. However, if you're looking for a group so you and your kids can have friends, it may take a bit to find the right fit.

[Wheres Toto]

I belong to 4 or 5 local yahoo groups. They post field trips, park days and just general information. There are no real requirements to join and I'm not really active with any of them. There's also quite a bit of overlap between the groups.

 

I also run a homeschool 4-H group. We have meetings or field trips twice a month.

[Ghee]

Thanks these are all helpful replies :)

 

One group I'm looking at is for teens. I'd like to join it for my rising high schooler, he gets lost in the shuffle and they do community projects which I think is nice. . One is specifically for 5th grade and under which would be nice for my younger kid who gets lumped in with his sister because they are so close in age. Both allow older or younger sibs to come with and let them free play with each other.

 

One focuses mainly on sports and has teams that plays area schools and two of mine love sports. Another holds once weekly game nights, and that's all it does, so that dads can attend. Things like that. Together, they offer what I'd really like to see in one coop/group, but I can't find it in one group. Two offered field trip/play date type things but one is mainly indoor things and the other is true park days. It's hard to find one group that does it all (though it would be nice). Since none of them require a minimum amount of attendance (and some I looked at did) and none have fees over $25 a year, I guess I could try them all and even do them all, to some extent, if we like them.

[Samiam]

I'm a member of six local groups via Facebook or Yahoo groups. Only one had a fee, $10, and oddly enough that one is the most inactive. All the others are laid back and do things here and there do we cherry pick. The best and most active group is a field trip group that just does field trips. I see many members of the groups on my other groups so I get the feeling that others do the same as me.

 

If there was a group that met my needs, ie was active and gathered for fun on a regular basis, I would be more devoted to that one. None of my groups do that though.

[sassenach]

I'm in 2, but thinking of adding a 3rd. I see nothing wrong with it!

[texasmama]

I belong to one group, a co op. A parent of children under the age of 13 is required to stay while her this is always moms) children are in classes. So I end up sitting in a room with the other moms for two and a half hours every Friday. It is a fun time to visit, and I get plenty of support there so I would call it a dual purpose group.

[raceNzanesmom]

I'm part of two, but not super active in either. Most have activities every Friday and most Tuesdays. There's no way we can join them all, so we pick the best ones and skip the rest. There's also a monthly mom's meeting, but I've never gone to it. We have another group across the river that occasionally has "open" events and we join those 1-2 times a year.

[mazakaal]

I'm a part of four homeschool groups. One has field trips that are generally pretty far from me, so I've only been to a few of their activities. Another is our local homeschool group that I'm fairly involved with in helping organize activities and days out as well as keeping track of the member list and sending notifications. The third group is almost an hour away from us. We went once because I heard that there were some teens there. Most of the kids in our local group are younger, and I wanted to find some homeschooled teens for ds. He really liked it and made some good friends, and so we go there every week. They have some additional activities aside from the weekly meetings, but we pick and choose between those. The last group is fairly new. It's a Christian group that meets about 40 minutes away, and it has some of the same people from the third group. I'd like to be more regular with it, but with everything else going on we've only managed to make it to one of their meetings. So we're a part of four groups, but only regularly involved in two, and only because of the lack of teens in our local group.