How do I Lead a Homeschool Group...& Homeschool

This morning I was delighted to see this post by Christine, a homeschool mother and homeschool group leader. Her love for life and others really shined through her words. After reading it and seeing the fun, personal pictures, I feel as if I know her a little bit. I really like her sense of adventure and her jump-all-in-and-learn way of tackling this challenge.

How do I lead a Homeschool Group… And Homeschool

Jan 31st, 2013 by Christinethecurious

 

When I get asked this question, the tone usually implies that I have lost my mind. Maybe I have. Of my serial obsessions, leading Eagle’s Wings Co-op stands out as a real adventure.





Continued here:

http://www.ourcurioushome.net/2013/01/31/how-do-i-lead-a-homeschool-group-and-homeschool/

I know you'll enjoy it, too. :-)
Denise

P.S. Now, I've GOT to get that book, Coaching Your Kids to be Leaders!!!

How to Get People to Help, Part 2

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Then communicate some more.

In the last post, we revealed the value of connecting with your members, so that relationships are solidly formed and everyone feels needed and cared for. This will result in more contented and involved members.

The second part of how to get people to help is to communicate clearly.

A leader must communicate vision and purpose continually. You cannot get the purpose in front of the people enough. Remember that.

Whether you are casting the vision for your group's existence or sharing the purpose of an individual event, you cannot overdo communication.

Let's say your group is hosting a parent planning meeting to decide events and activities for the upcoming school year. Several months ahead, begin to let people know it's coming up. Mention it at every monthly meeting, in your newsletter, on your web site or Yahoo group calendar. A crafty graphics person in your group could design a flyer for members to share with their friends and neighbors who might be interested in homeschooling. Encourage them to invite.

Build excitement for the event by communicating details of interest. Will there be any door prizes? Any discounts offered to those who come? Do you need a volunteer for a specific table? Will there be arrangements for the children? Do you want dads there, too? FORSEE any questions your members may have and ANSWER them. You will have much more involvement if you communicate clearly the value of the event to the members and what you need from them.

Getting people to help is fun and easy when you concentrate your energy on connecting with each member in a personal way and making very clear the benefits of the events you all choose to do together.

Talk it Up!

Kristen

For more on motivating volunteers, check this out.

http://www.homeschoolgroupleader.com/

How to Get People to Help

As homeschool group leaders, we all face it at one time or another. The temptation to fuss about how much is on us and how no one is helping.

I've fallen into that trap. Here's the way out.

Connect and communicate

This post will deal with the first of these two: connect. The truth is that, as leaders, we are in a servant position. We must remember that the group members are not there to serve us, we are there to serve them. Now, before you faint from the thought of all that could put on you, let me offer you a way through. . . connect with your members and they will be much more likely to serve alongside you.

How many times has a friend called on you for help and you ran to their aid? Now, how many times has that happened with a total stranger. The reality is that we help people we know more often than people we don't. The lesson for leaders is this: know your members.

Are you crazy, you say? Yes! Crazy about caring.

You may not be able to personally know each person in your group, but someone else can. Touches are simple--as simple as a welcome at the beginning of each gathering.

"Welcome to all our first time guests! We are so glad you are here. We hope you
find a home with us."

Then have a designated person or two who greets each visitor, and discovers two cool things about their family and introduces them to at least one other person. Your designated person reports to you what they found so you stay in the loop and you plan a second "touch." Maybe a very short personal invitation to your next group event. I've done this before. It works very well.

Connecting with your members is really very simple and there are lots of creative ways to do it. But the effort of knowing your members will really pay off in the long run in making everyone feel at home, including you!

Blessings!

Kristen

www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Friday's Answer: Involved Members Vs. Burn Out

How do we help motivate members to get involved (and not get burned out as leaders)?

This question connects what many have observed--the correlating ratio of leader burn-out to member involvement. When a homeschool group leader does all the work with little help from others, they use up all their reserve and feel like they have nothing left with which to continue. Frustration and exhaustion can overcome their good intentions.

How do you, a leader, protect yourself from this weary end? How do you enlist members to help lighten your load? Homeschool group leaders have been asking these questions for decades. Your leader stress will be greatly alleviated by remembering these realities:

1. Learn to delegate and ask others personally to help with specific jobs.
2. If no one volunteers to help with a particular project, let it go and do not overdo it.
3. Keep relationships at the forefront of your job description, not tasks or activities.

Very soon, within this month, our answer-packed e-book One by One: The Homeschool Group Leader's Guide to Motivating Your Members will be available to answer these pertinent questions. Keep in touch so you don't miss out on the great money-saving deal for early orders. We will help by sending emails, facebook messages and blog posts with details to keep you connected. (You still have to time to post a comment for a chance for a free e-book, too.)

