Starting my own homeschool group

[**Shiney**]

I want to start a homeschool group in my area. There is nothing close enough to us and its hard to make it to anything because of the distance. Any ideas on this?? How do I go about spreading the word? I dont really know any other homeschooling families yet so I dont have anyone to invite. I am looking for any ideas on this. How would you do it if you were starting a group?? Any ideas are welcome PLEASE!! Thanks

[Climbing Rose]

My friend just did this, and it went great! I get to be her helper.

The way she started is by finding all the HSers she could and getting their emails, and starting an online email loop. Then she made guidelines for posting, and invited everyone to a planning meeting and a picnic.
At the planning meeting, we all had ideas like a field trip here, or a craft night at so-and-so's house, or calling the school to get an open gym time once a week, etc, etc.
Then whenever something is going on, she posts it on the list and we can go. Other people can post stuff too, about local events or really whatever. It has been maybe three months or so... and it's going great.

I think the best way to find other HSers is to hang up signs at places they go, like the library. You could mail flyers to churches, LLL meetings, 4-H, health food stores, and ask them to hang them up. Put a free anouncement in the community paper or free community radio announcents... Before you know it, word of mouth will have it's own momentum. You could also contact HS groups in the area if you can find any, and ask them to put your info on their newsletter or what they can do to help you. (I mean big groups, maybe like umbrella schools, or legal groups, or religious HS groups, or whatever.) Don't forget MDC Finding Your Tribe.

Good luck. I love our local group and it was really worth it.

[hsmamato2]

You can check yahoo groups for homeschool in your area- and join,and post and see if folks would like to join activity with you- or start a yahoo group of your own,and invite others to join-
ask the local librarians for anyone who is involved in homeschooling-

[OhMeOhMy]

We just had out first *real life* meeting! :0)

I started by creating a yahoo group. Then I had my info added to ever other group remotely near us (pretty much most of NH, lol). I also found hs boards and added my info (the NH coalition, other hs boards that have "local groups" listed). I also made flyers and put them on the billboards at the park, at hte library, at the grocery store, community center, ANYWHERE that parents would be.

[mary3mama]

I started one with my local AP-group as the springboard. I created it via Yuku, not yahoo, because the functionality is awesome -- more like here on MDC, really.

Networking via librarians was an absolutely INSPIRED idea.

Check with any museums or art centers in your area, too. Here they all have homeschooling sessions/classes and you can find people that way.

Create flyers to hang up at grocery stores that you frequent. If you go there, you'll probably discover other hsers that do too.

Make up business cards for yourself with your info. Put on whatever you're comfortable sharing, like first name and email address. That way when you make a connection, you can give other families a way to contact you. I put a small picture of myself with my 2 boys (before the girl...) on my card, that way the mama could remember who the heck gave her the card in the first place, when, a month later she found it at the bottom of the diaper bag covered in peanut butter...

Look for families at the park during school hours. If they have 'school age' children, you can start up a conversation to find out if they homeschool or what...

HTH,