Support

Earlier this week I went into total panic mode.

"I have no friends! I can't homeschool, I'm never going to meet anyone! Everyone else is right I can't do this!"

Luckily, I joined a few homeschool support groups. I belong to a few groups for the Austin area, and I also joined a couple of playgroups to help us get out and meet new people. Anyways, I sent out an e-mail for help to one of these groups. I got so many replies back! Reassurances that they feel the same way I do, knowing that they are doing similar things, and that I'm not falling behind just because we fell off schedule.

I mentioned in the getting started section of this that it's important to join such a group and it's so true! The members of the homeschool community are so ready and so willing to reach out and help! I haven't even met ANY of these ladies who have been helping me. They just knew and understood what I was feeling and wanted me to know that it would be ok. Seriously, they're great.

Anyways, by chance I met another homeschooler in my neighborhood! I went to a playgroup at her house and was feeling nervous. She mentioned that her daughter dropped her second nap so she was having a hard time finding time to do school with her son. Bam! I asked if she home-schooled and we started talking about it. Her son is the same age as Kaydence and they were getting along really well. Even better she called the next day to invite me to a play date at the park that several other home-schooling families in my area were going to. It got canceled because of rain, but I ended up going over with her to another woman's house to meet her. She had this amazing school room set up.

I can't tell you how good it feels to know that there are so many people close by. We've been out on play dates almost every day this week! I was feeling really nervous going into these new situations, with no one I have met before but I am SO glad that I did. I never would have met those wonderful ladies if I hadn't. Or if I did by chance meet them I probably wouldn't have been brave enough to talk about homeschooling. If you're looking for a way to find homeschool groups I would suggest meetup.com they have book clubs and a ton of other groups too, not just for homeschool or playgroup. I joined a book club and a coupon group too. (I'm trying to find someone to teach me how to coupon like the people on extreme couponing!) I've also had a lot of luck with Yahoo groups.

We're going to be talking about birds for a couple of weeks, so get ready to see some fun bird activities coming up! I will be posting some of the crafts we have been doing and a tutorial on how to do them.

Fair warning, my crafts look like they were done by a 4 year old. (because they are)

-Karly