Local Home Education Groups Across Victoria

If you are looking for local meet-ups, social and educational, join local homeschooling groups near you.

In the home education community, there are national, state, and local groups to join. They are all valuable and serve different purposes.

National and state-level groups tend to be the largest and the most informative about home education. If you are looking for general information about the different philosophies and styles of home education, then these are the groups to join.

The state-level groups are best for information about registration and regulations due to home education being regulated at the state level and the requirements are different in each state.

For meet-ups such as park days, excursions, one-off workshops, or ongoing classes, local groups are the best place to look. These are also where you are going to find friends for your children and yourself, your tribe if you will.

Questions about home education groups

How do you find local groups, you ask. Search them up on Facebook: “your suburb name + home education or homeschool”. Of course in home education, local (to me anyway) means everything within an hour’s drive, one way. When I was looking for local groups to join I searched them all within an hour’s drive. I think I started out in about 5 “local” groups.

How often should I attend outings? As often as it takes to meet your children’s needs to play with their peers and friends. In the beginning of home education, my daughter and I were out up to 5 days each week. We did this until the day she asked if we could stay home. That was when I knew her cup was full. Then I backed down and now we average being out 2–4 days each week.

We attend a variety of out of home meet-ups: park days, friends’ houses, community picnics, and workshops make up the bulk of our outings.

A list of local home education groups across Victoria

Home Education Ballarat Ballarat Homeschooling Events and Chat Bayside Home Schoolers Drouin, Warragul, and Surrounds Home school / Un Schooling Homeschooling in the Dandenong Ranges Connection Group Greater Bendigo Homeschoolers

Greater Dandenong Homeschool Group Daylesford Home Educators Echuca / Moama Home Education HomeEducatorsEltham Geelong Home Educators Heathcote VIC Home Education Network Macedon Ranges Home Educators Maryborough VIC Homeschool Group Melbourne Unschoolers Homeschooling/education in Melbourne’s northern suburbs Home Schooling in the South East Melbourne Home Education in Melbourne’s West Melton & surrounds home school community Ringwood &surrounding suburbs home-school community Shepparton & surrounds Home-School Community South East Homeschool Network Sunbury Home Educators Wallan & Surrounds Homeschooling Group Warrnambool and Surrounds Homeschoolers Group West Gippsland Home Education Group Wimmera Home Educators / School Group Public Homeschooling in the Yarra Ranges Upper Yarra Valley Home Education Group Victorian Homeschoolers and Unschoolers HEN Victorian Group

Copy and paste the group name into the search bar on Facebook to find this group.

Some of these groups have gone inactive during the lockdowns but will spring back to life as restrictions ease. If there is no group in your area, start one and advertise it in other groups near you. There may be homeschooling families near you who are looking for local connections. Additionally, there are other homeschooling groups with different focuses — special needs, teens, preschoolers, etc.

Originally published at http://letstalkabout.com.au on October 3, 2021.

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