I am working to start a cooperative preschool/homeschoolers resouce center with an afterschool program open to the community (and hopefully some workshops for adults as well).
We need a mission statement! We are involved in a fundraising thing where we will have very limited time to present our project. Every word will count!
Here is our info sheet:
What is it?
This will be a cooperatively operated, non-profit, liscensed child care facility for children ages 2 1/2 (or 3) through 6 (and beyond). Athough this will qualify as a preschool right now, the goal will be to expand the program as the children grow and provide a hands-on, diversified learning experience to enrich the curriculum of a homeschooled child (and give the parents a little break!). This will be an opportunity to pool our strengths, talents, and resources in a safe and stable environment.
The day-to-day operation will look very much like most preschools-circle time, free inside and outside play, group projects or lessons, snack time, etc with an emphasis on harmonious group activites and workshops, programs based on diversity and the rhythms of nature and having Montesorri-type learning resources available for child directed learning. There will be a paid director (teacher) and a parent volunteer each day. We hope to be able to offer field trips and workshops (ie. skiing lessons at Ski Cooper) at a reduced group rate. The general cleaning tasks, clerical duties and learning resource prep work will be performed by coop members.
There will be regular (weekly? bi-monthly?)meetings (childcare included) in which the coop will discuss curriculum topics and ideas, field trip ideas, parent assistant scheduling, task distribution, fundraising and any other ideas or problems as they arise.
Another aspect of this venture is an afterschool program geared for elementary school age kids. At this time, these programs may or may not be appropriate for our younger children and will be somewhat seperate from the coop (although younger children may attend with their parents). This will be an opportunity to provide a space for children gain real life experience and skills, have fun and get messy: to learn to cook and garden, to learn very real environmental knowledge, to learn to plan for and create usable item (such as woodworking or sewing).
This aspect is just as important as the coop-they cannot survive without each other. It will connect us to our community: offering us a chance to teach and learn with more diversity, offering more networking within the communtiy, and also opening up more government grants or other fundraising opportunities.
This will be your school.
The focus right now is to determine the needs of the interested families. As a coop, all input will be considered and we hope to find a system that works for everyone in terms of cost and time requirements. This coop needs a solid core group of parents who have the time, energy and desire to be very involved in their child's education and development. We hope this group will be diverse in the talents, skills and ideas they bring to the school. We also hope this group will be united in their desire to raise their children in a responsible, positive, and natural way.
Please take some time to consider the needs, resources and goals of your family-what hours of childcare are needed, does the cost seem reasonable, what talents and skills can your family offer, your future plans regarding schooling once your child is of age, etc. Imagine what you would like your child's education to look like. We would like to hold another very informal meeting soon to gather this info. Hopefully a more detailed questionaire will be available at that time. Please network with your friends and community and feel free to call with questions.
Thanks for anyone's input!
We need a mission statement! We are involved in a fundraising thing where we will have very limited time to present our project. Every word will count!
Here is our info sheet:
What is it?
This will be a cooperatively operated, non-profit, liscensed child care facility for children ages 2 1/2 (or 3) through 6 (and beyond). Athough this will qualify as a preschool right now, the goal will be to expand the program as the children grow and provide a hands-on, diversified learning experience to enrich the curriculum of a homeschooled child (and give the parents a little break!). This will be an opportunity to pool our strengths, talents, and resources in a safe and stable environment.
The day-to-day operation will look very much like most preschools-circle time, free inside and outside play, group projects or lessons, snack time, etc with an emphasis on harmonious group activites and workshops, programs based on diversity and the rhythms of nature and having Montesorri-type learning resources available for child directed learning. There will be a paid director (teacher) and a parent volunteer each day. We hope to be able to offer field trips and workshops (ie. skiing lessons at Ski Cooper) at a reduced group rate. The general cleaning tasks, clerical duties and learning resource prep work will be performed by coop members.
There will be regular (weekly? bi-monthly?)meetings (childcare included) in which the coop will discuss curriculum topics and ideas, field trip ideas, parent assistant scheduling, task distribution, fundraising and any other ideas or problems as they arise.
Another aspect of this venture is an afterschool program geared for elementary school age kids. At this time, these programs may or may not be appropriate for our younger children and will be somewhat seperate from the coop (although younger children may attend with their parents). This will be an opportunity to provide a space for children gain real life experience and skills, have fun and get messy: to learn to cook and garden, to learn very real environmental knowledge, to learn to plan for and create usable item (such as woodworking or sewing).
This aspect is just as important as the coop-they cannot survive without each other. It will connect us to our community: offering us a chance to teach and learn with more diversity, offering more networking within the communtiy, and also opening up more government grants or other fundraising opportunities.
This will be your school.
The focus right now is to determine the needs of the interested families. As a coop, all input will be considered and we hope to find a system that works for everyone in terms of cost and time requirements. This coop needs a solid core group of parents who have the time, energy and desire to be very involved in their child's education and development. We hope this group will be diverse in the talents, skills and ideas they bring to the school. We also hope this group will be united in their desire to raise their children in a responsible, positive, and natural way.
Please take some time to consider the needs, resources and goals of your family-what hours of childcare are needed, does the cost seem reasonable, what talents and skills can your family offer, your future plans regarding schooling once your child is of age, etc. Imagine what you would like your child's education to look like. We would like to hold another very informal meeting soon to gather this info. Hopefully a more detailed questionaire will be available at that time. Please network with your friends and community and feel free to call with questions.
Thanks for anyone's input!
