Keepers at Home Group Startup

Hi everyone! I’ve had several questions from readers on how to set up a Keepers at Home group, so I wanted to share a little bit of that today. I’ll try to blog when we do activities as well so I can continue to share ideas with you!

 

So first off, what is Keepers at Home?

Keepers clubs are a "hands-on" type program that you, as a parent, can use to teach your child those practical skills not normally learned as academic endeavors. Designed for use in the privacy of your own home, your own group or association, or a church fellowship, these programs for boys and girls incorporate Christian principles as an integral part of the learning process.

These programs are Bible-based and Christ-centered. When you use them you, the parents and leaders, are in control. You join no organizations. You, as parents or leaders, are free to decide exactly how you will use the program to help your children.

Visit Keepers at Home for more information, supplies, and ideas!

So how do you organize a club?

Well, any way you want to! Here’s how I did ours just to give you an idea.

1. Form your group: First off you’ll want to get a group of girls, it is helpful if they’re approximately the same age. I currently lead a group of 14 girls ranging from ages 5-10. I think  somewhere 10 girls is a good amount, I wouldn’t go over what I have now. If you get too many girls, it can be difficult to find supplies, host homes, and just get overwhelming.

2. Assign Tasks: In our group, we have 3 positions: Leader, Treasurer, and Mom’s Night coordinator.

• Leader: I am leading our group this year. That means I send out emails, organize the events, and remind everyone of who has signed up for what before each meeting.
• Treasurer: Our treasurer mom is in charge of ordering supplies, and keeping track of our finances. This year we decided to have a moms night out once per month just for us moms to get out and socialize. (You know, we’re all homeschoolers ;o)
• Moms Night Out: Our Moms Night Out Coordinator is in charge of finding a fun place for us to meet, and sending out reminder emails to everyone each month. This is nothing major, maybe a night at Starbucks, or dinner out with the girls, basically something that takes little to no planning on our part. We wanted it to be a relaxing, low-stress night since we’re all busy! (This is totally optional, and just something fun we decided to do this year.)

3. Planning Meeting: Prior to the start of each year, all of the moms get together for a planning meeting. We each come prepared to teach 1-2 topics, as well as host at least once, and sign up for snacks. We plan out our whole year at the meeting. I put together an excel spreadsheet to keep track of our group, you can download our copy here:

• Planning Forms PDF
• Planning Forms Excel

We each take turns teaching a topic and hosting so that it’s not a huge burden on any one mom. With our group size, I have 3 moms scheduled to bring snacks each meeting.

Our group meets once per month from 6:30-8:30pm, but your group can do whatever works for them!

4. Order supplies: It is helpful if each girl orders their own Keepers at Home book, t-shirt, and sash when the year starts. Mom’s can also order t-shirts if they choose. Strawberry Shortcake and Tinker bell are both in my group, so we all share one book.  We also found pink 3 ring binders for our girls that the use to keep any information, directions, etc. from their meetings in.

 

5. Plan Your Activities: To help our moms plan their activities, I created this Activity Planning form, feel free to use it, it helps track supplies, expenses and make sure all of the pin requirements are met:

• Activity Planning Form – Word Doc
• Activity Planning Form – PDF

Start Meeting! Now that you have your group formed and organized, it’s time for your group meetings!

I start off each meeting calling on a girl to open us up in prayer. Then I lead them in reading over the Purpose, Goal, Verse, and Prayer. It is located in the front of the book and all the girls and moms read it together out loud. Then we either sing the song included in the book, or this year we’re having the girls learn “Jesus Loves Me” in sign language.

Next I hand the meeting over to our teacher for the night who introduces our topic, does the teaching, then we move onto the actual activity.

Once our activity time is done, we have snacks and play time until the end of our time frame. Then I gather them back together and we do a freeform discussion of how their new found skill can be used to glorify the Lord, and bless others around them. Then I usually call on one of the girls to close us in prayer.

And that’s it! It’s really quite simple, and you can really customize the group however works for you.

Here are some of the meetings we’ve done so far:

Beading:

Knitting on a loom:

Canning:

 

Underwater Basket Weaving:

 

Farm Animals: Goats

 

Embroidery: My mom was kind enough to sew a bunch of bags for the girls, and then they put on the button, embroidered their pocket, and then added it to the bag. The girls use their bags to keep all of their Keepers stuff in for the meetings.

 

Have boys? They also have a club called Contenders for the Faith which is for boys and their fathers!