Thread: Hello & a question

Just joined the site & thought I would pop in here & say hello as we plan to home educate our son (29 months atm).

I have found a few local HE groups via some of the yahoo groups and been to a couple of meetings. However Ive not really found somewhere I feel very comfortable yet. The big group I went to didnt have any children as young as DS & so he got quite bored as there wasnt much for him to do or play with so although there were loads of families there it wont really be any good for us yet. The other group I went to was smaller so felt a little less daunting (I am not a very confident person sometimes) plus it had a few smaller toddlers for DS to play with & some toys he could play with but it was quite far away & I got the impression they all thought I was mad for driving so far. I also felt quite awkward as DS is my only child & everyone else who had a little un had an older school-aged child....they all seemed shocked that I had decided to HE so early on. Felt a bit wierd tbh, despite having a lovely chat with a few of the mums

I have joined EO but the local contact couldnt give me any new info about local groups or meetings and the contact list didnt have many families with small children. Ive come accross an organisation called HEAS & wondered whether any of you had joined or know what their contact list is like.

TIA

Hello,
Can't help with HEAS, but I know how you feel as my daughter Mia is 2yrs and son Tarka is 3 months and no one else at our local group only has young children. Luckily for me there are a few mums with new babies although they all have older 'school age' children too.

At the moment I'm continuing going to the group as I think Mia enjoys seeing the other children of all ages, but as you said, she does get bored when they have scheduled activites like, singing or yoga that last for an hour, as 5 minutes is too long for her to concentrate on any one thing right now!

Whereabouts do you live? There is a yahoo group called 'littleoneswales' that is for under 4's who are Home Educated, maybe there is something similar locally to you?

It's lovely to hear of other parents deciding to HE so early on too!
Love Gina***

Hello, We are HEing too. Hannah is only 2 1/2 years and an only child so we've found it hard to find a group that's appropriate for us. The best thing we've done is making contact with a couple of families from EO and just having playdates with them. I would like to join into a group soon, and thought that it would be easier to join in if a few of us with younger children joined together. Maybe that would be a good option for you?

September xx

Cheers for the replies ladies Nice to hear from other pre-school (or should that be pre-home! ) HErs.

Gina - we are in south warwickshire. We live in a village, and although its quite a large one, there isnt much to it so have to look to nearby towns & Birmingham for anything useful so it has been a bit pointless hoping to find a fellow HEer in the village . The smaller group I found through the early years yahoo group, but its 40 minutes + drive away. The solution I suppose would be to start my own tots group, but have far too much going on atm to think about that - just want to turn up somewhere & chat!

September - its something I have thought of....but not sure I am brave enough to phone people out of the blue from the contact list! I know that sounds quite daft & pathetic....something I guess I am going to have to work on if DS is to make some HE friends.

There is apparently a HEing family in the next village...MIL got chatting to a childminder at the local toddler group & it turns out she is looking after the youngest 2 children as the mum is 8 months pg & needs the rest. Do you think it would be too rude to ask her to pass on my details to her - I am not very good at all this social stuff

I think that would be a really good idea, I'm quite shy too, so find it hard making that first move. A lot of the contacts on the EO list have email addresses, at least then you wouldn't have to phone anyone to begin with!
Good luck!
gina*****