Please bear with us...

Just wanted to say that I know things don't seem terribly organized and everything is a bit dis-jointed now, but I think that this is to-be-expected in the beginning :)

I expect that there will be LOTS of changes as we iron out the details during the first couple of months and I'm hoping that NEXT school year will be a lot more smooth-going.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck around and shown a willingness to be flexible and help lay the groundwork for our co-op during this initial chaotic period! Can't wait until things are up-and-going!

Meeting Notes 9.22.11

6:30-8 pm Rivergate Community Church

Attending: Anna, Aria, Heather, Claudia

Things we discussed:

• Volunteering this Sunday, Sept 25 from 11-2 at Rigler Elementary for Sunday Parkways
• Aria is interested in teaching Ballet, Art & Sewing (and has an almost 2 year old girl named Charlotte)
• Perhaps only 2 classes offered 1st term, not 4
• Possibly having the 2 simultaneous classes be for different age groups
• Kids need to stay in the building unless they go out with buddy or adult
• What are the expectations of the students and the educators?
• Don't bring kids when they are sick (details of definitions of "sick" tbd)
• Handwashing before food prep which is for other people
• How to impart on the participants mutual respect, maybe tour the church first--We want everyone to feel good and have guardianship of the space
• Have a quiet (one person) area for when a child chooses alone time for themselves
• How are we planning on dealing with conflicts?
• Fire Safety/First Aid Packs
  

When a child chooses to participate, the hope is that they are excited enough, engaged by the teacher enough, and challenged enough by the material to continue to participate.  It is up to the educator to lay out the guidelines for a particular class at the beginning.

(Anna): My belief is that when the children spend time together and the parents get to know the children, the parents will get a sense of how best to deal with any issues a particular student has.  This yahoogroup is currently the avenue we have to discuss specific needs and behaviors. 

Plans:
Claudia will put together literature about how we talk to children/each other in a respectful way (Guidelines for Communication)
Anna will work on writing Policies and Principles, and talk to Pastor Carren about her expectations of our use of space

Next meeting:
Oct 6 noon--potluck and playtime

Working on Mission Statement

After tonight's meeting, I realized we need a more specific and clear mission statement...so here goes...help me out everyone!  (Word changes, omissions & new ideas!)


Radish Roots Co-op is a safe, healthy community learning environment to provide the space and opportunities for real life learning through seasoned storytellers (our own selves) and shared play time; acknowledging that everyone brings with them their very own specific story and needs which shall all be respected. 

I'll leave it there for now because I'm pretty tuckered out from the day, but I will put together meeting notes soon.

Google Calendar

A google calendar has been created for the Co-op. I have already invited everyone that came to the meeting yesterday, but I am happy to share it with anyone else that would like to see it. Just email me (meenajo2008@gmail.com) or comment here and I will share it with you :)

New Yahoo Group

We now have a Yahoo Group to facilitate discussion and planning among RR members. You can request membership here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radishroots/

Meeting Notes

Notes from last nights meeting. Please feel free to add anything that I forgot in the comments!

Meeting Notes

Radish Roots Co-op

Sept 13, 2011 6:30 pm

Rivergate

No. of families in attendance: 9

(Names withheld for privacy)

What we discussed:

· The vision that Anna & Amoreena have for the co-op, as described on the blog

· Ages of the kids involved (so far)

o Girls: 15, 8, 7, 5, 4, 4, 4,

o Boys: 9, 7,7,7,7,6,6,6,6,5,3,3

· What types of classes/activities our kids are interested in:

o Arts & crafts

o Dragons, spaceships, bugs

o Robots, legos, Star Wars

o Reading

o Cursive writing

o PE/Group games

o Theater/Performing arts, theater sports

o Music

o Harry Potter

o Latin

o Yoga

o Math and Science

o Chess

o Spanish

o Fiber arts

o Cooking

o First Aid

o Geocaching

· We talked about the possibility of hiring outside people to teach classes. Darkbot and Monique Turner were mentioned.

· Talked about having just an open crafting time

· We talked about having some open time in the day for clubs/on-going activities, etc.

· It was mentioned that the Book Store in St. Johns gives a 20% discount to homeschoolers

· It was mentioned that there is free cooking classes available through the “eco project”

· We talked about some of the volunteer jobs that would be available

o Teachers, child watch—younger and older kids, clean up, administrative tasks, scheduling, website maintenance, church liaison, budgeting, volunteer coordinator

o Beverly volunteered to take care of the website

o Amoreena will take care of calendar/scheduling and administrative duties

o Anna will act as church liaison and take care of money management

· We discussed money matters

o We don’t want to turn anyone away for lack of $

o An annual membership fee will be charged on a sliding scale. Each member can contribute whatever they feel is a fair amount for their family.

o We suggest $50-$100, payable in installments if needed

o Half of the money will be used as a donation to the church for letting us use the space

o Half of the money will be used for supplies and materials needed for co-op classes

o We will also ask for donations of materials, as needed

o And we are open to fundraising

o We expect that some classes will come with an additional fee to cover the cost of materials used in the class or to cover the cost of an instructor if one is hired from the outside

o Anna will keep track of the money and do the budgeting

· We discussed the daily schedule and agreed on the one that was proposed earlier, with the expectation that more class periods will be added as we grow

o 11:00-12:00 First Period

o 12:00-12:15 Announcements/Group Sharing time, etc.

o 12:15-1:00 Lunch and social time

o 1:00-2:00 Second Period

o The time before and after the regular schedule can be used for workshops, funshops, clubs, on-going activities, etc.

