Jump to content

Menu

How does your homeschool group communicate?


TeenagerMom
 Share

Recommended Posts

The largest listserv groups all seem to still use Yahoo Groups around here. There are some Facebook groups, but the Yahoo lists are still going strong.

 

Our "statewide" group has a Facebook page.

 

The larger co-ops that I'm aware of have listservs that they operate.

 

My tiny co-op uses text mostly, which we can do because we're tiny.

 

ETA: Oh, and I've seen many groups also use Doodle.

Edited by Farrar
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another option is WhatsApp.  Our HOA has a bunch of WhatsApp chat groups: One for everybody, one for the lady who is legally in charge (she is the "Administrator"), one for our street, one for the Zumba class, etc.  It's free and it works very well.  WhatsApp is owned by Facebook as I recall.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have a Shutterfly Share site. I think it works very well. Every message can be sent from a person's email program or the website, and all messages get sent to email and the site, so people can read however they prefer. We do have trouble with Comcast members not getting emails, but that seems to be a known issue with Comcast, and they haven't fixed it yet. But Shutterfly allows for easy uploading of pics (convenient to use them for printing but no requirements to do so), creating Sign-up sheets, storing files, adding PayPal buttons, etc. And it's free.

 

We casually communicate via Facebook some too, but anything official goes through Shutterfly. Not all of our members are on FB. We've had requests for a FB group though, so if I make one, maybe I'll make it for board members only to post important events.

 

The big Homeschool group around here has a FB group for anyone, but paying members get access to their site at Homeschool-life. That was a little cost prohibitive for my smaller local group though, hence Shutterfly.

 

Oh, and this year we have also asked for a text number. We will use that for emergency last minute stuff like for field trips. Not everyone can check email on the road but most of our people have some sort of text capability, so we can send out stuff like, "This is Susan. The parking lot at the museum is blocked off, so please use the lot across the street." It'll save the field trip coordinator from needing to call everyone.

Edited by happypamama
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One has their privately-run forum on their webpage.

 

The local one has both a Yahoo group & a Facebook group. We have some people just on one, some just on the other, and a few people who overlap. Someday, it'll be divisive. For now, we're getting along ok.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our co-op has a FB group. We used to use a Shutterfly site, but no one ever checked it, so we switched to FB since most people are there already pretty regularly. The other homeschool circles I'm part of use FB groups as well. I'm still on a Yahoo group for HSing in our state, but there's maybe one new post a day there, and it's usually by the "old guard" HSers--as in, their kids are nearly done with high school, so they're not switching platforms now. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

homeschool-life.com. But we are a large group with a lot of stuff happening so the small per-family fee is worth it. Plus they can sign up and pay via the website and this is very helpful.

Our group uses this too. It's soooooo much nicer than FB or yahoo groups. Most people get email updates from the site, but the site has forums, a calendar, and scheduling/registration features too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our group uses this too. It's soooooo much nicer than FB or yahoo groups. Most people get email updates from the site, but the site has forums, a calendar, and scheduling/registration features too.

 

I like homeschoollife. I just hate the cost.  We try to keep our membership fees low so it isn't cost prohibitive, so we would have to raise them to pay for the site.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like homeschoollife. I just hate the cost.  We try to keep our membership fees low so it isn't cost prohibitive, so we would have to raise them to pay for the site.

I think it ended up being about $8 per family for the year. Leadership put it off for a few years because of the cost, but the $8 is sooo worth the convenience to members and it saves the people who organize classes and events so much time. It's just not fair to say that the organizers should volunteer more and more hours of their valuable time so I don't have to part with $8. In the end, the general membership had to convince them that it really was ok to cover this by increasing membership. It also keeps the anti-FB crowd happy and got us away from the sinking YahooGroups ship. Since you have to be signed up to register for classes, all those people who could never figure out Yahoo, and were eternally out of the loop, became suddenly computer savvy so they could enroll their kids in classes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two of them mostly do FB. The other one has one of those websites with homeschool-life. This paying online thing mentioned upthread is new to me. I don't know if ours does that. We pay one sum at registration and I don't know how much of it goes to maintaining the site. I never thought about it. I do occasionally get emails, too. I don't know how often they will use that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We use a Google Group E-loop

That's what we use. We have one for moms only, one for the kids in our dialectic classes and their parents, and another one for the kids in our rhetoric classes and their parents. We only need this for communication since we use Moodle for assignments, grades, links, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The last group I was in used only FB. For awhile they tried to have an email coordinator who would summarize the info from FB and send it out to the non-FB members. But then they decided it was just too much effort to continue that and went completely FB. When they did the email there was a lot of info that didn't get passed along because it was mostly last minute or smaller stuff--like who's going to park day or does anyone have this book, that kind of thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...