When you get a bunch of homeschool mom’s together what do they almost always end up talking about?
CURRICULUM, right?!
This year I have overheard several moms at our enrichment group complain about the curriculum they were using. They were so stressed out because they didn’t know what to do, but were too intimidated by the big homeschool convention. I decided to organize a Curriculum day for homeschoolers in our area. But first, I hit Nicki up for help :) Once she was on board, it was a GO!
We wanted it to be very relaxed – like a bunch of girlfriends sitting around chatting about what they like & what they don’t like or how they have made their curriculum work for them. You know, kinda like “Show & Tell.” Hint’s our first annual Curriculum Show & Tell was born.
We took about 4 months to plan & honestly, it went very smoothly. Our planning was actually more fun than stressful. Nicki & I truly enjoyed organizing this event. Outside of 2 or 3 meetings we did most of our planning via e-mail & telephone.
- First, we chose a location – FREE won over location. We held our event at Nicki’s church.
- Next, we brainstormed how we wanted to schedule the day & utilize our space.
- We decided to use the entry way for a welcoming table, display of homeschooling books, & a table with door prizes (both purchased & donated). Our welcoming table had name tags, paper for note taking, & used curriculum info.
- We thought of having Sunday school room’s designated by grade (Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School) for guests to leave their curriculum at for display *even if they weren’t planning on speaking on it in a group setting.
- We also decided to allow people to sale their used curriculum. We chose the fellowship hall for this area. We set up tables & marked them if people reserved them in advance. We asked that they price their curriculum & leave a jar for people to leave cash or checks in.
- Nicki’s daughter organized snacks & sold them as a fundraiser. We split the fellowship area between the used curriculum & snacking area. We set tables up with table cloths & flowers for the snack area. We also placed pens & sheets of cute little note pads for guest to exchange e-mail and/or phone numbers on each table.
- We offered a “Donations Welcome” nursery for ages 4 and under. A few homeschool girls from our group worked in the nursery for us as a fundraiser as well.
- The sanctuary was used for speakers. We placed a table at the font for the speakers to use to place their curriculum on. We tried to make this as comfortable & informal as possible.
- We made a to do list & split the tasks. We listed curriculum we wanted to hear about, then made a separate list of people we wanted to hear from (you know, the ones you think have the perfect kids & the perfect homeschool). Nicki began calling mom’s we were interested in the curriculum they used & I searched the internet & ordered catalogs (*you can request a bulk order of catalogs – I didn’t know this until too late).
- Once we had an idea of speakers we decided on a time frame – we thought 5-10 minutes would be appropriate & we made a rather tight schedule. (*We went an hour over! -Do to a train making half our guest 30 minutes late! & speaking, Q & A going over the estimated time.)
- We organized our speakers list based on topic & timing priority (*not all the speakers could stay the entire time).
- About a week before our event we began with follow-up calls.
- We also did quite a bit of advertising. We made flyers & handed them out to our enrichment group. We advertised on our website & facebook page. We attempted to invite other co-op groups in surrounding areas & invited the closest Home Educator’s store.
- About a month before our event we planned a fundraiser – sold pizza at lunch at our enrichment group. Our budget was about $50.
I cannot tell you enough how blessed we all were by this event. We had about 30 guests/speakers total. Which was a great turnout consider the timing, location, & fact that this was the first one. I can’t wait to share my notes with you!
Now Nicki & I are chomping at the bit to attend the BIG Arlington Homeschool Bookfair Mother’s Day weekend. – We are not the least bit intimidated :)
Next, we will be planning a “Don’t Sweat It” event for the fall. Details to come!
