there are two homeschool groups in our community, one of which requires signing a lengthy statement of faith, which I cannot in good conscience sign, so that group of people is essentially lost to us. The other seemed at first to be entirely populated by radical unschoolers who wanted nothing to do with people who (gasp!) use any books; that set is certainly the largest and most vocal part of that group, but we are starting to find some other under-the-radar book-users, too, and finally feeling (in year four) as though we are acquiring a community.
Funny observation on the unschoolers. I've met a lot of unschoolers who after you talk to them for a while say "yes, we're unschoolers, but we do use curriculum x, y, z or hold to a certain schedule, etc)". I think many "unschoolers" in our community are really eclectic. Probably 75%+ of my kids day is spent unschooling. Pure unschooling could never be my style!
I saw a speaker at a local HS conference who unschooled her kids from birth through HS. One of the children sounded HG. She let go of all expectations of her kids going to college and jumping through any societal hoops. I personally could not do that! If one of my kids came to me seriously at 18 and said that they had an alternative to college, I'd listen and act accordingly. But at 8 & 5, they are on a road to college prep as far as I'm concerned. And if that means we're going to spend an hour or 2 working traditionally a day, so be it. Her kids actually turned out fine as productive adults (so kudos to their family), but definitely not my thing!
Kriston commented earlier about embracing the schooled community and I whole heartedly agree! Without our schooled friends, we would be in big trouble ourselves and may have chosen a different route. I thought we might get shunned in a neighborhood where most people LOVE our neighborhood school. Not at all. It also helps that both kids enjoy and play well with most kids and are pretty extroverted.
