The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to Preschool

The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to Preschool

February 10, 2011 in Joy Troupe News, Preschool at Home by Meghan

The Joy Troupe NOVA has a sub group called the Preschool Resource Group, which is a forum for folks who want to create a learning environment for their kids at home- whether they go to a traditional preschool or not.
I’ve been struggling for some time with the fact that a sub-group wasn’t necessarily the best way to fulfill the mission of the Preschool Resource Group… which is not only to connect folks with resources that help build Better, Smarter Preschoolers Who Take Over The World (just kidding- we all want happy kids who are learning and developing cognitively, which is the aim of this group), but also to let folks who wish to form preschool co-ops get together and find each other.
The current setup is clunky- first you have to join, then you post, wait for interested folks to respond, and then you either have to manage your group elsewhere or wait for me to set up a sub-group for you.   And to belong to the PRG, you must be a Joy Troupe NOVA member- which is fine unless you have to wait for our membership approval process before someone you’ve met through another source can see your group pages. Or unless you live somewhere other than one of the communities where JTNOVA is most active.  At which point, it’s not so ideal.
Well, I’d like to introduce to you…

A new, fully integrated, stand-alone website for preschool parents.  With help from some trusty volunteers, we’ll be moving the Resource Forum history over there (in Blog Format, which will make it easier to navigate and more fun to read), and the membership will be “ported” as well.
The site allows users to form and control their own sub-groups, which is ideal for our mission!  I invite you to check it out today: http://preschool.joytroupe.com/

Promoting your Business to the Joy Troupe

So, you are just starting out on your own in a business that appeals to families or women and you'd like to reach the Joy Troupe members to start promoting your product or services. We'd love to get in on the ground floor of your business! My best suggestions for good results, based on my experience and feedback from previous photography events, would be as follows:

1. Set aside some time to do some (say, three, depending on your location) Joy Troupe events. If there will be any waiting, combine them with a social activity, so the families will be having fun even while they are waiting for you. (We have lots of playdate and Mom Time ideas that would work for this- just talk to one of our organizers for help.)

2. It's tempting if you are just getting started to give away your time in an effort to promote your business. However, if you have a familiar product or service, people are more likely to take you seriously if you do charge something for your time, however modest. (If people have probably not tried your service before, by all means offer a free trial to make it more approachable.)

For us to post a group event which has a fee, we do require that you give a portion of the money back to the group, but on the whole, it's a win-win. A 20% commission is typical for our fundraisers. Choose a price that's within most families budgets, and you'll find that people love a bargain. I'm the last to complain about anything that's free! But this is your time away from your kid/home/dog/other job, whatever- you should walk away with something in your pocket.

3. Set up your website, even if it is very simple and only has pictures of your own child, so we can link to it when we promote these events. Establishing your web presence now will pay off down the road. (Check out the Joy Troupe package. You can download free templates and design software, too.)

4. Once you create your introductory offer, offer a coupon toward future services to all members, whether they participate or not. We normally do an after-event email with pictures, etc- be sure to ask the photographer if you can use some of the nicest ones on your site! Once folks see others having fun at your events, they will be interested, and a coupon will help "close the deal."

5. Once we post the events, let us offer one or two free spots in the events as prizes. We'll tie them in with something else we are promoting to build awareness and excitement for your events.

6. Last but not least, if you are charging for your event, require each RSVP to pay a non-refundable deposit up front to hold their spot. This will cut down on no-shows. I suggest 50%.

The suggestions I've outlined above would offer value to both you and the JT members, and help you take the next step toward starting your own business. For further reading and more ideas, I highly reccommend the books by Jeff Gitomer for anyone who is considering self-employment- they are easy and fun to read, and very insightful about marketing and sales.

