Finding Others

Last night I sat in my lounge and shared coffee and brownies with seven other home ed mums, all of whom lived within a couple of miles of my house. A combination of friends, friends of friends and names from the Education Otherwise contact list which was published a couple of weeks ago, I only knew two of these mums before yesterday. Four of the group had just-teenage boys, three had only had their children home since the Spring. There was a lot of laughter, a lot of encouragement, the beginnings of friendships and a real sense of breaking down isolation. I travel quite a way to many of our activities, long ago accepting that the distribution of home ed families meant that I had to be willing to drive half-an-hour for swimming lessons, book club, social groups and skating. To find that I am one of perhaps a dozen home educators in my immediate vicinity came as a great, and happy, surprise. Having had the idea to try and get a group of us together for some a while, it seems the timing was right and people were eager to come. We left with a date to meet up again in a few weeks time and I am looking forward to seeing what will come out of this for us and for our children.