by Hallie Pentheny

When I offered to take over my support group's newsletter last year, I was excited for several reasons. The first (and a bit personal) was that while I had been homeschooling for over a year and a half, my children were only ages 5, 5 and 4; this was my first opportunity to be taken seriously. The second thing I was enthusiastic about was the opportunity to expose the members of my group to so many things that were out there. I knew that a large percentage of them weren't on the Internet. They hadn't had the chance, as I had, to read about homeschooling and curriculums, to hear the news related to homeschooling going on in other places, or even to just read the little quips and jokes about homeschooling that always made me smile.

The thing I had seen online that amazed me the most, was the information about places with large homeschooling groups that met often, and had things like park days, curriculum fairs and sports teams. We live in New Hampshire. Our group is small - about 30 families - and there are no groups in our state that would rival the size of those large support groups in other, more populous homeschooling areas. With small groups scattered here and there, especially ones with a wide age range of children, there just aren't that many field trips and activities planned. Attendance is often low, because there aren't trips that fit into every family's schedule, or that interest everybody's children.

The other thing I found, was that many people belonged to three or four groups in their geographical area, and subscribed to all of their newsletters, in order to have a variety of field trips and activities to choose from - events that were right for their children's ages and interests, or that would fit into their schedules. This seemed as if it would be a waste of time and finances for families, if all they were interested in was meeting other homeschoolers or taking part in activities.

I thought it would be great to be able to get families together without their having to join multiple support groups. And that it would be nice to offer all New Hampshire families the opportunity to mingle and network with each other in a non-competitive environment.

So I started contacting the other groups I could locate in our state, to form an email list with their newsletter editors. Every month, before our newsletter deadlines, we share the field trips our groups have planned that would be open to all homeschoolers. Although this project has only been underway since September of this year (and I know that there are a lot of groups out there that I haven't discovered and contacted yet) the few activities that have been offered out have been well - and cross - attended.

My hope for the future is that more activities will be planned by families, even if they know others in their own group won't be interested, and that more families will have the opportunity to gather in an environment that isn't related to a specific religious community or a particular way of homeschooling.

This has been my personal attempt to connect homeschoolers of different backgrounds and beliefs. If I can help anybody else with a similar project in their area, I would be happy to.