Thankful for servant-leaders like you,
Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com
deniseandkristen@homeschoolgroupleader.com
Great Resources in our Store

Guest Friday's Answer: What Should the Men Do?

We're excited to bring you leadership wisdom from wonderful veteran leaders around the country in our "Guest Friday's Answer."

Paul Mills co-founded Hill Country Christian Homeschoolers and has served as its President for over ten years. He also serves on the board of the Texas Home School Coalition and on the Advisory Council for Homeschool Group Leader.

Paul is a delight to us here at Homeschool Group Leader and has helped many leaders and us with his insight, clarity, vision, prayers and wisdom. Denise & Kristen

What is the men's role on the leadership team?

Just as the strongest home schools have both the husband and wife actively involved, I believe that the strongest home school support groups have both men and women involved in leadership. I know from experience that the best way to attract (and keep) men in leadership is to clearly define their roles on the leadership team. Here are just a few of the responsibilities the men on our leadership team share in:

• Vision Setter ~ Clearly this can and should be done by both men and women, but men do bring a unique prospective to the process. Even if your husband has no interest in running the day to day operations of a support group get them involved in setting the vision for it. This can also be a great lead-in to more involvement in the future.
  
  
• Administrator ~ Our group has always had a male treasurer. This allowed a man to serve in an area he was comfortable with. I personally have always handled the business end of our support group including insurance and incorporation issues.
  
  
• Communicator ~ On those rare occasions when our leadership needed to discuss a serious issue with a member family I took on the responsibility for communicating the message. My wife appreciated the fact that she could attend the next field trip with or pass that family in the grocery store without feeling quite so awkward.
  
  
• Greeter ~ One of the most important roles for the men on our leadership team is to meet and greet the dads that come to our group activities. Many men are intimidated by homeschool group events thinking they are primarily for women and children. Our group has consistently kept a high number of dads at events by encouraging those that do come out that they are not alone.
  
  
• Encourager ~ Our group has typically asked couples to serve on our board together. Not only do we get two-for-one this way but it also allows us a much better opportunity to encourage our wives when the stress of leadership gets too much, or to help her reprioritize if necessary.
  
  

Even if your group does not have men in formal positions of leadership encourage their active involvement as advisors. The benefits are worth it.

Paul Mills

Friday's Answer: Keeping Teens Interested

Our homeschool group is centered around kid activities (field trips, events, etc) while still supporting the moms. How do you keep the teens interested in the homeschool group?

Many times a support group begins in response to the need of supporting moms or socializing young children. As the children grow, the group usually metamorphoses with them to offer more structured activites like field trips or classes. But as the children grow into their teen years, what's a group to do to meet the needs of this age group? Can the group add to it's already-full schedule to meet the teens' needs?

Yes, it is possible to keep the teens interested and take care of their needs. Here are a few simple ideas to kickstart your teen activities. We will have a ton more in our upcoming ebook!

1. Watch and pray ~ It can be extremely helpful to have a leader specifically planning activities or classes for teens. Pray that the Lord will lead you to the right person to fill this need. He can lay the need and desire on their heart. He cares for the teens and has already laid it on your heart to pay attention to their needs.
2. Ask and evaluate ~ Find out what the greatest needs or fears or desires are that the teens in the group have. What ways do they wish to socialize or serve or learn? Then you have a direction to move toward.
3. Create and provide ~ Be creative in meeting their needs. If they fear the SAT's coming up, start a study group to prepare for it. If they need specialized subjects for college requirements, look for a teacher to provide a class for credit. If they desire to find out more about career paths, provide field trips for teens exploring their options.
4. Be radical ~ If you have more teens than young children, it is possible your whole group needs to change its complete focus to meet the older group's needs. Park days may need to change to skating rink socials or hanging-out, game times at a home. Other children's activities may be need to be exchanged for debate teams, driver's ed classes or high school subject clubs. And don't forget--the moms are going to need different support than before, too.

It can be daunting to look at revamping your whole group, but it is well worth it to keep your teens interested. Not only does it keep them interested in the group, but having teen social activities and oportunities for answers to their future also keeps them excited about homeschooling in general. This wonderfully supports your group's families and helps them accomplish their goals of homeschooling through high school with a happy teen.

God bless,

Denise & Kristen

P.S. We are excited about our soon to come ebook that will be packed with ideas for making every type member of your group excited about being a part of it!

http://www.homeschoolgroupleader.com/

Buy one of our recommended resources on our storefront.

Friday's Answer: Scheduling Savvy

"I know you can't please all the people all the time, but how do you deal with multiple differences in schedules when you're trying to plan an event that will benefit everyone--like a park day or moms' night out?"

Scheduling an event at the right time can be tricky. Our family has such a difficult time planning anything ahead of time because of my husband's uncertain schedule. He is always on call and jobs are inconsistent in how long they take to complete. Other families in our area deal with the crazy hours of shift work or working nights. This can make it almost impossible to get everyone together at the same time.

