Homeschool co-op teachers influence the future!

So many wonderful people have influenced my daughters by teaching at our homeschool co-op.  I will be forever grateful to them!

When Amy Puetz announced she was looking for stories form homeschool graduates, I asked my daughter, Emily, to write something.

Here is an excerpt:

When I was in fifth grade, my mother enrolled me in a homeschool co-op because she thought it would be “good for me.” Unfortunately, I was less than enthusiastic about the prospect of trying something new and facing “real teachers.” In hindsight, however, I can see that the co-op was one of the greatest blessings of those years of homeschooling!

The volunteer instructor for my public speaking class was a veteran homeschool mother, Mrs. Hill. In her class, I learned how to follow a syllabus, complete weekly assignments, and learn from a teacher other than my own parents. I also benefited from Mrs. Hill’s patient encouragement and instruction, as she shared her passion for communicating for Christ with my class. Because each of my co-op teachers led a class in her area of expertise, their passion developed my love for learning beyond what I would have experienced working with just my mom and sister at home. Although I did not particularly enjoy speaking in public, I appreciated Mrs. Hill’s encouragement. Specifically, her praise—from a source other than my parents—reinforced my self confidence and motivated me to work diligently even in my least favorite subjects. On the car ride home from co-op, I would frequently say to my mother, “Guess what I learned from Mrs. Hill today!” The co-op provided a unique opportunity to learn from other adults, without sacrificing the integral element of family from my homeschool experience.

Read my daughter’s thank you to co-op teachers in Thank You! 20 Homeschool Grads Tip Their Hats to Homeschooling Parents Compiled by Amy Puetz

Amy is offering this as a fee ebook at her website.

If you as a homeschool parent, leader or co-op teacher need a bit of encouragement, read Amy’s Thank You book. It will be the “shot in the arm” you need!

Thank You! 20 Homeschool Grads Tip Their Hats to Homeschooling Parents

A lesson in leadership from Moses

The Ten Commandments was on last night.  It’s a great film, but it ends too early with the Israelites leaving slavery in Egypt.  There are a lot of wonderful stories about their life after Egypt and one in particular is a great lesson in leadership from Moses.

My friends Kristen and Denise from HomeschoolGroupLeader did an interview with me recently about what we as homeschool leaders can learn from Moses.

HGL:
What is the TOP way you’ve discovered that homeschool group leaders can avoid burning out?

Carol:
I think the best way is to learn from other leaders.

We’ve got a great example in the Old Testament of the leader Moses. What Moses failed to do was to delegate responsibility. So, the first way to avoid burnout is to get help.

What Moses was guilty of doing was sitting around all day basically listening to everyone’s complaints and dealing with them all himself. His father-in-law came out there into the desert where Moses was leading the Israelites, saw what he was doing and said, “What you’re doing is not good. You will wear yourself out. The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.” He goes on to suggest a plan to Moses of how to delegate responsibility to trusted leaders and then they can entrust it down a level, too.

We should be following that Biblical model of leadership. It’s almost unbibilical for a leader to think, “I have to do this all myself.” That comes from pride. Sometimes it comes from a perfectionist tendency, and sometimes it comes because they can’t get any help. I know, of course, your book helps a lot with motivating members to help, but we also have to make sure that the leader doesn’t have the improper attitude of thinking, “I have to do this all myself or this is the only right way to do it.” That’s probably what Moses thought: “There’s only one way to do it—my way.” And he was corrected in that and we need to follow his example of getting help and delegating responsibility.

(the full interview can be found at http://hgleaderblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/wednesdays-wisdom-lesson-from-moses.html

Are You Burning Out?

Kristen and Denise of Homeschool Group Leader recently interviewed me about leader burnout.

They are currently running a series at their blog on burnout with a new topic each Wednesday.

Here is the first portion of the interview:

What a great time we had interviewing author and Homeschool CPA, Carol Topp! She shared a bundle of hand-picked truths from her super-helpful book, Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out. With knowledge and insight, Carol explained the warning signs of leader burn out and how to avoid it.

