How this all started.

The people I wanted didn’t want to be found.

Then, purely by luck, I got a reply to one of my posts. It turned out the people I had been so actively trying to find didn’t really want to be found — at least not easily. Many homeschoolers here like to stay under the radar, and I needed to somehow convince them to join me.

Someone sent me a link to a WhatsApp group for mums in Setúbal. As lovely as it was to find people not too far from us, who spoke our language and had also moved here from other countries, nobody there was really homeschooling or looking for friendships. It was a bit of a dead end — and it made me think: maybe I could be the one to start something new.

So I started the group myself.

I made my own WhatsApp group and simply called it Homeschooling. I didn’t know what to expect. I went back to the Facebook groups I had found and looked for families who seemed a bit lost like us — and maybe, like me, slightly desperate to fulfil their kids’ social needs.

Then I did something I never thought I would do: I took the lead. I started listing the local clubs that small business owners were inviting us to, or promoting themselves on the Setúbal mums’ group. It was genuinely useful information, and I wanted to share it with everyone else who was struggling. Why hadn’t this been done already? There was clearly a need to connect families to each other — and to the local small businesses around them.

And then it snowballed.

Things started out slow. I found one family who had been here a few years, searching for the same thing without much luck, and I was ready to give up. Then everything started snowballing. They spread the word about my group, and suddenly I had more messages coming in than I could possibly answer. The more families joined, the more small businesses I found. It became a bit of a job — a job I was happy to do for the sake of my son.

Weekly meetups started being organised, and thankfully others began taking the reins themselves. The group became a hub where families from completely different parts of Portugal connected with others in their city or region. That’s what sparked the idea: why not build a website for this? A place where families all over Portugal could find each other — and where the small businesses serving them could finally be found without luck.

What this site is now.

That WhatsApp group is still at the heart of it — it’s the same community you can join from this site today. What began as a homeschooling project grew into everything for kids in Portugal:

• Things to do — a directory of days out, classes, clubs and workshops for every family, compared by what your child will get from them. Browse things to do.
• Places to eat — where children are genuinely welcome, with the details that make eating out with kids easier. See places to eat.
• What’s on — a checked monthly round-up of meetups, workshops and family events across Portugal. See what’s on.
• The homeschooling corner — the guides that started all of this, plus the WhatsApp community where the daily conversation happens. Explore homeschooling.

The newsletter brings the best of all of it together, once a month, without clutter.

How it’s supported.

I run this site myself, in the time left over from actually homeschooling. To keep it going, children’s businesses can pay for listings and clearly marked advertising — and that model is explained openly, because trust is the whole point of this place. Payment never buys a verdict, and community experiences stay honest. See exactly how listings work.