Despite the variety of families' schedules in your group, you can find the best time to plan your event by working within these 10 easy guidelines that I always keep in mind when scheduling:

1. Stay informed ~ Know the big events of your community that everyone might be attending. Keep in mind church service times, practices and games of team sports that involve your families, and other homeschool group activities. Schedule around these as best you can.
2. Consider your target attendees ~ Who are you trying to reach or serve with this event? If it is moms, schedule best when dads can watch the kids. If it is kids, schedule during the day. If it is dads, schedule a weekend event.
3. Make it a family event ~ When it is particularly hectic, schedule one event for the whole family. Then you are not taking away family time, but giving time for families to make good memories together. If one cannot attend, the rest of the family can still have fun.
4. Take a poll ~ This is especially good for an ongoing event like park day or co-op classes. Let the families vote on which day of the week is best for them and their schedule. Keep the poll to only three choices so you can see a clear winner.
5. The coordinator's vote is heaviest ~ It takes lots of time and effort to plan and execute an event. The leader in charge needs to weigh in on the choice of day or time to make sure they can be there and be ready. They should get first choice.
6. Consider homeschool schedules ~ Your group is to build up the homeschool families in your group, not take away precious learning or working time. Watch the calendar and don't plan too many things during "school hours." Try to work events into the afternoons or classes into one school day, only taking away from the family school hours once in a while.
7. Be consistent ~ Keep recurring events always on the same day and time. This gives your families time to look forward to these activities and plan ahead. They can even work their own schedules around these events.
8. Overcome schedule objections ~ Anticipate problems with a scheduled time and find a solution before it even comes up. If your members include shift workers or single parents, find a way to provide child care on a moms' night out, for example.
9. Multi-task ~ Help lower the driving times for families by planning events for different members at the same time and in close proximity to each other. Specific groups, such as a moms' night out and a teen activity, can meet separately and yet still be able to ride together when you plan this way.
10. Do your best, then rest ~ Thoughtfully plan the best time and day for your event considering these guidelines. Then let it work out for each family the best that they can do. Be happy with the turn out and don't worry over it. You will never be able to work it out 100%, but you can know you did your best to serve your group.

Even the best schedules can be overturned or upset by unforeseen events. We have rescheduled our group activities because of hurricanes or other weather, shift workers getting called in for seven-day-a-week turn-arounds (as they call them here), or a conflicting event that was missed in planning. Personally, I've canceled plans when my husband got called out of town with only 30 minutes notice. These kind of upheavals are not fun, but they do happen in real life. I've learned that a good, flexible attitude that rests during all the changes makes it easier on everyone.

Hoping this came at the right time,
Denise
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com
Check out our recommendations for homeschool leaders here.

Friday's Answer: Motivated from Within

How to get parents to help out?

Being married to a youth minister, I have had a lot of opportunity to work with parents and try to get them involved.

The secret key is motivating them to get involved. But how do you do that?

I have discovered that people will act when they feel motivated from within. My job as a leader, then, is to inspire that inner motivation--to help them get excited about something. The truth be told, most of us get excited when something benefits us.

So, make it benefit your parents to get involved. Let me give you a recent example that illustrates three simple ways you can motivate your parents to help out.

Just yesterday I was working on our youth group newsletter that we hand out to the teens and their parents each month. There's secret number one: personal touch. We all need to feel cared for and loved. I like to personally hand the newsletters out to the parents and make eye contact with each one, engaging them with a simple question about their family. I have found that appropriate, personal touch, no matter how simple, is a great motivator.

In the newsletter, we run a column called "Parent Corner." In that column we've run some pretty cool and helpful stuff. Do the parents read it? I'm not sure. So, I'm on a mission to find out. Here's secret number two: pave the path to action. Since my husband wants to get the parents used to regularly visiting the youth group web site for information, I am going to ask them in the Parent Corner to answer ONE question. The trick is that they have to go to the web site to answer it, following the link we post in the column. We will regularly have a new question or interesting poll to help the parents get used to going to the web site.

A third secret to getting parents to help out is to reward them. You may balk at this (and I don't blame you), but hear me out--it works. People are motivated when they get something for their effort. My husband did some quick math last night in his head and figured that if he offers a gift certificate each month to a randomly-drawn answerer, it will be money well spent because of the benefit to our whole group of having parents willing to act when asked.

So, I suggest three ways to get parents to help out:
* personal touch
* pave the path to action
* reward them

Motivating members to move from apathy to action is a fun challenge, and a very do-able one. Be creative, be personal, be generous and let us all know how it goes and what you tried. We'll be watching for your helpful comment! :-)

How's that for a call-to-action? Now, what am I going to give you? . . .
Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Friday's Answer: Connect, Listen, & Reward

How do you get the majority of members to get involved?