· We agreed to the yearly calendar that was in the agenda, which includes 7 terms for the 2011-2012 school year, with the first term beginning on Oct. 20^th.

· KEY CHANGE: We decided to change the co-op meeting day to Thursday instead of Wednesday

· We decided to have another meeting on Thursday, September 22^nd at Rivergate from 6:30-8:00 as a follow up to this meeting and also for anyone who wanted to attend the first meeting and couldn’t make it.

· We decided to meet for a potluck lunch on the first 2 weeks of October. This will give kids a chance to get to know each other and will give parents a chance to do any planning and preparation that still needs to be done.

o Emily offered to have hula-hoop making materials for the kids on one of these dates.

· Amoreena will create a yahoo group for further communication among parents. We will try to finalize our plans for the first term via the yahoo group.

2011-2012 Calendar

Here is our calendar for the 2011-2012 school year
Please note that we will be meeting on THURSDAYs instead of Wednesdays, as previously discussed.

Oct. 6—Potluck lunch

Oct. 13—Potluck lunch

Oct. 20-Nov. 10--October Term

Nov. 17-Dec 15—November Term

Nov. 24—NO CLASSES, Thanksgiving

Dec. 19-Dec. 30—NO CLASSES, Winter Break

Jan. 5-Jan. 26—January Term

Feb.2-Feb. 23—February Term

Mar.1-Mar.22—March Term

Mar. 26-Apr.6—NO CLASSES, Spring Break

Apr.12-May 3—April Term

May 10-May 31—May Term

Next Meeting Dates

We will meet at the space on Thursday, September 22 at 6:30 pm for an informal potluck and short meeting.  We will go over more specifics in regards to classes, meet with new members who were unable to attend the first meeting and talk about the arc of vision for the co-op.

Classes will begin October 20 (YES, Thursdays!), but we will also meet informally the first two Thursdays in October from 11-3 to get the children (and parents) familiar with each other.  Hopefully, the 6th we will be making Hula Hoops!

Classes we are thinking about doing this year!

Here is a partial list based on tonight's meeting.  Please comment with interest, suggestions and ideas for other classes.  These are mostly ideas for what people are interested in--if you see one which strikes your fancy, please email us with a class proposal!  I believe the hope is that the classes are designed for all ages unless targeted to a specific age range.

Arts
Crafts
Dragons
Spaceships
Robotics
Harry Potter
Cursive
Dance
Theatre Improv Games (Anna?)
Music
Latin (Beverly?)
Yoga
Math (Janelle?)
Chess
Spanish (Amoreena?)
Messy Science
Kitchen Science
Fiber Arts (Emily?)
Candle-making
Geology
American Sign Language
Legos (Claudia?)
Poetry
Geocaching

Agenda for tonights meeting!

Radish Roots Homeschool co-op-Meeting Agenda 9/13

Introduction

Homeschooling background

Ages of kids, etc.

Larger Vision of “Community Learning Center”

Vision for the Homeschool co-op

Money stuff

-Membership fees sliding scale $50-$100/year (payable in 2 installments)

-Half used as donation to the church

- Half used for supplies (art/craft material, outdoor toys, etc.)

-Possibility for fundraisers

Daily schedule (for the first couple of terms)

11:00-12:00 First Period with at least 2 class choices PLUS supervised play/nursery
12:00-12:15 Announcements/ Group sharing time, etc.
12:15-1:00 Lunch and Social time
1:00-2:00 Second Period with at least 2 class choices PLUS supervised play/nursery

2:00-3:00 and/or 10:00-11:00 time for one-time only events, ongoing clubs, etc.

2011-2012 Calendar

Oct 19-Nov 9: October Term

Nov 16-Dec 14: November Term (no classes on the 23^rd)

Dec 21 & 28: Winter Break

Jan 4-Jan25: January Term

Feb 1-Feb 22: February Term

Feb 29-Mar 21: March Term

March 28 & Apr 4: Spring Break

April 11-May 2: April Term

May 9-May 30: May Term

Summer activities???

Volunteer opportunities

-Calendar/Schedule committee

-Activity facilitators

-Childcare (preK teacher)

-Supervision of older kids

-Decision-making board?

-Church liaison

-Administrative stuff & communication (blog/email list, etc.)

-Clean up

Classes to offer

-What kinds of classes would we like to see offered?

-What can we teach?

-Hiring outside teachers?

-Teacher training?

-Immediate volunteers for October/November Terms

Clubs/Workshops/Funshops, etc.

Next steps

Membership? Commitment by Sept. 30

Future planning meetings? Online or in person?

Social gathering/Meeting Oct. 5?

Informational meeting planned

for folks interested in joining us!

September 13
6:30 PM
Rivergate Community Church

Please RSVP to Amoreena meenajo2008@gmail.com