We have attended a wide variety of home education
events and groups. I ran one myself in Uxbridge for a
time. Some groups I got on with the parents, but my
children hated the other children, and found them
exclusive. Some places I felt awkward with the
adults, but the children were OK. Some places we both
got on ok but there were a lot of challenging children
with social or emotional problems. In some, it was
clear that you had to be a certain
class/age/attitude/religion to fit in.

I found running a group myself completely exhausting
in every way, locally, because so many of the children
being home educated are home educated because of
bullying or problems.

Although I know there are some elective home educators
locally, most of the kids we met had been pulled out
of school, and this changes the attitude of the
parents too. A parent who believes in the
effectiveness of home education AND their ability to
do it, is completely different from one who has been
backed into a corner and doubts their ability to do
it.

It has to be said that money also made the
difference...at the time I was running my group, I had
enough money to pay for the hut and most of the people
attending were on benefits, struggling to live, and I
didn't feel able to take money from them, often.

However, after searching for the perfect group for
many years, I believe that for us, we have found it in
Hero's. Camp is open Tuesday, Thursdays and
Fridays, but we generally attend on a Thursday. It is
a beautiful place, with fantastically diverse people
in both children and adults.

I have found that the adults are friendly, but happy
to leave alone anyone who is busy or happy to be so;
my children love the children; there are classes and
workshops too, for those who wish to attend them; and
there are 165 acres of woods and playgrounds too. We
were welcomed, and love it.

The camp is open roughly 10-4pm and we take a packed
lunch. For a long time, I would take work with me and
sit at a bench the whole day, reading and writing,
sorting correspondence etc. Then this year, our car
finally decided it couldn't make the distance and so I
have started going with my mother - and we've been
having a wonderful time too.

The children run off to their friends first thing in
the morning, and we chat, have lunch and then go for a
long walk. Apart from the occasional foray into the
car for foor or drink, I don't see the children. Two
of them do drama in the afternoon, but mostly they
spend the time chatting and playing.

It's a fantastic, fantastic place, and I would
recommend that anyone within striking distance of the
camp ( Wargrave, near Henley) should
come and see it for themselves.

At Easter the children did a teen challenge event. I
have been trying to get them to write down the
experience in their own words, but.... They had a
wonderful time, over the four days of events, which
included circus skills, combat games in the woods,
survival training, shelter building, tipi erecting,
games and a final day party and disco. They had a fantastic time, and can't wait for the next one.