Do you feel like you might be burning out? Is homeschool group leadership overwhelming you? Have you noticed another leader’s fire seems to be fizzling out? How would you know?

HGL: From your experience, how can a leader know when he or she is burning out?

Carol Topp: It is important to recognize burn-out before it causes damage to you, your family or your homeschool group. Here are some symptoms of burn-out:

* loss of enthusiasm
* negativity
* depression
* health problems
* neglecting your own children
* neglecting your husband
* irritability
* feeling like a failure
* losing joy in serving

If you have 4-5 of any of these symptoms, you are experiencing burn-out.

This simple list can enlighten the path ahead so that leaders can take action and be completely healthy.

Kristen & Denise will make the complete interview available to you as soon as possible. Until then, you can read more of the interview at Homeschool Group Leader blog as they post excerpts from my interview each Wednesday. Soon the complete interview will be available in two reasonably-priced formats—audio cd and word-for-word transcript!

Can’t wait? Need help now?

My book Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out has an entire chapter devoted to burn out.  Actually the whole book offers suggestions on how to delegate and avoid burn out. It is available from Amazon.com.

Read a sample chapter here.

Order here.

Kristen and Denise have a terrific book One By One: The Homeschool Group Leader’s Guide to Motivating Your Members. It is an ebook and available for immediate download.
Click Here!

Observations from the Midwest Homeschool Convention

On April 16-18, 2009 , I attended the Midwest Homeschool Convention here in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

I did two workshops, one on Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out (named after my book of the same title) and the other on Micro Business for Teenagers (my upcoming book).

Here are a few of my observations:

Homeschool leaders from across the country all have similar problems:

• No one wants to work or join the board
• Older, experienced hoemschool mothes are not coming to meetings
• There is a need for a clear vision and purpose. Leaders want to be everything to everyone.
• Policies and bylaws are sorely needed to elect new board members, deal with conflict, and to prevent burnout

Meeting and talking to attorney David Gibbs of the Homeschool Legal Advantage was a highlight.  We look forward to a wonderful working partnership helping homeschool organizations. Individual families have long had access to legal advice, but now there is a need for homeschool groups to have access to legal advice also.

Some homeschool leaders lack business sense. I heard about fund raising disasters, mistakes with charging fees and offering discounts, etc.

Meeting some of my virtual friends in person was fun.  And I’m so sorry that I missed some of you! I was stuck in my booth (I shared a booth with Mary Hood, the Relaxed Homeschooler) and didn’t get out much.

Here were some of the questions that were asked during the Homeschool Co-ops workshop:

• What does your co-op charge? Is it by student or by family?
• How often does your co-op meet? How long each time?
• Do you interview potential members?
• How do we ensure everyone is like minded?
• How can we encourage members to help out more?
• Do you group grades/ages in your co-op?
• What classes do you offer?
• Ho do you “fire” a volunteer?
• How do you elect a new baord?
• Can a co-op keep the same director/leader forever?
• Why collect a registration fee?
• Where do you meet for co-op classes?
• What is a typical rental fee?

Aren’t those great questions? I’ll work on answering them on this blog in the future.

I will also be presenting this workshop and several others at the Home Educators Association of Virginia convention  June 11-13.  Stop by my booth and say hello if you attend the convention!

Carol Topp, CPA

Good Advice for Starting a Homeschool Group

Veronica  at The Homeschool Classroom had some excellent advice in her post titled How To Start a Support Group.

Methods of communication — Some groups rely on printed newsletters; others, solely through email. Because I love the Internet and my friend likes the telephone, we decided that I would start up and run the Yahoo message board and info blog, and that she would handle telephone calls.

I love how the two founders split of the tasks based on their strengths. If only one person did all the work, there would be a lack of communication and possible leader burnout.

Veronica has a lot of other good advise that applies to all homeschool groups, not just support groups. She mentions:

• Writing a mission statement
• Writing down ideals and setting some aside
• Making decisions about how to lead the group and where to meet
• Advertising
• and praying for your group

Read her entire post at The Homeschool Classroom here

Carol Topp, CPA