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11 March 2010

Home-ed Group

Cliquey, stressful, exhausting. I don't know if we'll go back - Jenna spent the first two hours chasing children around trying to get ANY of them to speak to or otherwise acknowledge her, and the other hour chasing children around because the only game they wanted to play with her was saying "yes we'll play with you" and then outrunning her until she collapsed in furious tears.

*sigh*

13 comments:

  1. How awful for her and you. Hope you find something else or start your own group maybe.

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  2. Urgh! That sounds horrible! Poor Jenna

    is there another group you can get to?

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  3. Aw, my poor Jenna-Boo, that doesn't sound like a very fun or positive experience for her. I'm sorry to hear about it. Give her a big hug from me. It's so strange that the other kids were so unwelcoming and so cliquey, it's one of the less desirable aspects of school, so you don't really want to still be encountering it! Unfortunately, it probably does imply that returning and elbowing in would be the main option of getting into the cliques, but that would be a lot of hard, stressful work, and not really something a kid should have to do. Aww... *hugs*

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  4. Really sad reading this... I can't stand cliques and unfriendly attitudes. What on earth were the other adults doing, did no one intervene and challenge the other kids on their uncharitable behaviour? Is their an alternative group nearby?
    Hugs San xxx

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  5. We've had mixed experiences with Home Ed groups (as we've moved around quite a bit)I found that the groups where a lot of the children had been taken our of school, were much less welcoming and friendly (and some of the children's behaviour was pretty awful ,Tarka was knocked right off his feet by a football kicked hard into his face when he was tiny :( ) than those where all the children had always been unschooled. Maybe that was an issue here?

    Hope Jenna isn't too upset by this horrible experience x
    Love Gina x

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  6. We're going to try a few more places, but this is the only group that will be accessible when we don't have a car (ie when Martin is working again). *sigh* I don't think the parents were keeping much of an eye on things - I mean, the adults all seemed nice, they just had no interest in my family at all (or in what the children were doing).

    The group actually has a really bad reputation for some very rough radical unschoolers who encourage competitive hijinks (ie rule breaking and fighting) and object to their children having any expectations on them (of the "my kid can hit your kid if he wants to, your kid should stop being a wimp" ilk). I didn't see anything like that, but then I didn't see much of anything. The kids ran around. The adults ignored them and talked amongst themselves. And everyone excluded the newbies ie us. Huh.

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  7. Sounds terrible, I am quite cross on your behalf!

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  8. Hi, I'm so sorry to hear that you made such horrible experiences. We have only just found a lovely group here in Munich (yes, Germany), which is aimed at small children (1-4), but older children always come along. It's not a home ed group (home education is very illegal in Germany). The group is into attachment parenting, baby-wearning etc., and very open to home education. Sadly enough for us, we will be leaving Germany in a few weeks, to avoid horrible scenes with the police, as our oldest son would have to go to school in Sept. This group is the first time Ive felt sorry about leaving ...
    Perhaps you could find a group like that in your neighbourhood, aimed at younger children, but ok for the bigger ones too?

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  9. Oh dear. That sounds rather like a school playground. :(

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  10. Oh that group sounds lovely! I would love there to be a group like that around here. If I only had time to organise one lol.

    All the best in your new home, it must be so hard to leave everything. xxx

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  11. (Daddy)
    next time she will catch them all :)

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Penny for your thoughts? :)