Communal homeschooling - does it exist?!

[kate00]

Hi -
Please forgive the possibly naive question. Our son is due to start in reception in Jan next year, and we are considering the option of homeschooling him. However, we don't know much about how this might work.

We are interested in the idea of becoming part of a homeschooling community where different families share in educating each other's children. (Mainly, this is because we feel our son would benefit from lots of different inputs into his education. He currently attends nursery school and thrives on the external stimulus.) I am assuming such a community would need to have a shared educational philosophy and similar ideas about how to put this into practice.

Do such communal homeschooling arrangemets exist? Part of our problem is that we are new in the UK, and don't have very good social networks here in general. We would hope that by becoming involved in homeschooling, we might widen and strengthen our community involvement. The risk would be that we stay rather isolated, which is the last thing we want.

I would be very gateful for any information that might help us better understand what kinds of homeschooling networks exist in the UK.

Thanks,
Kate
P.S. We are in South London

[SomePosters]

Did you read the thread before you resurrected it from 2018?

Long story short the kind of thing you’re looking for tends to develop over several years and lots of general meets with younger children.

Eventually you find the people on the same wavelengths and make private arrangements

There is no ready made for you group, you will need to go and meet the people that are your peers and build it

[homeeducationparents]

@Kate00
Hi Kate,
what you describe is exactly what we are looking for for our 3 year old.
Did you turn up anything useful or find any effective means of making links with similarly minded parents?
Thank you

[mayuko21]

Hi we are a small Italian family and would like to spend a couple of months in England during january and february; our 6 years old boy needs to go to school but the public school doesn't accept us and we can only send him to a private and expensive one.
Are thinking about the homeschooling: looking for a group who can welcome our son...and a family who can welcome us, like hosting us like airbnb

[EHE2016SW]

Communal homeschooling does exist. Thank you mumsnet for posting the article. We would like to share our resolution this year, which is to make new friends and meet for a chat over cup of cocoa. Looking forward to hearing from fellow home educators, tutors and genuine supporters of alternative education. Sophie
ps.
www.rbkc.gov.uk/AZ/az.aspx?searchletter=&orgid=16871
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/home_ed/2427270-Council-drops-home-education-case

[michaelafleming]

Hello :) my names Michaela and I am a third year student and Canterbury Christ Church university. Sorry if this is not the right place to post but I am finding it very difficult to reach groups of home school parents. I am currently trying to research whether home school parents would/do use environmental education centres for learning outside the classroom. I am also trying to find out what is the most effective way is to reach home school parents? For example online forums, social media, flyers, leaflets, stalls at home school fairs? I would really appreciate it if anybody has any information on the subject please reply on here or if you would like to email me [email protected].

thank you

[youwish]

There's a place in Stroud,I know is far,but it would be ideal wouldn't it?OP,by not starting a co-op,or group?shouldn't be too hard in London,lots of people there! Maybe join a fb group and see if others like the idea?

[Bridget00]

Kate

From what I researched so far, Saxon (math) sounds in preference to lots families, amazon has lots books and materials for English, science etc.

The tricky part I found in homeschooling is finding suitable friends for your little one. My son is learning to play football, so most boys like playing football too, therefore going to any playground, he is able to find kids to play together. That builds positive energy for him too. My daughter, 2 yrs old, is into girly stuff. Taking her tea pots at play grounds always has someone to play with. The only part is educational trips with groups.

[Bridget00]

Dear mums,

We are interested to join any group available. Based in South London too. Vauxhall. Btw I'm using Kumon for English maths for one day a week attendance,but homework done at home. For socialising, www. Chelsea fc/foundation.com for soccer school, gymnastic classes with The little gym @Wandsworth and Fulham before too. My son is turning 5 in August so will be homeschooling year 1. If there is any group or meeting for kidsto socialise and learn, we are keen to join aspa. Please let me know!
Much appreciated.

[Saracen]

Hi ZoeWal,

The families I know who do co-operative learning over a number of hours a week tend to keep rather quiet about it and don't advertise for new members. They don't want to be in the position of having to make new families "apply" to join their group and perhaps be turned away, which could be awkward and upsetting. Instead, they usually invite families after they have got to know them, by which time they are reasonably sure that the parenting and educational philosophies will be compatible with their own and the kids get along OK.

I'd suggest that the best way to find such a co-op is to join in with local HE activities, make friends that way, and make it known to everyone that you are looking for this sort of arrangement. Are you already home educating? If not, it might be good to get well stuck in with home ed for a while first, so you can be more clear in your mind about exactly what suits your children educationally. Then you'll know what you're looking for.

As others have mentioned earlier on this thread, it is very very common to have a patchwork approach in which your children join in with many different groups and activities. You might share a French tutor with several families, join in a music group, form a drama club, have a childcare swap... just because you can't find a proper co-op doesn't mean you have to do all the educating yourself or that your family will be isolated. Most areas have these types of activities going on.

