Drumroll please….. time for the final tip in the 7 Tips for Educating at Home series, Homeschool Support. Simply put, find support! You will need it from time to time and as you go & grow, you will be able to provide it to others in their time of need.

Basically, there are two general avenues for finding support in your home education journey. You can find it in your local community and/or online. As with all things, each has its advantages and disadvantages. If possible, I would encourage you to find support in both places.

Let’s take a look.

Local Community Homeschool Support Resources

In your local community you can look for:

• Homeschooling families within your church
• Friends who homeschool
• Homeschool groups and/or co-ops

Advantages to local community support

• Social interaction for you and your kids
• Opportunities to combine efforts & strengths with others
• Having like-minded families to do fun stuff with
• Help in teaching subjects that are out of your league

Disadvantages to local community support

• Some homeschool groups/co-ops may require you to take an active role, which you may or may not have the time or energy for
• Most co-op courses cost money
• Hate to say it, but some groups can be “cliquey”
• It may be difficult to find a group close-by and/or one that fits with your approach to home education

If you are unable to find a local homeschool community, check out A-Z’s Homes Cool, Support Groups.

Online Homeschool Support Resources
Online support can be found on:

• Online forums
• Yahoo email group lists
• Sites like this

Advantages of Online Support

• It is easier to find a group or several groups that fit you and your style
• You can participate according to your schedule
• Sometimes it’s easier ask questions or express concerns in an online setting

Disadvantages to Online Support

• No face-to-face interaction for you or your kids
• Can be time-consuming if you’re not careful

When searching for online support, be sure to search for “homeschool”, one word and “home school” two words, as each search will yield different results. The same holds true for “highschool” and “high school”.

To search specifically for a homeschool forum, just Google, using the quotation marks, “homeschool forums” and “home school forums”. Visit those that look interesting based on their description and join those that look like a good fit. It may take a while to find those that are a good fit. Once you do find the supportive atmosphere you need, you can unsubscribe from the other forums.

My favorite and most helpful online support has been found on the yahoo groups. To find a yahoo group go to www.yahoogroups.com. In the search box, type in “homeschool” and then do it again with “home school”. Don’t be dismayed by the number of groups that turn up – there are many! Just keep looking through the descriptions and follow the same procedure as above.

If you have an idea of what type of group you’re looking, because you did do your Pray & Learn & Success Defined homework, right? – you can refine your search. For example you can search for “homeschool highschool” and/or “home school high school”. Or search for “relaxed homeschooling” or “classical homeschool”, etc.

One thing I suggest you do is see if there are any groups, specific to your state. Simply add your state’s name to the search. State-specific groups can be very helpful in learning about how the homeschool laws work in your state, saving you some worry.

Once you find some yahoo groups to try, subscribe to the “Digest” version so your mailbox isn’t bombarded with emails. It won’t take you long to discover which groups are the best fit for you.

Because homeschool support within your local community and online venues have unique benefits, my advice is to try to find support from both. You will be amazed at what a difference it will make. And you will love the day, when you have grown enough in your own home school experience, that you will be able to support and encourage others.

I would love to know if you have found these tips helpful or not – any comments are greatly appreciated!

Sue

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Home Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.