What are your HE meetips like?

[bubbleymummy]

I'm considering HE (ds1is 4) and we decided to try out our local HE meetup. It was lovely chatting to other parents and hearing about their experiences etc but there was v little for DS to do. It was v informal almost to the point of chaotic there were a few Board games and some paper and markers but that was it. Is this what they're usually like? I was expecting a few more organised activities for the children to do together eg maybe a crafts table and then a game area with a few organised games etc. I thought it was going to be an opportunity to get all the children together to do some things in a bigger group but they just seemed to get on with their own thing while the mums chatted. What do you do on your meetups? Do I have unrealistic expectations?

[Tinuviel]

I think our local meet ups are quite like the one you went to, although they do have quite a few toys/resources. They also do sometimes have organised activities (a sports day in summer; craft activities at various times).

We can't go unfortunately as I work on the day it is on and need the car so DH can't really take them.

We do meet up with other home edders but for more organised activities (book club & French/Spanish).

[Marjoriew]

The one grandson and I used to go to, the boys far outnumbered the girls.
There were activities to do - craft and stuff which grandson likes doing at home, but at the group all he wanted to do was run around the field with the other boys.

So I just left him to it. I did do some cross stitch with a couple of the older girls, but then his kickboxing session fell on the same day as home ed group.

[SDeuchars]

In my experience, it depends! If there are people who want to do structured things, then the group will provide that. If not, it won't.

As they are informal support groups, there is often no specific "organiser". However, if you'd like to do activities, you could see if anyone else would like to join your DS in doing them.

Because EHEers do a variety of activities at home or in families, the parents often welcome a chance at groups for their children just to run around and (as Marjorie says) so do the children. This probably varies with age.

In our area, we have (per month) a couple of very informal meetings and a general meeting with more structured activities. They are often replaced with park meetings in the summer. There is also (weekly) a drama group, swimming and a robotics club; and less frequent meetings for specific activities (clowning, a museum, art, @Bristol, climbing).

[Marjoriew]

I found also that on one or two occasions, there might be a speaker there and there were one or two children who always had a ready-made project ready to show the speaker and it was always the same children.
We do do project work but that has more to do with our learning journey and I tried to keep the home ed group day to grandson just having a runaround with the other kids. I didn't feel I should always force him to join in.
Grandson felt uncomfortable with this situation and we both felt that he was competing with the other children. I don't believe that children should compete against each other - I leave that for the school system.

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

The HE group I help to run is led by the children. Most of the families who attend take an autonomous approach, so suddenly having lots of structured activities wouldnt' really work. Having said that, there are other more formal groups going on that most of the local children attend too. It's just that the group we run is meant for socialising, not for learning.

We have paper and pens on a table, or playdough - something for the little ones. And usually a parent or two brings along an activity but the children never spend much time on them and usually just relish in the big chunk of time they have to play with lots of their friends in the outside.

Most areas seem to set up groups that work for the families who want to meet up in that area. Some seem to have very structured groups, others more flexible ones. If the group you found doesn't meet your needs, then don't go, or go but set up one of your own that does work.

The thing is that most people who run groups do so out of the goodness of their hearts so they tend to set up groups that they think, primarily, their own children will benefit from, and then hope that other families will also find benefit in it. In our case, we have 7-15 families every session, so clearly it meets a lot of parents' needs. Some parents say they'd like more activities, but I say 'fine, run one then!', and usually they do!

Other parents who have specific skills sometimes offer to run something in a 'skill-sharing' way. So one local mum who is a musician runs a singing group weekly. A group of us asked a local French man to run a small french club weekly. Another dad who is a PE teacher runs a weekly PE group. My skills aren't something I can use to do that sort of thing, but I'm good at organising so I run the group I run, and I also set up museum visits etc.