[ZoeWal]

Having Googled around for info on this subject I was led to this semi-comatose thread.

Let's hope some tech savvy person considers a national network site to link families up who are interested in networking into a coooperative to home school their children and avoid the legal hurdles.

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

Sandra - you might get more help if you start a brand new thread on this topic.

[itsstillgood]

www.homeeducators.co.uk/

Is this sort of thing what you have in mind?
Not sure of the distance.

[sandraj]

hi I am thinking about homeschooling my 6 year old would love to hear from anyone who is homeschooling or thinking about it particularly if you are near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk

[lilyfire]

Grimalkin
Sorry not checked this topic for a while. For CLHE try this groups.google.co.uk/group/CLHE
Hope it works.

[grimalkin]

Kayteee you're a star - a link that actually works (tried in other posts to no avail)! I had also tried sending an email before but it kept getting returned telling me that 'group must either be private or no longer exists'. Anyway have now signed up and taken into account that grp manager is on hols.

Huge thanks

[Kayteee]

oh, btw the owner of the group is away for another week or so I think, so you may have to wait a while to be approved.

[Kayteee]

Hi Grimalkin,

I am in Croydon but belong to the SLHE group.

try here

If you can't join let me know and we'll try another way.

[grimalkin]

update
I have just discovered that [email protected] is a private group and that you have to be invited by an existing member to join; hence the reason they couldn't be found in google groups. Probably the same setup for CLHE. If there are any SLHE members out there in Dulwich please respond to this post. I would just like to find out about any fun activities and/or possible maths groups in Dulwich area for my ds 12 who is new to HE (since last October).

Many thanks

[grimalkin]

Hi Lilyfire

Thanks for responding. Unfortunately it seems that the groups you mentioned no longer exist in google groups but I decided to check yahoo just incase they had moved there. they hadn't but I did find a couple of other groups, namely KALHE (Kent And London Home Educators) and EO (Education Otherwise).

I've joined both groups so I should be able to find other HE families in my area. Once again thanks for the assistance.

[lilyfire]

Hi Mimi
I don't know what's happening with the Woodlands Club, but if you posted a message on [email protected] (you have to join first) you would probably get an answer from someone who knows, as it's been discussed there in the past.
Have you joined CLHE (central london home ed) at google groups as it's got a lot of info. on about trips and groups etc.?

[grimalkin]

Hi all,

I have just started HS with my 12 year old son. We have been skating at Streatham, go for a weekly workout at Peckham Rye Common courtesy of outdoor gym (great fun!) and practice French with downloads from BYKI.com.

He has written a couple of poems, a few essays and does ongoing research on geology. It's a relaxed approach with no schedules which he enjoys. However, I also feel he would benefit greatly from weekly Maths - his favourite subject - in a group setting.

Does anyone happen to know how I can get in touch with The Woodlands Club in Dulwich that meet weekly for Maths, Science and English?
I tried sending an email via the contact details I was given on the EO website, but didn't receive a reply.

I would be extremely grateful to receive any further information on this or any other HS group/parents in Southwark.

Many thanks,

Mimi

[chatterbocs]

You'll soon get to know other homeschoolers. We regularly meet up with another family to do some project wok & we take turns at each others home, then every other week we hire a dance teacher & do dance & we also arrange school trips, today I've arranged a school trip, we are off to a glass museum with 3 workshops included, there are around 25 children coming. I only took mine out last year & have made loads of contacts. It won't take you long.

[Sunnylondra]

Dear all,

I see that I'm a year late for this thread, but cooperative/communal homeschooling, or sharing the cost of a tutor with other home-educating families, is exactly what I'm interested in. I live in Camden with my 7 year old daughter - would anyone be interested in getting together with us?? Please do reply if you are at all interested!

[Fillyjonk]

hi kate,
my last post was unintentionally terse, was bfding and pressed send w/o previewing, sorry.

I think it is very common to have arrangements like this in place, yes.

Our week goes something like : Monday, go out, generally with other homeschoolers somewhere vaguely educational (though sometimes this is softplay ) , Wednesday, go to local group, Friday, go to local group. Then Tuesday and Thursday are free for us to do our own thing, or have friends over, or whatever.

Local HErs have also set up groups specifically for studying one thing, eg music, science etc.

I think the problem you MIGHT run into would tend to be agreeing on a "curriculum", not to mention how to teach, etc. Eg a music group for one family might be a way to teach songs, for another to have the kids enjoy dancing, but for my family we would be more interested in either how instruments worked, or learning to play, say, the recorder. Similarly science-some parents will focus on experiments, but we tend to see what the kids get up to anyway and give scientific explainations of that-we might do an experiment to back up teaching but we don't especially want to give the impression that science is about those bloody baking powder volcanos (sorry, particular bugbear).

oh dear I am a naysayer!