If you are starting a support group, you can decide what type of group you want right from the beginning.

If you have toddlers or small children you could meet in your own home (in the beginning) for mainly parents to chat and children to play.

With older children/teens organised activities related to home education such as crafts, field trips, science experiments and projects are a good idea.

Do investigate venues. Prices for church halls vary enormously as do the facilities available. Will your children want to do lots of claywork and painting? Then make sure your hall has easy to clean floors.

If you expect to have more arts and crafts (pens, crayons, etc) and events with guest speakers then a carpeted hall may be fine.

Once you have decided which hall you want to hire, you will need to contact the person who has responsibility for hiring it out.

Once you have organised your first date, start telling people about it. Maybe put up a leaflet at your local library or newsagent. Maybe put an advert in your local paper (although you will need to consider the financial aspects of this).

At your first monthly meeting remember to ask for donations from each family to cover the cost of the hall and refreshments. An average price for this depending on price of the hall and/or families attending is £2.50 to £3.50. Take a note of names, addresses and contact telephone numbers or email addresses. (You can then contact people a couple of days before the next meeting to remind them).

Get chatting to the people attending, ask them what they would like to do at the meetings, would they be interested in bringing an activity next time? Do they know anyone who would be interested in coming to give a talk or workshop? In this way you can gradually build a list of people who are willing to help out. Actively encourage members to bring activities each time for all the children to enjoy.

Some people like to “theme” a meeting say, astronomy or sealife to begin with. It makes it easier for other members of the group to think of activities to bring.

Try to book at least 3 meetings in advance – you can then give out a letter at your meeting with the next dates on.

If you want to advertise your new home education support meeting on this website for free please contact me at:

info@seeheg.org

Good Luck and Enjoy!

South East Essex Home Education Group helps parents make an informed decision on whether home education is a viable option, by providing information on your legal rights, links to local groups and websites with teaching materials.

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