Rock and Roll Baby Email Banner

Get your own Rock and Roll Baby Email Banner for Yahoo, Hotmail or Microsoft Outlook email. To see this at the bottom of your email:

Copy and paste this to your email sig file:
<span style="font-size:8;color:#ffffff;">Rock and Roll Baby: A family dance party event<br />February28th, 2009 3-7:30pm: www.rockandroll.joytroupe.com</span><br /><a href="http://www.rockandroll.joytroupe.com"><img src="http://www.rockandroll.joytroupe.com/rrbemailbanner.gif" alt="February28th, 2009 3-7:30pm" align="center" /></a><br />

Rock & Roll Baby Dance Floor Details (DJ/MC volunteer needed)

To expand a bit upon our general call for volunteers:

We will have a dance floor at the Rock & Roll Baby event. We need volunteers to keep the dance floor Rockin'! We will, of course, take advantage of the miracle of recorded music to help make this happen, but we would also love to open up opportunities for a few of our many, talented area children's music professionals to "book" a part of the dance floor time. Music Together has already requested that we feature some kids' favorites from their excellent program, and we are looking forward to sharing these tunes with the children!

As always, for more information please visit the Rock & Roll Baby Website.

We are happy to turn the floor over to anyone with the appropriate background for some part of our event time. As with all our other sponsors, if you volunteer to provide interactive, musical entertainment to our RRB attendees, you will be eligible for free and discounted tickets to this event, and you will be mentioned in all our promotional materials and be permitted to distribute your information at the event. Please let us know if you are interested in a block of time (like a "set") or in shorter, 5-10 minute segments periodically during the event. Be sure to add a link to your performance calendar in the "we need your links" thread in our RRB Sponsors group so we can link to you from our main site!

Our volunteer DJ/MC(s) will help keep the program moving. We'd be happy to see one volunteer for the entire event, or we can split the time among two or three volunteers.

We look forward to working with you all to create a Rockin' good time for area kiddos and their parents, raise some money for a great cause, and spread the word about great ways for area families to shop local and enrich their kids lives.

We reserve the right to decline any generous offer, with thanks, for time reasons or if we feel it's not a good fit for our event.

Baby Dance Party Event in February

Please feel free to forward this post to other area groups and any contacts
you think might be interested.

The Joy Troupe is partnering with the MVUC to create a fun baby dance party
event (Rock and Roll Baby!) in February. We will get to boogie away the winter
Blahs in a safe, clean environment, share a love of music with our kids, and
have fun with other parents and kids, too!

There's one teeny, tiny catch: We need volunteers and sponsors to make
this event happen!

We plan to create a fully-featured event that allows some of our area
family-friendly businesses to promote themselves by sponsoring activities at
this event. If you (or someone you know) would like to be a part of this event,
please have them contact me to work out the details. Our primary target is
families with children ages 0-5, but we hope to attract families with older sibs
up to age 7, too.

So far we have lined up sponsors for:

• Story Reading (Usborne Books)
• Muscal Play Area (Music Together)

Other, similar events have had sponsors provide:

• Bounce House (might not work since it's February)
• On site photography (a photographer could take pix during the event, upload
• them, and have a digital viewing station in the lobby where they could take
• orders)
• DJ*
• Bubble machine*
• Food & Beverages- some combination of "included" and "for sale"*
• "Discovery" educational learning area sponsored by a toy company

*These are high priority items for us! If you know someone who may be interested, please pass this info along to them.

We're open to ideas, so if you have a child-focused business and an
activity you'd like to sponsor, please speak up! We'll also need
volunteers for setup, cleanup, ticket taking, etc. Volunteers and sponsors will
be eligible for discounted tickets, and sponsors will be mentioned in our PR
materials.

If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please visit http://www.rockandroll.joytroupe.com for more information.

Learn more about the MVUC.
www.joytroupe.com

Proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit the MVUC Natural Playground Project.

Want an email banner or linkback button for your group?

I'll make one for you in exchange for a link back from your group! I'll provide code not only for the banner, but for a copy/paste box like the one in the post below. Email me at joytroupe @ gmail.com when you've posted mine, and I'll send you yours! (Please post my linkback on a top page, not on a page of links. Be sure to include the URL when you email me. Thanks.)

I can use your image or make one for you. Max size is 25x200px for created images. If I'm using your image, please send a photobucket link, not a copy of the image itself.

