Finding Friends for You!
When all is said and done, what we really crave is connection: with our kids, with ourselves, and with each other.
It matters that you find friends to support you on this daring adventure called homeschooling. Join me as I share my ideas for how to create friendships and support for yourself that lasts.
There are a few types of friends that you’ll want to cultivate in your homeschooling life, and today we want to share principles and stories that will help you do that:
- The first thing you want to do is forge a friendship, maybe someone who has kids around the same ages as your kids – don’t even worry about homeschooling yet. If you start with finding a friend for yourself, not just for your kids, you can start to develop a homeschool philosophy that goes together.
- Create a regular community event, like a book club that meets once a week or once a month. You can grow and figure out homeschool together!
- You can get some of this connection online, but there’s no substitute for in-person friendships. Sometimes we need someone to grow with, someone to hug us, someone to take over when we’re falling apart – and part of the way we get there is cultivating a vision in community.
- We want to leave space for change and growth. So if you’re creating a community group like a co-op, your goal should be to create what you believe in, giving people the opportunity to participate without conforming to that belief.
- You don’t have to create a new group to find new people. Instead, you can find them in existing support groups. And we think the fastest way to find out what people are like is to propose a book study – you don’t want to just ask them, “What’s your homeschool philosophy?” Because what you’re really looking for is someone willing to explore more than what they already know.
- Sometimes what you need is a BREAK from homeschooling, so don’t be afraid to look for non-homeschooling friends!
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Help a homeschooler like you find more joy in the journey. Thanks!
