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| July,
2005 Leadership E-Newsletter |
| • |
On the agenda this month: Co-op’s
and Service projects. |
| • |
Piloting/Testing—the Co-op Concept:
Planning and managing a co-op in your group. Some tips and suggested
reading. |
| • |
Service Projects—Reaching
the Community for Christ. Suggestions for starting and coordinating
projects to encourage volunteerism within your community. |
| • |
19 Homeschool Gifts - Free! $300 value. |
| • |
The Old Schoolhouse Bulletin Board |
| I am sure your summer
activities are in full swing and your planning for next year has either
begun or is complete. I am sure that your group has some outstanding
things planned for next year but have you considered beginning a co-op
or adding some service projects to the schedule?
Co-ops can be a fantastic way for members to share their special
talents with the group. How do you get others involved? How do you
get it started? How do you schedule the classes? We’ll offer
some things that you might not have considered and ideas to get
this concept off the ground. We’ll share some tips and techniques
in this edition of the Leadership Enews.
Another great addition to your group activities can be the installation
of service projects. These can make a lasting impression on the
children as it teaches them to serve others in the community. These
can be educational and informative but more importantly they can
be rewarding. Service projects are a great way to get your group
membership involved in the community, reaching others for Christ.
That is our purpose, right?
From God’s Word: 2 Thessalonians 3: 5, 13 NKJV
Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into
the patience of Christ…..But as for you, brethren, do not
grow weary in doing good.
|
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|
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| By
Richard Sauser |
Co-ops come in all sizes from two families to hundreds of families.
Some co-ops meet everyday, some meet weekly. Some co-ops meet to share
the knowledge of experts, some hire teachers and some are to give
the children exposure to a “classroom” environment. If
you are looking to start a co-op you may want to start with something
small for a short duration to test the waters.
I have run short-tem co-ops to allow some of the dad’s to get
more involved in their homeschool. The key steps to starting a co-op
are to figure out the 5 W’s and H: Write out the 5 W's and H:
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How. Which one’s you figure out
first may impact the others.
Where
The “where” for my co-op was my basement. In this case,
the “where” dictated the “who” as my basement
can only handle so many adults and children. You need to be careful
when hosting a co-op at your house, as you should be specific about
an ending time. If you don’t specify a specific ending time,
you may find it a bit awkward to ask people to leave when you want
your house back
What
In this case, I wanted to choose a subject that dad’s would
be comfortable teaching and also one that didn’t require a significant
amount of preparation. I choose Junior Achievement (JA - see link
below). Most dads are at least somewhat comfortable talking about
business. JA also provides all the curriculum and materials (kits
cover 30 students). There teacher’s guide also takes you step
by step in what to do and say. This was a very good solution for novice
and experienced dads.
Who
Although the curriculum specified a certain grade, I left it up to
each parent as to whether their child could handle the subject matter
and the curriculum. In this case, I invited everyone in our support
group and basically had a three year span in ages for the curriculum.
Due to the space limitations listed under “where”, I limited
it to the first 15 children. I also indicated that each parent was
expected to participate and needed to stay for the class (this particular
co-op was for 4-7 year olds).
When
This was the hardest part. Since this was being taught by the dads,
we needed to do this at night or on weekends. There were lots of schedule
conflicts, so ultimately I picked the time and day which worked our
best for my family. In this case it was from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm on
Monday nights for 6 weeks.
Why
The purpose of this co-op was two-fold: give the dad’s an opportunity
to get more involved in their school and cover a topic that may not
being taught in their school. JA’s curriculum falls under Social
Studies and covered a wide variety of topics (e.g., community, business,
economics, etc.).
How
In this case, we had each dad teach one of the weeks. Sometimes we
had dad’s pair up to teach a week. The dad would take the curriculum
home and prepare for the next week’s lesson. In this case, there
was lecture format, work on your own activity and also work as a team
activity.
Pilot Co-Op Free Curriculum Considerations
The State Farm® Common Cents™ financial education program
has been developed to tap into the teaching power of interactivity,
and help you introduce and reinforce other key illiteracies: financial,
reading comprehension, written and verbal acuity, critical thinking,
and problem-solving.
