You’ve found yourself at the inaugural post on the Barnabas Way blog. How did you find yourself in such a place as this? You’ve obviously wanted to see how this whole community got started. But the question is, why? What caused you to wander here?
Maybe you’re a treasure hunter
You are searching for all the gems of wisdom you can collect with regard to old posts. It seems that you’ve dug to the bottom of the shaft and if there are any jewels here it is in the starting. If this post wasn’t made – nothing would’ve occurred and we wouldn’t have the community we are growing now.
An ideal thing to do would be to leave a comment here. That way you can be a part of the treasure as others follow your path. They will be able to see what was discovered by those that traveled before them. You can be a part of the treasure by leaving your thoughts here with us.
Maybe you’re a historian
You are interested in how things come into being. What were the forces that came into play to bring about the things we see and experience around us?
The best way to satisfy you is to tell you a little story of our creation. Once upon a time there were a few homeschooling families who were active on the Internet. And for various reasons there was a desire to use the tools of the Internet to help our own homeschools and to be able to connect with other homeschools that are out there. The Internet is a brilliant way to connect with people. It eliminates the impediment of distance.
The original idea was that if a number of homeschools were physically located together on a street someplace, what could they do together? Why not see if we could bring together the same advantages and synergies with a virtual community?
So in some ways this is an experimental community. We’ve expected it to grow and expand in ways that are surprising and wonderful. But the only way to know how that will go is to get after it. So with that in mind, at the beginning of 2009 we decided to get things going.
We are starting with a simple blog. But if the idea catches on, we’ll collect the wisdom of other homeschoolers with an interest in connecting in a virtual community and implement something that we can all share in together. The idea is to start small and consistently and build a place on the Internet where homeschools can find resources, help, encouragement and a safe place to branch out using this tool of connectivity and communication that has been so thoughtfully installed around our little world.
Maybe you’re family
You have become a part of our family and you have a genealogical streak in you that makes you want to know how we came to be. There were just a few of us starting out. We had no idea what we would end up with. But we had some ideas that we wanted to try out.
We wanted to have a place where homeschoolers could come together to share ideas and be inspired to carry on. We knew that putting our collective heads together could make our own homeschools much better. We also recognized that in the homeschool world there is no such thing as an expert. Each of us has only been involved in one homeschool (OK, maybe two if we were homeschooled as a child and now we have our own – but isn’t that really just an extension of the original?). So we all have something valuable to share. We just need a place where we can share it and it will be available for those who want to take advantage of the collected wisdom.
Frankly, it really doesn’t matter why you’ve come. We are very glad to have you here whether you are just checking us out or have been a long time member. We hope you will interact with us and decide to help contribute along with us.
Welcome and enjoy your visit to Barnabas Way!
Tags: blog, community, homeschool barnabas way, homeschoolers, homeschooling, homeschools