Get a group of homeschool moms together and inevitably the topic of curriculum will come up. “What do you use for science?” “How do you teach art?” and a perennial favorite, “What do you use for math?”
Several weeks ago our homeschool group got together for an informal curriculum chat. You are part of a homeschool group aren’t you? If not here are some easy suggestions to remedy that situation.
What is a curriculum chat?
I got the idea from my friend Kristin @ Teaching Stars. I loved the idea so much I wanted to do the same thing with our group. Basically we got together, with our curriculum and chatted! We talked about what was working, what wasn’t working. and ooh’d and ahh’d over curriculum we had been thinking about. It’s an opportunity to get a hands on look at different curricula options without the pressure of a homeschool convention.
We also brought items with us that we wanted to giveaway or to sell to another family. It was a great way for me to get rid of some items that we were no longer using as well as pick up a book for my nature lover at a great price.
Tips for Hosting a Curriculum Chat
- I picked a date several weeks out and added it to the calendar in our Facebook group.
- I knew a park location would work best of our group. We often meet at a particular park on a particular day, so I chose the same park and the same day of the week for the chat. That way if someone wanted to come and play, but weren’t interested in participating in the chat they still could attend. Another idea would be to have a mom’s night out and chose an evening when Dads could stay with the kids and moms could socialize.
- In our Facebook group we also listed what curriculum we would be bringing. That way we wouldn’t have a bunch of duplicates and people could anticipate what was going to be there.
- We simply spread our materials out on some of the picnic tables so everyone would have the opportunity to look.
- We kept our chat very informal, just a bunch of moms gathered around the tables chatting. It could certainly be made more formal if that’s what worked for your group.
I thought this was a great way to come together as a group and share what we are passionate about – educating our children. It was a nice way to talk about different curricula and share tips and tricks to make this homeschooling journey even more fruitful.
So what do you think? Would you like to host a curriculum chat?
I think this is a great idea, especially for moms who are just beginning. To have the books in hand to look over is so very important. Not knowing where to begin can make the beginning of the journey even more daunting than it has to be.
I will be hosting one of these just posted in our Facebook group. Thanks for the share.
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We have a similar event in Richmond, VA. We each bring 2-3 items to share and we go around the room, taking turns sharing what we brought, taking notes on anything we find interesting. Afterwards, we can seek out the people that had that cool stuff for more info. This year we had about people come and no one brought the same thing!