To request FREE resources for use in home or school, go to http://www.statefarm.com/planning/planning.htm
Junior Achievement uses hands-on experiences to help young people
understand the economics of life. Throughout JA's sequential and integrated
kindergarten through grade 12 programs, students use information,
apply basic skills, think critically, and solve complex problems.
http://www.ja.org/programs/programs.shtml
Suggested Reading
Complete Guide to Successful Co-Oping For Homeschooling Families;
Koeser/Marse http://www.lifetimebooksandgifts.com/
|
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| |
| By
Anissa DeGrasse |
Service projects can be a wonderful way to teach our children how
to be involved in their community. The projects can range from collecting
food for the local animal shelter to collecting trash along the highway
to making blankets for newborn babies. Setting up these projects can
be challenging but the rewards are immeasurable.
There are many types of things that we can do in our community, one
way to find-out the needs begin asking church leaders and/or checking
with the local food bank or volunteer service.
A simple outreach project is Operation Christmas Child (http://www.samaritanspurse.org).
This program provides a hands-on way for everyone in the group to
be involved in a mission project. Operation Christmas child is a missions
program that reaches children of impoverished countries through a
simple shoe-box filled with small gifts or toiletry items. To begin
this program in your group, choose a representative to send away for
the materials. Then, set up a deadline for turning in and collecting
boxes. Our group comes together for a ‘packing party’
where we all bring our unpacked boxes to fill them together while
singing Christmas carols or watching the movie included in the Operation
Christmas Child package.
Sending cards, letters and boxes to our service men and women overseas
is a wonderful way to promote patriotism and love for our country.
Many of these servicemen covet your prayers and kind words while they
are away. They enjoy reading comments from people back ‘home’
who praise them for their service in order to make our country free.
You can find more information about this type of project at your local
recruiting station, USO (http://www.uso.org)
and/or on these websites:http://www.freewebs.com/helpourtroops/,
http://www.militarymoms.net/sot.html.
If these do not interest you here are some other suggestions from
members of our Homeschool Nation Leadership Group (subscription information
is in the Bulletin Board section):
| • |
Set up a ‘Mercy Meals’
program for group members who have had a death in their family,
illness in their family, new baby born, etc. |
| • |
Organize a Library Appreciation Committee who
will let our local libraries know we appreciate them by doing
things for the employees. |
| • |
Decorate lunch bags for Meal on Wheels and/or
buy the bags to help offset their costs. Also help make and
deliver lunches. |
| • |
Collect Tsunami Relief Boxes. |
| • |
Arrange a group of teens to clean yards for elder
people or families of deployed service members. |
| • |
Volunteer to assist the Special Olympics. |
| • |
Collect box tops and Campbell’s soup labels
for St. Jude’s Children's Ranch. |
| • |
Collect yogurt tops for breast cancer. |
| • |
Start a ‘Service Club’ for teens
in your group who can work as elections poll workers, make and
collect blankets for Project Linus (child-sized blankets dispersed
among the local homeless shelters, Pregnancy Support Center
and/or given to kids for comfort), to babysitting for support
group meetings. |
| • |
Visit to one of the local nursing homes, where
the children can sing, play piano, recite poetry and bring homemade
cards. |
| • |
At Christmas time, bake cookies and deliver
them to the local rescue mission, these people don't get homemade
cookies very often. |
| • |
Collect donations (i.e., $500 gift card to Staples,
cash, etc.) to help replace books and homeschool items for homeschooling
families who lost their homes in the local fires. |
| • |
Tutor and read to young children |
| |
Collect coats for the local Christian Crisis
Center or Coats for Kids program during for yearly coat drive |
| There are so many ways to be involved in your
community through service projects. If you are not sure how
to get these opportunities started or not sure how the group
members might react, bring suggestions to the first meeting
or to the board of your group. You can visit Knowledge House
Scholars web page at http://www.knowledgehouse.info/KHscholars6.html
for 50 community service project ideas, a list of national volunteer
day opportunities, links to volunteer organizations, and related
articles. These projects are a great way to reach your community
in the name of Christ and to spread the Gospel. |
|
| |
| |
The first 5,000 new subscribers will receive 19
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-----------------------
Thank you for spending time with us here at The Old Schoolhouse
this month. We’ll have more encouraging articles and leadership
tips for you next month. You may forward this enewsletter to your
friends in its entirety. If you have any comments email me at anissa@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
and don’t forget to visit our website and look for the summer
issue of the magazine, due out soon! Until next month, enjoy your
summer--from the TOS Staff!
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