Mummies and Pharaohs

We are participating in a weekly Ancient Egypt class with some other preschoolers and elementary aged kids.  It's great to participate in something that I'm not running to watch and learn how different programs can be successful. This week we talked about mummies and pharaohs.  The kids were able to share their mummy and sarcophagus crafts at the beginning of class.  It was quite interesting to see how everyone had the same instructions and how they all turned out so differently.  In class we did a few different activities.  The preschoolers decorated burial masks and made sugar cube pyramids.  The elementary kids made pharaoh beards and a crook and flail.  The flail we'll have to finish at home since the kids ran out of focus towards the end :)  We're reading The Cat of Bubastes which is an interesting story of a couple of boys in ancient Egypt.  I love how it pulls information into the text to paint the details of what would be happening in ancient Egypt.  We're getting close to the end and will have our Egyptian Literature Camp in just over a month! 

Creating a Homeschooling Group

Through ins and outs, highs and lows we've officially settled on a homeschool group that is working really well for us.  We started out as a playgroup when CJ was just 6 months old.  We've grown and changed a lot since then.  When it came time to split the group (Fall of 2012) there was a goal to create a newly formed group of people sharing the same goals and expectations.   We spent many hours talking and sorting and determining what exactly it is that we wanted.  In case it helps another family out there, this is what we settled on: our "About Us" and "Policies" information.

Welcome to LEARN, Life Explored and Responsibility Nurtured. 
We are based in AURORA, CO.

Our primary focus is building long term relationships and supporting our growing families. The majority of our families are active homeschoolers. Most of what we do revolves around our children growing and learning in the best environments that we can possibly put them in. We work hard to facilitate that growing and learning. Every member hosts a minimum of ten intentional learning activities per year. These include, but are not limited to:
• Educational Field Trips to Museums, Zoos, doctor offices, fire stations, etc.
• Science Explorations, Unit Studies, Literature Based Activities, Lego Club, Book Club
• Physical Education, Camping, Hiking, Park Based Free Play, Tennis Lessons
• Parent Education Classes, Parenting Support
• Holiday Parties, Mom's Nights
• Pot Luck and Game Nights, Family Camp Fires

Dads and kids are always invited to everything unless otherwise specified. MOST of our activities are home based in Aurora (around Quincy and Buckley); we occasionally have field trips to Denver and other cities. We are a close group of parents who like to have fun with our kids. We want to know everyone in the group and therefore expect members to be highly active in their attendance.

Members are expected to:
• Schedule and lead 10 intentional activities each year.
• Attend Meetups as often as possible, aiming for at least 3 a month.
• Prioritize group friendship by attending the monthly group activity.

New members must pay their dues in full ($10 per month for the remainder of the calendar year) by their second meetup and begin meeting all other requirements in their first full month of being in the group.

----LEARN POLICIES----
LEARN exists to build long term relationships through intentional activities and exploration.

Membership is open by invitation only.

We expect our members to act with respect and compassion for everyone's time, feelings and experiences.

Fees are $120 per member (due every January) and will cover the current calendar year. Members that join later in the year will pay $10 per each month remaining. Fees will cover the cost of meetup.com, portions of activities and a community craft box. As a common courtesy to the group, no refunds will be issued.

Members are expected to:
• Schedule and lead 10 intentional activities each year.
• Attend meetups as often as possible, aiming for at least 3 per month.
• Prioritize group friendship by attending the monthly group activity (the first Monday of each month from 4-7)

New members must pay their dues in full by their second meetup and begin meeting all other requirements in their first full month of being in the group. 

Odds and Ends:
• When RSVPing to activities, please only count adults in the “I’m Bringing ___ Guests” area unless otherwise requested by the activity. 
• No-shows (not attending a meetup when you are RSVP’d yes without contacting the host about not coming) are completely unacceptable. 
• Members are required to have a photograph of their face to match their profile. 
• It is crucial that our members feel comfortable and enjoy being a part of this group. We will not allow anyone to tear the group apart with petty bickering, backstabbing, gossiping or any other catty behavior. 
• Members should pay attention to activities that are already scheduled making sure to not double book an activity in the same neighborhood at the same time. If an activity is happening across town at the same time you’d like to do your activity that is acceptable. 
• A member roster of names, birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, emails and allergies will be distributed to all members of the group. We encourage members to save all other members contact information in their phones.