This is my linkback banner and is 25x200px.



My linkback code is here. Select the right code for your type of site.

Copy and paste this to your Yahoo Group intro page or website:

<a href="http://www.joytroupe.com" target="new"><img src="http://www.alexandriaplaygroup.com/jtthanksbanner.gif" align="right" border="1" alt="I'm a Joy Makin Mama" align="center" /></a>

BBCode for Meetup.com and other non HTML sites:

[url=http://www.joytroupe.com][img]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn7/joytroupe/joybanner.jpg[/img][/url]

Image linkback doesn't work for your site? No sweat. Sample of text only link:
Joy Makin Mamas: www.joytroupe.com

Text Only Link Code:

<a href="http://www.joytroupe.com" target="new">Joy Makin Mamas: www.joytroupe.com<br />Thanks for our code snippet!</a>

PS- Bigtent Group organizers. Create your own signup widget to distribute to your members like the one shown at left by visiting www.widgetbox.com. It's easy! Just copy your BT widget code to a custom HTML widget.

Get your own JT email banner!

Get your own Joy Troupe Email Banner for Yahoo, Hotmail or Microsoft Outlook email. To see this at the bottom of your email:

Copy and paste this to your email sig file:
<font size="8" color="#ffffff">Got kids? Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.com</font><br /><a href="http://www.joytroupe.com"><img src="http://www.alexandriaplaygroup.com/emailbanner.gif" alt="Got kids? Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.com" align="center" /></a><br />

Want a smaller one? To display this:
Got kids? Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.com
Use this:

<a href="http://www.joytroupe.com"><img src="http://www.alexandriaplaygroup.com/jtthanksbanner.gif" alt="Got kids? Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.com" align="center" /><font size="small">Got kids? Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.com</font></a><br />

Boogie Woogie Babies!

This week we put the results of our Percussion Factory event together with bubbles, music, and a parachute for some Boogie Woogie Fun. Event description follows:

(You are welcome to use this event/description for your own group with credit given; links back to our blog are appreciated!)

Boogie Woogie Babies

We'll play some jammin' tunes, the kids can play the instruments we made during our Percussion Factory, and we can have some bubble and parachute fun, too!

What better way to pass some time than in stimulating all five of the kids' senses- they can SEE the bright colors on the parachute, FEEL the beat, HEAR the music, and- well, they're little kids- they TASTE and SMELL anything they want!

We all know that early exposure to music is fun and also (somehow) helps our kids learn a host of other things like math, and this interactive music time will also help them build social skills as they share their positive reactions with other moms and kids!

Again, some results. All of the kids participating normally like recorded music, but once they were all together, they only cared about the music if we (the moms) sang along, so pick a CD of singalong songs that are likely to be very familiar to all the moms in the group. Also, they had a fairly short attention span for any one activity, so it's probably best to dance and Shake It for a song or two, then do the parachute for a song or two, go back to Shakin' it, and then follow up with bubble fun.

Parachute Fun My parachute came from Oriental Trading Company and was around $10 plus shipping- they have a variety of sizes and price ranges. ( You can find Parachute Game instructions here, although smaller children mostly like to play with the fabric and sit under the waving parachute.) Bubble Fun I got my Gymboree Bubble Oodles via Amazon.com as part of this box set, which says it is for ages 3+, but contains many activities appropriate for babies and toddlers, too. (At right.) The bubble solution is non toxic, and can be used indoors without staining upholstery or other fabrics. Plus, it makes hundreds of small bubbles that the kids really love.

In summary, for best results with this activity:

1. Don't overcrowd your space. Be sure there's enough room for everyone to move and groove.
2. Choose familiar songs and let the kids see the parents engage with the music to hold their interest.
3. provide plenty of percussion toys so the kids can shake, rattle, and roll, and
   
4. keep activities short and varied so the kids don't become bored.
   

Don't be overwhelmed by the move!

please don't let yourself be overwhelmed! On July 1 you will need to have joined our new group site via the www.joytroupe.com website, but it's a very user-friendly, automated process. You can wait until there are other people who know their way around so there's someone to ask if you are confused.

