What do you all talk about during your hs support group meetings?

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

I'm a new part of the steering committee for our homeschool support group. Some of our topics are just getting "stale" to me, and I'd like to get some other ideas of what groups talk about during their meetings. These are evening meetings w/o kids, and new people are always welcome.

So, what do you do? Do you have speakers? What do they talk about?
Thanks!

[mcconnellboys]

What are some of the topics that are already stale with you, so we don't repeat those, please?

Regena

[tess in the burbs]

We meet once a month in the evening with no kids, new people always welcome.

We do have a topic each month, often being a subject like math or science. In January it was about getting through the times of year you don't want to do it, lol. But honestly, every meeting covers a variety of subjects and situations we moms find ourselves in. I think we have a speaker next month though...but that is a rarity for our group.

Pros of this kind of meeting is a sounding board for any and all questions and you don't have to wait for a speaker to finish. But I do look forward to hearing the speaker...who's a long time homeschooler.

Cons of this kind of meeting is when people get off on tangents and you can't follow them all and I just know I am missing some wonderful information I can't hear on my end of the table ;-)

[Kelli in TN]

Well, I haven't been to a meeting in awhile because I was going through God and Church classes with my Boy Scout. But let's see, what did we talk about....

We talk about annoying things our children did that day.
We talked about our husbands. Just enough to be funny, but not enough to be disloyal.
Several ladies usually have an interesting story or two that they tell, complete with actions.
Once my husband was in the outer dining room of the same restaurant, having a "come to Jesus meeting" with a young man who had been misbehaving around our daughter. That was an entertaining evening as we watched through the glass doors as the young man's face got redder and redder and he sat lower and lower in the booth.
We talk about which pie to get.
We talk about curriculum
By about 10pm, the restaurant has to close up the private dining room where they keep us, as we are getting pretty hepped up on sugar and coffee and we start to get a little rowdy.
By about 11pm the sugar and caffeine is wearing off and we settle down and help each other with homeschool issues.
Then we stumble home, feeling dopey and drugged from the effects of sugar and caffeine that is no longer in our systems.

[gardenschooler]

I don't really like speakers, unless they're very good, and there is some audience participation at the end. Unfortunately, for awhile a few years ago, we had frequent speakers. I dubbed them 'live infomercials' - it was always someone who in addition to having a topic to speak on, had some service/product/whatnot to buy. It felt like we were a captive audience.

Thankfully, that has given way to an hour that is organized usually by some kind of getting-to-know-you game, followed by a specific topic or question to discuss at our tables, and share once we're done discussing it.

We have a lot of new people coming into our group each semester, so the 'getting to know you' games have been helpful. It's easy for newcomers to feel left out going into established groups, I think.

For the questions or topics to discuss, we're sometimes grouped by length of homeschooling, sometimes by ages (and visit various tables), sometimes it's random, but the idea is to visit with and learn from people you don't normally sit with.

We've got one person in charge of just this part of the group, and she's doing a bang-up job. People are able to exchange ideas, get to know one another better, and still have time afterwards for chit-chat. I think the newer homeschoolers are getting their questions answered and feeling like they have a real support group.

Before, with the speakers, it was just too formal and often irrelevant.

[Ellie]

We didn't schedule speakers at our Moms' Nights Out.

In the beginning, these montly meetings, held in a different home each month, were called "teacher meetings." When I started attending them, they were dry, dry, dry. They (the leaders) went over everything that I had already put in the newsletter, read all the details for all the upcoming field trips even though we all had the hand-outs with all the details, and I don't know what all....ugh.

Eventually, one of the meetings went on and on and on, and the next day I called the hostess of the following month's meeting and implored her to do something different. So at the next meeting, she started out by welcoming everyone and saying that she thought it would be good for us to have some time to talk about any problems we'd had during the previous month, and she started. It was *wonderful.* We were actually about to talk to each other and get advice and encouragement from each other. One of the moms, who was visiting for the first time, just cried about something that had been going on with her dd, and we all sympathized and even offered some suggestions. Finally, at about 9 (we started at 7:30), the hostess turned to one of the leaders and asked if there was anything she needed to say; it took the leader all of 5 minutes to make her business announcements.

So from that time on, our Moms' Night Out meetings were really supportive and uplifting. The hostess decided on the agenda, and it was never announced ahead of time. We had a devotional, and a craft night, and all sorts of other wonderful things. A hostess might have decided on her own to have a guest speaker, but usually we didn't. One night the hostess didn't even get to her agenda because we were all so busy fellowshiping with each other.

We had one actual business meeting a year, in August, when we decided if we were still going to have park day on the first Friday of the month and MNO on the first Monday; and we'd pass around a sign-up sheet with possible party events (Halloween/harvest, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner/party, etc.), and people who want to plan those things would sign up, then work together on their own to plan the details...no planning at MNO. We also announced a date for a field trip-planning meeting, when whoever wanted to do field trips would meet together during the day and plan field trips for the next 6 months.

We never tired of this :-)

[Kristafish]

No kids, unless they are nursing :)

Here's some we have done:
A guest speaker "How to be a Family Servant" she is an author of a cookbook.. I missed this meeting but I guess it was really good and her cookbook is amazing. I posted about it today on my blog and plan on getting it soon :D

This was all in one night: you pick 2 to go listen to
Personal Growth
Marriage
Family

Another guest speaker about Identity theft and virus protection(computer related) I have heard this lady last year and she was really good..

K-3-what you need to know
online classes
A day in the life of....

In February-choose 1 of the 3
4-8 grade what you need to know
9-12 high school panel
Day tripping around town and how to form co-ops

In March we always do a Best and Worst Curriculum review.. I always like this one :D It's nice to see what people like and dislike about certain things.

In April they will be doing(not sure I will be able to attend-due to baby coming)
Child Motivation
How to start a home business

In May
Encouragement and Personal Growth

We have mom's that will take really good notes at Convention and then teach about what they learned at the workshop.
Are meetings are always the last Tuesday of the month at night..
I haven't made it to any meetings this year, earlier in the school year I had morning sickness so bad I could barely get off the couch(it lasted for 4-5 months)
I would like to make it to a few of them before the school year is up because the sound really good :)

HTH

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

I don't really like speakers, unless they're very good, and there is some audience participation at the end. Unfortunately, for awhile a few years ago, we had frequent speakers. I dubbed them 'live infomercials' -

LOL! I like speakers, but I agree, if they are they to obviously sell something, I am a little circumspect about the whole deal.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

Cons of this kind of meeting is when people get off on tangents and you can't follow them all and I just know I am missing some wonderful information I can't hear on my end of the table ;-)

LOL! I know the feeling!

[Beth in Central TX]

We recently had the Maxwell family give a conference at our homeschool support meeting. Teri Maxwell was very encouraging. She spoke to moms about scheduling and using MOTH, Stephen Maxwell spoke to the dads, and their children had sessions for young men and women. At the end, we all came together for a family session. It was very well done by the whole family, and I think it was the best attended meeting since I've been involved in our homeschool group. The meeting was open to any homeschooler in our community, not just our members.