The Johnson Crew!

Hi welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Sarah and I have four kids and have been homeschooling for the last about five years if the idea of homeschooling makes you worry that your kids won't be able to make new friends or that you're gonna be all alone in this journey with no support I want to bring you some good ideas today to dispel those fears and know that it doesn't have to be that way at all so I've got four main ideas for you today one is how to find or create a network or support system two is ideas for socialization for your kids

And for yourself three is how to find a co-op or what even that is if you've never heard of that before and four is how to create your own low-key co-op if that interests you so let's jump right in you may have already done this but one of the easiest ways to find people that are in the same network or arena as you is by searching on facebook for groups so if you just type in homeschooling in georgia for example that's where I live or georgia homeschoolers a ton of groups pop up for down here I could even type in what city we're in

And find more groups that way one of the main reasons these groups are so valuable to you is that you can go in there and ask whatever question you have and what's so great about it being a local homeschooling group is if you have a question that's related to maybe the laws in your state then you're gonna get answers from people who live in your state and know the right answer to that now in these groups you could just choose to be a fly on the wall

And just sort of gain knowledge by reading through posts of what people are asking and the answers that are being given or you can ask your own question so it's a great place to ask people's opinion on some curriculum that you found online what do you guys think of this have you used it you could also create your own support group and invite your friends to it and allow them to invite other local friends to it and that way you have a much smaller more intimate setting where you guys can ask questions offer advice vent maybe it's just a great place to have another friend that's going through the same things that you're going through

Okay number two one of the biggest things that people are concerned about with doing homeschooling is the lack of socialization compared to going to school right well homeschoolers do not have to lack in that area but the hard part is that now it's up to you as the parent to create those opportunities or jump on those opportunities now you may already have other ways for your kids to socialize like going to church being part of sports teams or there are plenty of kids in your neighborhood maybe

But right now it's august 10th 2020. if those things haven't opened back up around you yet then we need to get a little bit more creative so here are some ideas for you so in those facebook groups I've seen where parents will get on there and say hey I've got kids these ages who would like to meet up at the park and that's a great way to get kids of similar ages together and meet other homeschool parents and have other friends for your kids to play with in the homeschool facebook groups people will also post things like field trips which I know right

Now we're also probably limited to the things that we can do but there are plenty of other things like hiking walking trails bring your bike to the park day I saw someone post that they're going to be hosting a field day and they limited each event to just 10 kids and they've got several dates that are up there that's a really cool idea so things like that are still great ways for your kids to play together you might have asked yourself what is a co-op when we're referring to home school co-ops it's basically just a group of kids getting together for a class that's typically led by another parent

So some co-ops that I've heard of are super organized and they can be kind of costly and run on a year-long commitment from families and then there are some that are super relaxed cheap and run maybe month to month for example there's a co-op here that runs on a year-long commitment and they meet once a week and it's for like a five and a half hour long day and they have classes all throughout that time and then that co-op gives your child the homework that they need to work on the rest of the week

So basically they are taking over all the lesson planning for you so if that sounds really intriguing definitely go look up some of those in your area the co-op in town that I've tried is very relaxed super cheap it runs on month to month basis so I used to sign my kids up for a class for one month here one month there and this was all before baby number four it's felt a little hectic to try to do that since having four kids but we'll get back into it eventually

But that was really fun it was five dollars per class per week and they had things like stem art music geography presentation so the kids would each bring their own presentation to give in front of the class they also did some free things like a science fair and a lego club so how do you find a homeschool co-op so again facebook is going to be a great resource for that you can google this but some co-ops won't have a website and they just have a facebook page or facebook group

So just go on facebook and google your city plus homeschool co-op and see what comes up in our area we have a bunch number four what if you don't have a co-op in your area but this really intrigues you to have a way to get together with other families or have someone else teach your child a subject that you don't really have the expertise or the interest to teach another option is to create your own low-key co-op I actually did this for a season before baby number four me

And some homeschool mom friends got together at my old church's building and I would teach a 30-minute music class my other friend would teach a 30-minute music class and then our other friend would actually keep the babies and toddlers in a separate room so that it wouldn't be so hectic while we were trying to teach the older kids and we invited maybe seven other families to this and we usually ended up with about four to six families including our own so like a max of 10 kids in the class

And four babies and toddlers in the other room and then we would all bring a bagged lunch and could have a picnic play on the playground outside afterwards and that was super fun I really enjoyed it my kids super enjoyed it a chance to get together with their friends and have someone else teach them for a little bit so getting a network of people through these homeschooling facebook groups is such a great way to build that community build that network and connections and be able to get involved with these things or put together your own

So hopefully I've sparked some ideas on how you can build your own support system and get in play time with other kids and other moms I think this is going to be a great fall and I'm excited for you guys talk to you next time you