Thinking about Homeschooling

[smeisnotapirate]

Yes, I know, my babe is still in utero, but DH and I have discussed both of our experiences and really would like to start looking into homeschooling. I went to the best high school in the world, and have vowed that unless my child can get the kind of hands-on, accellerated learning program I got, they're totally being homeschooled (we're no longer in the area). DH went through a traditional program and spent his life teetering between As and Bs and HATED school because he was always so bored and "the kids sucked."

Sooooo... the problem we're running into is that we'd love to have a community of homeschoolers to interact with, but we seem to be the only non-Christian homeschooling family in the area! Lancaster is heavily populated with homeschoolers because of all the Old Order Christians in the area, and while I don't at all mind my child attending events with Christian families, I'd really like to find a group of parents who will keep things more secular (or Jewish, but in Lancaster? . All the homeschooling meetings I've found in the area are Christian-specific, and being Jewish, I have a feeling we'd be the odd family out.

Any resources/suggestions?? My Googling skills seem to have been exhausted!

[lauracd]

The person that started one of the homeschooling groups I'm in was told by other homeschoolers that there were few if any secular or non-christian homeschoolers in our area and that starting a group would be useless. Currently we have over 50 families in that group who practice religions other than Christianity or no religion.

What I would do is start a Yahoo Group. Set it up as a support/discussion board for your area and give it half a year and see if others come out of the woodwork. I guarantee they are out there. Most of us that aren't of the main-stream religion kind of lay low because of the flak we usually get.

You can email me or pm me about ideas for a group. I'm working of setting up a group right now where it is completely volunteer led, i.e. you get an idea so you set up a poll and a date on the calendar and try to drum up interest.

Good luck. Reading this board will also provide you with lots of ideas.

Originally Posted by smeisnotapirate

Yes, I know, my babe is still in utero, but DH and I have discussed both of our experiences and really would like to start looking into homeschooling. I went to the best high school in the world, and have vowed that unless my child can get the kind of hands-on, accellerated learning program I got, they're totally being homeschooled (we're no longer in the area). DH went through a traditional program and spent his life teetering between As and Bs and HATED school because he was always so bored and "the kids sucked."

Sooooo... the problem we're running into is that we'd love to have a community of homeschoolers to interact with, but we seem to be the only non-Christian homeschooling family in the area! Lancaster is heavily populated with homeschoolers because of all the Old Order Christians in the area, and while I don't at all mind my child attending events with Christian families, I'd really like to find a group of parents who will keep things more secular (or Jewish, but in Lancaster? . All the homeschooling meetings I've found in the area are Christian-specific, and being Jewish, I have a feeling we'd be the odd family out.

Any resources/suggestions?? My Googling skills seem to have been exhausted!

[Lillian J]

Try searching through the support group lists linked in this post:

SUPPORT GROUPS

And I think Laura's idea is great - you may just be the answer to some other local homeschoolers' dreams. Lillian