Are you in a homeschool group?

[brachysira]

I do not homeschool...except that I enjoy doing mildly academic activities at home with my kids.  I was hosting math playdates with my moms' group, but most of the kids who came were under 2 because that is the make-up of the moms' group--but the activities were for ages 3-6.  Even park playdates with this group can be no fun because mostly the group is non-verbal independent players and we're better off just going to a crowded park by ourselves to look for kids to play with.  My daughter is 3.5 and my son is almost 2.  I have tons of ideas for crafty playdates and forest school activities but it is hard to bother going to all the trouble just for my kids, who may not even be into it unless other kids do it.

Both my children will attend preschool next year and public school when they are older--but from our experience with preschool this year, I'd say playdates are hard to come by from this set as a lot of parents work.   I see homeschool groups out and they have a good set of preschoolers with them.  But I don't really want to join on facebook because I am not a homeschooler and I don't want to be associated in my larger and possibly future professional circles with some of the things people assume about homeschoolers.  I'm not even sure I'd be welcome.  

How does your group work?

[penguin129]

I help run the Stay at Home Preschool Group for my town. I post activities based on a theme weekly and parents do as many or as few of they activities as they can. I usually get one or two in. I'm great at planning but bad with follow through. We try to have a field trip twice a month on a Friday's but haven't been getting a good turn out. I think if I had a group of kids to interact with instead of just DD I'd get more activities done. DD will be going to VPK half day when she turns 4.

[brachysira]

penguin129, is your group through facebook? I do not know of a specifically preschool group. Everything is named just some variation of "homeschool." I would love to start a preschool co-op or playgroup but I'm just not sure how to recruit.

[penguin129]

It's on Facebook. One of the mom's in my other group created it and kind of passed it onto me and another mom while she finished her last semester of school. She went to be a principal. Anyway I would love to have a meeting complete with a circle/ calendar time once a week but am not sure it will catch on. It may be hard once DD 2 is added to the mix.
ETA: it is a secret private group on Facebook. People are invited as we meet them. I think it is better than meetup.com because there are no fees.

[penguin129]

Don't worry about any stigma attached to homeschool. You are a stay at home mom preparing your kids for elementary school. That's great!

[Deleted]

I am not in a group, so I can't help there.  In our area, I could find a group by google, and they have a website and talk to people through there.  I believe it is about 35 min away from my house, and it is like a homeschool co-op.  I never really researched it much, but I think it was more for school age kids.  But they provided field trips and extra curriculars and meet ups, but we are in a larger suburban area, so if you are in a smaller area they might not have that kind of structure.  Also there were a couple of classes/ meet ups at local libraries. 

I will say, that when my H was unemployed the kids were out of school (4 years old at the time and 2).  I did do activities for them, but it was a combo of adult led and child led.  I only mentioned it because you said your kids might not want to do it if there were not other kids.  Having the activities be somewhat child led helped solve that problem, and with me providing a little structure helped keep it from just being play time. 

For example, I had a schedule say 9:30-10 was fine motor skills and a list of 10 things they could do that involved fine motor skills.  Then when 9:30 (ish came around) I would say do you want to do this (color/ paint whatever) or do you want to do playdoh etc., so they still chose the activity from a few choices, but they were all in the subject that I wanted to work on. 

For forest school, instead of a specific project it could be a mission of get out and learn about nature, and more specific like today lets learn about leaves, next week birds.  That way you aren't a lot of hours invested in a project, but still doing the topic and then you can ask them hey do you want to do this (if they are old enough) before you prep for something more intensive.  Hope that helps. 

[icequeen]

May 17, 2016 8:29:27 GMT -5 forevermorgan said:

brachysira - could you offer your talents to your local library?
Our library has loads of free activities for kids. They are run by the librarians but, if you have the interest and capability, why not see if you can combine your resources?
We also have several nature preserves that run free/low cost programs. Maybe there is something like that near you.

This sounds like a good idea! Maybe try the park district or community center. A lot of churches also have vacation bible schools you could contact. I wouldn't worry too much about associating yourself with SAHM who homeschool. There might be other families in your situation as well. Good luck!

[brachysira]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I go to several formal classes taught by SAHMs, although they tend to have baby-sitting for their kids during class once their kids get old enough to be unruly. There are actually jobs I could probably get at the science museums and nature centers teaching these classes--but says DH--we can't afford for you to work for less than we pay a baby-sitter unless you really need this. We sign up for lots of classes and attend them and go to library programs too. But what I would really like is either a) a co-op kind of situation where about 5 moms take turns doing lessons and meeting one day/week or so; and/or b) a group of about 5-10 parents with preschoolers who would come to our house one evening/month for activities (it is a bit easier to do things with DH helping the toddler). I couldn't actually teach anything even for free to random people at a library with my kids present...I tend to think no one can even if they only have one child. But moreover, I like the planning but I also want the connection and friendship potential and for my child to have some friends rather than the random people we encounter at the various things we attend... I think homeschooling groups may be the way to go...but I think we'll see how this summer goes...DD is doing a lot of activities, our neighbors will be outside more, and the parks are busy, so perhaps we'll make some friends that way.

[Deleted]

brachysira, I know you have been searching for a while for various things. I hope you find what you are looking for this summer.

[mrsmuq]

May 14, 2016 15:45:50 GMT -5 penguin129 said:

I help run the Stay at Home Preschool Group for my town. I post activities based on a theme weekly and parents do as many or as few of they activities as they can. I usually get one or two in. I'm great at planning but bad with follow through. We try to have a field trip twice a month on a Friday's but haven't been getting a good turn out. I think if I had a group of kids to interact with instead of just DD I'd get more activities done. DD will be going to VPK half day when she turns 4.

This sounds like an ingenious idea! Going to investigate if anything like this near me for DS2!

[mrsmuq]

Some ideas for both educational and crafty activities for the under 5 set:
www.toddlerapproved.com/ (They also have a FB page I follow. I save some of the links on FB and then go back and do some. Some especially great ideas for rainy/snowy/too cold days!)