This group had its first meeting one year ago today.   Thanks to everyone for helping to make it such a success so far!

Here's a recap of what we've done since last October...

For the first few months we just had parents meetings, but then we started doing kids activities too.  Now we are starting to tap into different skills and talents within the group and organize ongoing classes and workshops as well.  Needless to say, we've been busy!

So far, the topics we've covered in our parents meetings have been: the pros and cons of homeschooling, curricula, socialization, homeschooling more than one, French (and English) , freeschools, dealing with schools and school boards, brainstorming and planning for this group.  I'm sure we will be revisiting many of these topics again, but please feel free to send me your suggestions for new topics.

The kids activities we organized in the past year were: a visit to the Redpath Museum, tobogganing and hot chocolate, gym and pizza-making, a guided tour of the recycling plant at TOHU Environmental Complex, a picnic at Beaver Lake, planting and composting at the Urban Ecology Centre, sailing on Lac St-Louis, a day at Parc Jean-Drapeau, a tour of a duvet factory, an archaeological dig at the Lachine Museum, a Geordie play, and a guided tour of the Ecomuseum.  We also hosted the not-back-to-school picnic at Beaver Lake, where over a hundred people came, and where we organized, filmed, and later edited, a commuter race (between a car, a bike and public transit).

In the spring, we started meeting every Thursday, just to hang out without a planned activity.  At first we used the library and rented a gym, but then the weather turned nice enough for us to meet in different parks throughout the city.  On the last park day we were over 50 people at Murray Hill!  With the cold weather again this fall, we have moved back indoors at the Baha'i Centre on Ave des Pins.  The room is large and has little nooks and areas for different activities to take place.

We have organized ballet classes, a bookmaking workshop, and yoga, all for homeschoolers.  We are working on language exchanges, arts and crafts workshops, and a Halloween party.

We have also gotten the word out about the group, in the Montreal Gazette, Montreal Families magazine, and on CKUT radio.

The Montreal Homelearners website has been up since January.  It now has over 140 members and is growing all the time!  We are planning improvements to the site to make it easier for members to find each other, including more detailed profiles, a much improved member listing page and an interactive google map showing members in your neighborhood (visible only to the other members of the group).  And while we are always doing research, getting suggestions, and finding out new things, we haven't really updated the Resources pages since the site went up.  We are, of course, hoping to do that soon : )

All in all, well done!  Looking forward to another year of fun and activities!