Big Tent is every bit as easy to use as (if not easier than) Meetup.com. It may take a few days to adjust, but it's not difficult.

One of the things Meetup does very well is build awareness of the Meetup brand. As we transition away from Meetup, I will be working to build our own Joy Troupe "brand" instead, and I'll be sharing information about how you mamas can help, but it's all totally optional. One of my personal heroes is often heard to say, "do what you're good at." Some of you mamas are good at Facebook. Some of you are good at coming to events and making new people feel welcome. Some of you probably write really rockin' blogs, or like to sing and tell stories, or know other languages. And so forth. If each of us does what we are good at, that should pretty much cover everything when all is said and done!

Here's one we're all good at- go hug your kids!

Meghan

Update on the Move

All the 2007 group events and many cross-group events have been posted to the new site, and new events will be posted there as they are added, so if you wish to make the switch yourself, go right ahead- just keep track of things you've previously RSVPed for, as full events are not open for new RSVPs on there at this time.

Help Promote the Joy Troupe!

Look for the "get widget" buttons. You can add a link to our group or a feed from our blog to your website, Facebook page, or blog!

Facebook Mamas can check out and contribute to our NEW Facebook Page!

New stuff you'll find on Big Tent

New Stuff on Big Tent includes a place for the 2006 group to post events just for them, a Dads group, a babysitting swap forum, and a place especially for work-away mamas to network.

I'm excited about this transition and I hope you are too! Want to help out? I'm currently seeking volunteers for a new Meet & Greet committee. These events are intended to let all the Joy Troupe Mamas (and Papas!) get to know each other, and will be featured on the group website and on Meetup.com and other sites, as well. Let me know if you're interested- there's an invitation-only sub-group on Big Tent for planning!

Moving On Up!

After much searching, and 100% thanks to Tammy, I have finally come upon Big Tent, which is a site that is intended for managing groups like ours. (I had actually given up! You have NO IDEA how many sites are out there or how many ways there are to poorly design a group management website!)

The range of tools on Big Tent will allow us to control our email volume, invite multiple groups to the same events, create sub-groups for discussion or projects, create customized permissions for members, and continue to build our online community far beyond the range of the tools offered by Meetup.com, but still have all our events, news, and membership information on ONE SECURE website. In other words, our information would never be visible to anyone who wasn't a member, and even then there are controls. (And, glory, glory, glory, they have a function that will let you add things to your own calendar that shows up when you log in, so you can see ONLY the things you've said "YES" to!)

Tammy and I are still working on configuring the group, but if you want a sneak peak (or if you're interested in trying out the babysitting swap group), you can join via our website (www.joytroupe.com, if you didn't know) by going to the Join Us page. While you're there, check out the re-model I'm working on for the website! I still plan to add more photos and content, but the basic structure and overall look are in place.

Our target date for this right now is July 1. That is not etched in stone. If we are ready to go "live" before that, good, and if there are a few bugs, then we'll work on them until they're fixed, but the more of you who are able to jump in and help us test the waters, the easier the process will be- so thanks in advance to those of you who will be intrepid and give this a shot right away. If you would rather wait and join when there are other people who "know the ropes," then that's cool too!

Also, I have discovered that Zazzle will let us purchase our own 2009 Calendars! I have tested out the process by putting together one using my "picks" from my own files. NO WAY do all the great pix of our kids fit on one calendar, so in addition to "Oh, How We've Grown," which is the calendar I've created, I'll be putting together a "Yearbook" calendar which you will all get to contribute to and vote on! Look for more on this when I figure out the logistics, and be looking through your pictures of our events for some good shots to contribute! (Oh, and if you find any mistakes on the one I did, please let me know. I think I correctly identified all the babies whose names I put on, but they've all changed so much that it's hard to be sure!)

And hey, if we haven't seen you in a while, we definitely miss you. I do notice when familiar faces are missing for a while, and I look forward to hearing from some of you who maybe haven't been so active lately!

Go hug your kids!

Meghan