LEARN Sick Policy

We have adults and children in our group who are fully vaccinated, unvaccinated and everywhere in-between. Regardless of choices, we as a group of friends are here to support each other. And that is never more important than when those choices do not match our own. Everyone has the health and interest of everyone at heart. No one in this group knowingly spreads sickness to others when avoidable. With that in mind, we also want to remind parents that sickness, while inconvenient, is a natural part of childhood. We ask that you keep your child(ren) home if they have any of the following and for 24 hours after symptoms have resolved: 
• Fever of 101 or higher 
• Vomit more than twice (think stomach bug not over eating or spit up) 
• Diarrhea 

Feel free to come to a playgroup if you have the following symptoms: 
• A runny nose 
• A slight cough 

We realize there is a large gray area between those two categories. We trust your judgment as a parent to know when your child has a cough and is still okay to play with their friends. However, please notify the group if you or your child has a cough so that all families can make an informed decision about their own participation. 

I, the undersigned, agree with the above listed policies and understand that my participation and the participation of any members of my family in any LEARN activity or program is completely voluntary, and we hereby give permission for myself and my family to join in those activities or programs. My family shall hold harmless this homeschool group, any volunteers or representatives, paid or unpaid, and/or the providers of any activity or program location and/or materials from any liability and/or responsibility for any accident, illness or injury that occurs during or as a result of any function or program. I accept that the final responsibility for my safety and that of my family rests with me.

Date _______ Member’s Name ____________ Member’s Signature____________________________

Trying a Co-Op

Have you ever pondered a cooperative learning structure for your homeschooler?  I'm part of a fantastic group that is focused on the education of our children.  As a group of moms with mostly preschool and kindergarteners we feel like we're trying to figure things out.  If you've been around Little Adventures Preschool long you'll already know that I ran a very successful playgroup for nearly 3 years.  I started the group with a few moms that I hardly knew when CJ was a year old.  I was once asked by one of the members what it was, in my opinion, that made the group so successful.  My honest answer is hard work and constant motion.  We utilized Meetup.com where everyone could see the calendar and RSVP to events.  I made sure that there was an event EVERY day at different times of the day and on weekends.  I had a full calendar that I sometimes despised because I just needed to stay home and do laundry, but we were having an excellent time playing and making new friends.  We tried a number of times with this group to put together a co-op preschool.  Tried, and failed.  One of the benefits of this group was that it was an open group to anyone who wanted to play.  We all had different goals and desires for our children and we enjoyed playing together.  For the co-op however this proved to be a problem.  It was something everyone wanted to take part in, but not do any work to make it successful.  As time went by the playgroup split and with my closest friends we started a new group.

The new group (called LEARN = Life Explored And Responsibility Nurtured) has some high expectations.  It's a small group with a common goal of being intentional parents with education for our children a top priority.  It is a group where each member is expected to put into the group as much as they get out of it.  It is a group of families that I trust with all of my being.  I know they will follow through with tasks and assignments.  They hold the same values that I do and will work to achieve common goals.  We thought that this type of group will run a successful cooperative style learning experience.  We were wrong.

We met one Monday to talk about what a co-op would look like.  Perhaps our experience will help you ponder yours.  We set a plan where we'd meet once a week at a set time.  Each mom would be in charge of a short lesson plan based on her interests in life.  Some wanted to do art, others math, myself: reading.  We had great goals.  One even went home and prepared six months worth of curriculum.

The exciting "trial-run" day arrived.  Families joined together to experience well thought out lessons from each mom.  It was an exciting day.  However, it was rather disappointing.  It was harder than we imagined to address everyone on their level (2 year olds to advanced kindergarteners).  We debriefed the experience and determined that in order to spend our time and effort doing this we need to feel that our children are getting out of it what we'd like them too.  Unfortunately, the co-op fell apart before we even started "for real".  I was hoping and planning on this co-op working.  However, it didn't.  I learned that co-op style learning isn't necessarily interesting to me.  Perhaps in the future I'll try again.  Maybe someone discovered how to make the co-op wheel spin more efficiently.  Or, maybe they just have much different personalities than we do.  For our group, we can remember a lovely day of a fruit based TouchMath lesson, a memory game, Cubism art and a transportation lesson.  It was fun, but it simply didn't work.