Friday's Answer: Creating a Web Site

What are good tutorials on web site creation?

One of the first and most important tasks for a homeschool group is connecting its members. Today, most people connect by the computer.

The benefits of having a web site for your group are many:
* way of sending announcements
* keeping a calendar
* posting photos
* building a sense of community when you're not physically meeting together
* keeping track of members
* providing chat rooms/chat topics
* printing out online forms from home
* automating messages or reminders
* taking polls
* advertising your group

You've got options when it comes to creating a web site. Several of these following suggestions we make we have used ourselves and are a good place to start you on your web site way.

Build a simple group web site for free at:
groups.yahoo.com
meetup.com

To build a more in-depth web site using helpful and attractive templates:
homeschool-life.com (If you sign up with Homeschool-Life, please let them know we referred you to them. Thank you!)
homestead.com

If you are an adventurous techie, consider building a from-scratch site with the aid of the software Dreamweaver or Front Page. There are tons of tutorials out there on YouTube. Also, for these softwares, you will need a web hosting company such as GOT Hosting to put your site online.

These are some great leads for you to research and explore. Let your creative juices start flowing!

We'll see you online!
Kristen & Denise
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com
Check out our recommended resources.

Tuesday's Tip

Bless the Homeless

Fill quart-sized Ziploc bags with items for the homeless. Group members can carry a couple of the bags in their cars to pass out to the homeless of your community. Be bold and bless with a smile and some conversation during a stoplight.

Trust us--YOU will never be the same. . . and neither will your kids.

Friday's Answer: Exploring 10 Creative Ways For Leaders To Earn Some Cash

I started a home school group in my neighborhood but would like to reach out a little further. We have five families right now. I have my BA in elementary education. Is it possible to get paid to be a homeschool group leader? Or get paid anything for doing something with home schooling?

I have to confess, this great question made us smile. It would be wonderful to get paid for all the hours that you put into leading, serving, helping, and coordinating the homeschool group, but we do not know of any that do. Starting or leading a support group for homeschoolers in your area is a volunteer service from the heart that blesses many families and fills a need. Helping others has its own reward.

That being said, we can give you a few ideas of ways you can explore to earn money in this field.

1. Teach a class within an area of your expertise and charge a fee. Many homeschoolers look for science labs or classes, music lessons, physical education or sports, or extracurriculars.
2. Offer tutoring services by the hour in needful areas like math or reading.
3. Host a used curriculum/book sale. Charge a nominal fee for spaces, and everyone makes money selling their used books.
4. Sell used curriculum online on auction sites or book listers like Amazon.com.
5. Host home parties (like Discovery Toys) for the families of your group.
6. Become a distributer of homeschool materials, curriculum and family books for your area.
7. Sell supplies, curriculum or homeschool books or your own original product at regional homeschool book fairs.
8. Write and submit articles of your homeschool experiences to various homeschool magazines.
9. Find a need and fill it by writing an ebook within your expertise and market it online. Stephen Beck can show you how--click here.
10. Sponsor an educational or artistic competition for the community that requires entrance fees.

Each of these ideas can be used by an individual, a leader, or a group to earn cash.

Cha-ching! Here's to money in your pocket,
Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Tuesday's Tip

Set It and Forget It!

Go ahead and set the time and day of any event you coordinate by what works for you and your family. You can never please every schedule, but you can be pleased with those that are able to be involved.

Friday's Answer: Unity Sees the Beauty in Diversity

How do you keep all your leadership on the same page and keep feelings from getting hurt?

Few people think just alike. Many see this as a bad thing, but we encourage you to see it as an opportunity.

An opportunity to first see the value in each person's perspective, finding the greatest common factor amongst all of them, and pulling your leaders all together in a positive direction.

When we experienced this, we learned that attitude is everything. Read our story here.

Can't we all just get along? :-)
Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Tuesday's Tip

Don’t knock name tags!

They can draw your members together and can lessen the stress of forgetting each other’s names. Consider adding a fun question to each name tag to get creative conversations started.

Friday's Answer: Leaders Plan for Peace

"How do I keep peace within the group when everyone has their own ideas about how things should be done?"

We believe that building unity is a subject that is always timely and very critical to the health of your homeschool group. Having an emergency plan for times of trouble will bring peace and confidence to you, to your leadership team and to your group.

This Friday's Answer is best explained by an article where we lay out the steps for just such a peace making plan. We have written and posted this article for you to read and share for free.

Click here to read "Mission Possible: Resolving Conflict Within Your Homeschool Group."

By the way, as you are enjoying our blog and articles be sure to tell a friend about us and have them sign up for our free mini-course. Thank you for spreading the word about us to other leaders!

Many blessings,
Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Tuesday's Tip

Leave it better than you found it!

Anytime you rent or use any facility, it is very important to leave it
cleaner or in better shape than when you got there. Don’t forget to double
check the bathrooms!

Friday's Answer: Unity is Positively Possible

"I would like to know how best to create a positive unity within a group that may contain such diverse individuals? How can I make my group have one focus and more importantly one vision for our group as a whole?"

Happy New Year! Wouldn't it be a dream come true to have a perfectly harmonious homeschool group throughout this year?! Well, chances are troubles will come, but you can be ready with a pro-active plan and a positive unity. It is possible!

For the next three weeks we will be tackling your hard questions about building unity and keeping peace. We will be giving you easy steps that can lead to unity and success within your homeschool group. Today's thoughtful response to the question above is now a free article for you. Click here to read it.

To your success this year,
Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com