New Members
This is an open group, and potential members are invited to attend
park days and parent meetings. We encourage active participation.
The only criterion for membership is that you are seriously interested
in homeschooling.
Back to top
Membership or Activity fees
There is no fee for joining the group. Whether or not to require
a fee for a particular class or activity is left to the discretion
of the person running the class.
Back to top
Organizing
Activities
Members are encouraged to design or coordinate activities or outings
for the group. Anyone is welcome to offer a class, activity, or
craft; ideally anytime other than the Monday meeting time. Anyone
planning such activities is encouraged to announce them via email
to the group. Field trips, baseball games, etc., fall into this
category. These may or may not be age-specific, and anyone offering
such an activity is encouraged to decide if limiting it according
to age is appropriate. Offering a sign-up list for your activity
via the Yahoo-Group is probably a good idea.
Back to to
Family Potluck Days
We want whole families to be involved in the homeschooling experience.
To that end, we have a quarterly family potluck. It takes place
on a weekend day at the homes of members who volunteer.
Back to top
Park Days
Park days are opportunities for the parents and
children to play and socialize. Monday is our regular park day.
We rotate regularly
among several parks, and the exact rotation of parks is subject
to seasonal change. See our Park Day Schedule
Back to top
Policy
on children attending parkday in the care of people other than
their parents
As a group, we highly value getting to know entire families, their
parenting philosophies, and the way that they deal with their children.
For that reason, we expect parents to regularly attend group functions
with their children, rather than sending their children to group
functions with others.
Of
course, one of the nice things about a group like ours is that
we can
ask others to help out when we can’t
do things ourselves. It is fine to send your child(ren) to
park day or other appropriate
group events with another HGK parent on occasion, but sending
your child with someone else should not be the norm.
Back to top
Illness
Policy
Is your child
too sick to attend a group event? We have three main guidelines:
1. If you or
your child has had a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea within 24 hours
of the event, please do not attend.
2. If your
child has new cold symptoms, like a new runny nose, excessive
sneezing, etc., that cannot be explained by ongoing allergies
or
another condition, please do not attend.
3. If someone
in your family turns up with something communicable, such as
impetigo, conjunctivitis, pertussis, etc., soon after
attending a group event, please have the courtesy to notify the
group via email to let us know what symptoms to watch for in
our children.
Back to top
Profanity
As a group, we do not tolerate profanity at group events. While
we understand that people have a variety of ideas about what,
exactly, constitutes profanity, we expect people to err on the
side of caution, and be tolerant of the fact that others may
think differently.
Back to top
Socializing and Conflict Mediation
We are interested in modeling kindness to others
and helping our children to have a set of emotional literacy
skills, including
developing empathy for others. We endeavor to create an environment
in which children learn to respectfully interact with others
of different ages. Parents who see a conflict among any of the
children are expected to step in and help resolve it or to find
the children’s guardians to help resolve it. Ongoing discipline
problems should first be addressed by the parents of the children
involved, but should they persist, may become a subject for the
group as a whole to address. Regardless of their individual
parenting styles or philosophies, members never use corporal
punishment
on the children of others.
Back to top
Defining Conflict
We define conflict as including, but not limited to, verbal confrontations,
physical confrontations, and threats of physical violence. We
all acknowledge the value of allowing children to settle conflicts
on their own; however, parents are expected to intervene when
a child asks for help or when there is an interaction between
children that is escalating and that they do not seem to be resolving
on their own. By being a member of this group, you agree to address
any sort of conflict in good faith. Both parents and children
agree to work toward a peaceful resolution of all problems. We
expect that any adult member of the group will
intervene to help resolve conflicts, wherever they may arise.
Back to top
Mediation
Parents who are unable to resolve a conflict on their own will
be referred to mediation. This is a group of three volunteers
who agree to be fair and impartial in helping to resolve conflicts
within the group. Should we ever need to call upon this group
for conflict resolution, the volunteers will be chosen at random,
by having their names drawn from a hat. There is a YahooGroup
database for members who wish to volunteer to be mediators. All
members agree to abide by the decisions resulting from mediation.
Anyone who is not willing to do so will be asked not to attend
any group functions until he/she agrees.
Back to top
Monthly
Meetings Evolving New Philosophies and Policies
On the third Friday of each month there is an evening organizational
meeting for parents only. The purposes of these meetings are
to discuss any relevant organizational issues and to share homeschooling
ideas and philosophies. This is a democratic group. We are interested
in having all members participate and help develop the rules
and philosophies of our group as we grow. All members are encouraged
to attend and to freely express their opinions in an atmosphere
of kindness and consideration
for others.
Each month
all proposed agenda items are posted on the group’s
YahooGroups site. Members who are not able to attend the parents'
meetings, but who wish to express their opinions about agenda items,
are encouraged to do so ahead of time, so that their opinions can
be considered. All decisions are based upon a form of group consensus,
and all members have the opportunity to participate.
The minutes
from these meetings are posted on the YahooGroup site, emailed
to the group, and are made available
to all “offline” members,
upon request. Those who do not attend the monthly evening meetings
are responsible for obtaining any information regarding changes
of policies, plans, or schedules from other members or from our
YahooGroup site.
Back to top
Join our YahooGroup!
Email
is the primary means of communication between group members. However,
you do not have to be a Homegrown Kids group member to become
a member of our Yahoo Group. Before joining our Yahoo Group,
we ask that you either attend a parkday or be referred by a known
member of the local homeschool community. Keep informed about
what our group is up to and
receive information about local events that are of interest
to homeschoolers. Email your request to join to: home-grown-kids-owner@yahoogroups.com.
Back to top
The
Homegrown Kids' Calendar
There is a monthly calendar, which can be accessed
through the Homegrown Kids’ YahooGroup. The calendar contains
the schedule for our regular meetings and any special events
scheduled for
that month. Anyone wishing to have an event listed on the calendar
may simply add it, and also notify the group.
Back to top
Phone List
As a Homegrown Kids group member your contact information can
be listed on our members’ phone
list of participating families. To become a member of Homegrown
Kids and be added to our phone list, contact Lucy Kuntz
at 510-540-0332, or email. The
amount of information that you want included on the members’ phone
list is left to your discretion.
Back to top