Servant leaders, including all homeschool group leaders, are always looking for their members to be involved. This is not because they want to impress with large numbers, but because they wisely realize that to lead successfully they must have followers and to serve faithfully they must have people to serve.

Promote your group's percentage of member involvement by consistently following these 3 vital guidelines:

1. Help them feel connected. Families that have at least 2 other friends in the group will be comfortable and excited to participate and join the activities.


2. Listen to their needs. Know the needs of your members by getting to know them, asking them regularly, and taking polls. As specific needs are met, involvement will grow.


3. Reward them with praise. A warm smile, a word of appreciation and a sincere compliment will lift their spirits and draw them to you and your group again and again.

There are so many ways to promote member involvement that we are writing an ebook about the subject! We pray that it will truly meet your needs and serve you as you serve others.

We would love to hear and include your ideas on how to improve member involvement. Please share your experiences with leaders everywhere by leaving a comment here on this blog.

Thank you for serving and sharing,
Denise & Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com
Check out our recommended resources.

Friday's Answer: Web Site Apathy

“How to get more participation? We have over 100 families on
our yahoo loop and yet only about 10 show up to different things. We are averaging 2-3 families per event.”

Three things come to our mind here.

#1 As a yahoo group, do the members clearly know what the vision or purpose of the group is? Whether your group is primarily for online support through emails or primarily a connection for real-world activities, it needs to be stated clearly somewhere on your front page.

The key word here is “primarily.” If the members joined for the purpose of getting online ideas and support, then don’t stress about trying to get them together for activities. Maybe they aren’t coming to activities because it simply doesn’t fit their need or reason for joining your group. Assess your group’s needs and clearly communicate the group’s vision to those who are signing on with you.

#2 Take a poll of your members. Find out what your members want and how often they want it. Get as much feedback as you can through email, personal phone calls or face-to-face contact. Multiple choice polls make it much easier for them to zip back an answer to you and make it much easier for you to assess the needs of your group.

#3 If your members still need to be inspired to action, consider having a cool giveaway every once in awhile to offer them some incentive. For example, the first 25 to respond to such and such will have their names entered into a drawing for two passes to the museum. Make the giveaway something affordable, and have fun being creative with your reward if your budget isn’t very big.

Hope this helps!
Denise & Kristen

www.HomeschoolGroupLeader.com

Why Should I Even Consider Leading a Group?

Honestly, it's a challenge to lead a homeschool group. A common saying in Texas is that leading homeschoolers is like trying to herd cats. Their independence and love for freedom can make them seem hard to pull together.

But there are huge benefits to being a leader of these wonderfully-unique homeschoolers. It's an opportunity to:

serve others
showcase your talents and gifts
bring the homeschool community together
increase community awareness of homeschooling
provide much-needed encouragement and support
allow for the exciting exchange of ideas
accomplish something that stretches you
keep you from getting bored
see the fruit of your vision
gain skills that can be used in other areas of your life
gain confidence
build lasting relationships
learn to conquer fears
force you to be more organized
help you set your priorities in order

and last but not least. . . Somebody's got to do it. ;-) Why not you??

You can do it!
Denise and Kristen
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com

Your Questions are So Good

On our site Homeschool Group Leader, we have been amazed at the great questions you've been asking us. Each question is important to us. You are important to us.

We have prayed for you this morning. We prayed that you would have wisdom and that the Lord would strengthen you and encourage your heart to do this great task He's given you.

One of the most common Biggest Questions has been how to get your families more involved in your group. It can be so frustrating to have no one volunteer to help or even show up for an event that you've poured your heart and time into. We've been there.

Once, Denise scheduled a field trip to an alligator farm in our area. She thought it was the perfect summertime field trip and had even gotten feedback that people wanted to go. The day came for the trip and only two families out of 50 showed up! Denise was a little discouraged.

But she learned from it.

• She listened to why people didn't show: the heat, the mosquitoes, and summertime vacations. So from then on, she only scheduled early summer field trips that were indoors.
  
  
• She determined that summer field trips just didn't work as well for our group--attendance was low for all our summer activities down here in the Texas heat.
  
  
• She chose not to take it personally and began to design the field trips to fit the flow of the group. During the rest of the summer, she would simply pass out info on field trips that the families could do on their own. We completely took August off, with field trips as a group picking back up in September.

This worked really well for our group to encourage involvement. Your group may have a totally different dynamic and climate than ours, but people are the same everywhere. People need to be heard, understood and appreciated. One way you can easily do this and increase participation is to listen well and act on what you hear your families saying. It's a way of serving them, of meeting their needs and appreciating them.

We hope that in sharing our experience, you will be able to better understand and serve your own group. We will be sharing even more experiences in our coming ebook that will guide you as you lead your group to success.

Praying for you,
Kristen and Denise
www.homeschoolgroupleader.com