All You Ever Wanted to Know
   (And Didn't Want to Know)
      ABOUT ME 

    YES! Camp, To The Farm, in Tennessee.

    Some of the wonderful home schooling families that hosted my kids and I.

I used to subscribe to GWS (Growing Without Schooling) a newsletter/national support group and most of the families would list themselves. We could contact each other or our kids might decide to write to families that had other children their age. Another great thing though was that families who were interested in hosting other home schooling families that were passing through their area could put that after their name, with simply a letter "H" representing their willingness. 

There were several trips that my kids and I made where we stayed with home schooling hosts. At every single home, with every single family, we felt welcomed and safe and comfortable. There were all the stories to exchange, things to share about both our home schooling and our lives. And while the adults talked the kids played in most cases, in only a few, the children were too young for my kids.

To The Farm, in Tennessee.

The first time was when I drove my three kids to The Farm in Tennessee.  Have you heard about it?  It started with some "hippies" moving together to Tennessee and starting a commune. They settled on their land near Summertown, in 1971with 300 people in the group. I guess now it is considered a community.  They have their own medical facilities and a group of well trained midwives. I bought the book written by their head midwife, "Spiritual Midwifery" by Ina May Gaskin.   I considered her book my bible so I was more than happy to drive my son there for a teen environmental seminar called YES!

Anyway, it is close enough I could have driven all day to get there, but decided not to push so hard. So we found some home schoolers to stay with near Cincinnati. Their oldest was exactly a year younger than my older daughter. In the picture to the left, the only kiddo of mine is Serena, on the far right. The little girl was playing dress up and had put on a fancy dress.  It was a hot night there, and they put a fan in the bedroom they gave me.  They were really nice people. We were going to stay another time, but our route changed and we couldn't work it into our schedule.

We made it to the farm a day before the seminar started that my son was going to attend and were able to put up our tent in some woods of the Farm and stay that night.  You can see my son kneeling inside the tent with my daughter Anna and myself in front. Serena took the picture.

That next day the girls and I drove back to Ohio. My son had prearranged for someone to bring him back afterwards. I am thinking that we drove straight back and didn't stay with anyone else that time.

When we home schooled and had to travel across the country, we were hosted by other home schooling families. Here are pictures and the stories of the different families, on our different trips. These were all great people who opened their homes to us. It was much more fun and educational than staying in motels. Thank you to all of you!