Volunteering Within the Homeschool Community

When we first started homeschooling, I did nothing outside of our family homeschool.
N-O-T-H-I-N-G

Well, maybe some play dates, field trips, and library visits, but nothing routinely scheduled.

It was right and good for me, my husband, our children, our family life,
our homeschool, and our home.

Many years later, our oldest on the cusp of high school, and I find things have changed
dramatically.

Our family has increased.
Our children have aged.
We changed our curriculum,
gotten less rigid,
joined two co-ops,
and started taking more classes outside of the home.

With all these changes, have come opportunities for me to give to others in a volunteer capacity.

5 roles I currently enjoy:

• Co-op Teacher - Within two co-ops I teach three classes, including art (drawing) for middle school, writing for upper elementary, and science for lower elementary.
• Portfolio Leader - Helping homeschool families make and maintain a portfolio is a joy. {Getting to preview all the different curriculum and approaches without having to try them all is a bonus!}
• Mail Clerk - Having to pick up the mail for our umbrella school, sort it, and deliver it is not very glamorous, but it is a necessary job. Not to mention it is something I can easily do. After all, the post office is incredibly close to our favorite library.
• Mentor - Informally, helping other moms choose curriculum or find solutions to common homeschool issues is a blessing indeed. More often than not, I am simply passing on the wise words another homeschool mom has shared with me.
• Organizer for an End of Year Presentation - Every year, our children work incredibly hard, learn volumes of information, and persevere through difficult concepts. At the end of this year, one of our co-ops will host an end of year presentation. I'm in charge of organizing the entire event.

* Pictures from this field trip.