As a homeschool mom, I was part of a co-op for my young children in the early 2000’s.  In 2009 I was informed I was no longer invited to be part of that co-op.  They decided, because I could not sign their statement of faith “as is”, that me (and my friends) were no longer invited to be part of that co-op.  My kids loved being in a co-op.  It was very, very important to them.  So, almost immediately I formed one for me and my friends.

It was 2009.  My oldest of 5 kids was 13 and my youngest was barely 1.  I had been researching how the brain learns and education for longer than I had been a mom.  I was led to use principles from my research as the basis to educate my children at home.  That year, with Jen’s help, I gathered the principles that overlapped among the various wise authors I had read.  I wrote down the seven most common principles as a guide and we called this group and all these gathered ideas “Principle Based Learning”. Acronym #1: PBL. (Here’s a video explaining those 7 principles.)

As these families interacted, I knew that if the moms read some of the resources I had read, their homes and homeschooling would go more smoothly.  I began a program called the “Learning Journey Challenge” as a way to encourage moms to read and give them recognition for their hard work. Acronym #2: LjC Here’s a video/prezi about the LjC that is as relevant now as it was when I made it.  For those who have worked with the Holding Space Practice (Acronym #4: HSP), the LjC is a precursor to it.

We began to hold annual celebrations in January.  We earned charms for achieved goals that were given at the Learning Journey Challenge Celebration. We recognized accomplishments of PBL moms, families and helpers. We encouraged continued study and application of good principles.  Acronymn #3: LjCC (Learning journey Challenge Celebration)

Participants in the LjCC practiced gratitude by contemplating what people in their life had mentored them.  They chose one person each year to “nominate” as a PBL Honored Mentor.  When feasible, we invited Honored Mentors to join us for the LjCC luncheon and read nominations out loud in that setting.  For a reminder of the day and to carry the annual theme, I created small quote books with help from Ashley (who helped me find quotes) and various photographer friends- especially my daughter Kyra and friend Jeanette.

After a couple of years, the LjCC added workshops to the celebration.  Eventually we shifted from the original LjCC luncheon format to just workshops.  This year, I posted the 2018 workshop online, making it our first virtual workshop.  In 2019, the workshop is going to be a retreat in Honduras.  For years, I have thought “this is the last one”.  I’m not going to try to predict what 2020 and beyond will bring.

Over the years, I created videos for PBL families, LjC participants and Honored Mentors.  The songs I chose for those videos still inspire me.  I don’t know if they would mean much to people that weren’t part of the group, but I decided I will re-post those videos on my blog in hopes that all can enjoy and benefit from the messages of the songs.

Here is one of the videos I made in 2012.  Keep checking back for the rest of the videos and backstories about the people in them and how PBL, LjC, LjCC and HSP have evolved.