 Having older children, you may prefer more organized groups with craft activities, or field trips, or you might like a group so you can study certain topics together, or do projects. In a case when there are some activities which your children would like to do, but which are not easily available locally, this might be possible in a support group. They possibly would like to learn another language, or make clay pots, or start an orchestra. There is nothing impossible, but you will need to do some local research to find out what is available.
Keep the informal group to begin with
If you have an idea of what kind of home educators' group you and your children would like, you will probably want to begin with a small informal group before becoming too ambitious. If you are familiar with other home educating families locally, just suggest a venue - perhaps your home for the first meeting.
When you don't know any other local home educating families, perhaps you could contact one of the national organizations and ask if there are others living near you. You can even advertise in the local paper, or put up posters in shops or libraries, although this will require some financial outlay.
The difficulty with too much advertising is that you might get hundreds families eager to join you, and it's easier to start with a small number and build up to a larger group. Investigate possible venues, however, unless you have a large home and are willing to host your support group for the immediate future.
Start with planning
Make sure at your first meeting you have a pen and plenty of paper! Pay attention of names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of all present, and also write down all ideas that anyone has. Rather than long-term projects at first, you would be wiser to suggest activities which can be done on a single day. Occasionally there are local groups who could teach something like circus skills, or you may know someone who could organize a drama session. You should wait until you have heard other suggestions before you propose your own.
Discover what other people hope to gain from a support group, and what other activities they already take part in. You’ll have to discuss questions of finance: do people want to pay a weekly subscription to pay for refreshments, or take turns to bring drinks and snacks? Are they ready to pay experts to come and teach activities, or is there sufficient expertise amongst the group to organize different events? Do people desire to go for interesting field trips, which may cost significant amounts for large families, or would they prefer picnics and long hikes?
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