One of the coolest things about homeschooling is the ability to handpick your friends and community as a whole. There will be some things you cannot control, like people moving away, and bullies living across the street, but you can eliminate influences that are toxic to your family for the most part.
There are many things you can base your homeschooling community on, creating different types of homeschooling communities. Most of these are informal, but some are formal and require faith statements. I belong to several different types:
My local community: Through a local homeschool group, I am aware of when the most homeschoolers will be at the park, when roller skate day is cancelled due to bad whether, and when impromptu birthday parties are being thrown for my kid’s friends. We help each other find tutors through referrals, and support each other through sickness and health.
My “In Common” communities: Notice I used the plural form of the word community. These communities form spontaneously based on interests and lifestyle. I belong to a church homeschool community. I call these people when I need emergency childcare, and they call me. (The homeschooling members of my church rely on each other for needs of a more personal nature.) I belong to a homeschool ‘school’ community where the children take art and academic classes as these are the homeschoolers whose educational philosophies match mine as we are using the same methods to homeschool. I also belong to homeschool sports communities, which form spontaneously between homeschooling families whose children participate in physical activities together.
My community with no boundaries: This is an international, online community. Through email groups, the HSLDA website, and the internet as a whole, I am in touch with homeschoolers all over the world. I am aware of problems, successes, and resources at a faster rate than I can absorb them. I love this community and want to share it with you. I would like to form a homeschool community here on families.com.
Stay tuned to read my ideas on how it could work. (to be continued)