Support & Community for Homeschool Moms

The free website The Homeschool Lounge offers the opportunity for a supportive community to homeschooling parents. As a homeschooling mother in the early 1980s, I remember being extremely grateful that my local school district supported me, by allowing me to homeschool my children without intervention or supervision. Friends in other school districts and/or other states did not have the same experience.

I was an experienced classroom teacher, properly credentialed in our state and a regular substitute teacher in our district, familiar to school district officials. But, all that was irrelevant in many school districts and I knew it. I could have just as easily been required to jump through dozens of hoops to get permission to teach my children at home. Indeed, I went into my school district office to ask permission expecting to come out with at least a list of requirements. Instead, I came out with the loan of materials and the information that my children would have to be tested for grade level placement, if they were re-enrolled in that school district in the future.

Not all school districts or state education departments were as lenient or should I say forward thinking as mine. Alternative education, at least in the upper mid-west of the U. S. was not as commonly encountered or accepted as it is today. Cooperation, by non-involvement was the best you could hope for from your local or state education officials.

Though there were a handful of other homeschooling parents in the district, we had no organization for support, and the idea felt a little subversive anyway. We Moms were too busy organizing natural food coops to put energy into our own right and need for support. The only means of communication we had were land lines and snail mail. So you might imagine how lonely I felt at times as a homeschooling mother.

That was then and this is now, where most homes have access to several forms of instant communication. I know that today many of you do not feel so privileged as I am making your situation sound. I know that even with the advancements in communication technology, it can still be a lonely, hard fought, exhausting campaign to educate your children according to your own principals and ideals at home.

That is why I am so impressed with the website Homeschool Lounge, http://www.thehomeschoollounge.com/. It has over members, so I know that some of you have already explored it and or joined this dynamic community.

Though the site is by its own words directed to mothers, ("the homeschool lounge is a free online community exclusively for homeschool Moms,") I am sure a homeschool Dad or other family members could also find support, nurturing, inspiration, and good ideas on the site. After all they say, "Get advice, give advice, share, learn and laugh with those who truly understand you."

In addition to the gift of support, there are articles, discussions, reviews, resources, music, photos, videos and great free give aways on the site. Check it out at www.thehomeschoollounge.com.

Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams

Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com

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