A couple years ago I started looking for a program that would allow me to mentor my growing girls on a spiritual and practical level. I wanted some type of Christian Girl Scout experience.
In looking around, I came across a company called American Heritage Girls that looked rather interesting. It is a “nonprofit organization dedicated to the mission of building women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country.” It sounds like a well organized, exciting program. However, as I looked at the expenses involved it would cost at least $75 per student per year without even considering books and uniforms. That falls out of the affordability of most homeschool families I know that might have some interest in joining a club with us. They probably offer a great program, a solid framework to fit into, easy to start up, and lots of support for the coordinator if needed, just not right for my family and situation.
I continued my search.
Then I came across another club, also designed with young Christian girls in mind. The Keepers at Home club developed by the Keepers of the Faith organization. After looking over the materials, objectives, framework and flexibility of the program I knew this was what I was looking for.
I ordered a couple of the handbooks and the director’s guide and began studying the program in earnest. As fall approached I realized that I had stumbled upon a great thing and other homeschool families might want to jump in on this also. I sent an email to my homeschool group expecting one or two other families to begin this journey with. Well, by the time of our first meeting in November we had 9 families with a total of 20 children!
I love the heart of this program, to raise godly girls prepared to be godly keepers at home. I love the flexibility also. We meet only once a month. You could meet once a week, but our schedules are too busy to add something that often. Once a month we get together at my house and have explored decoupage, stenciling, prayer, pets, baking, and letter writing. We begin with a devotional time, then the kids have an opportunity to share any projects they have worked on since our last meeting, and then have the lesson or project time.
The book for the club is simple, but packed full of ideas for learning, discipleship and mentoring the young girls into adult hood. The book costs about $15, but is used for the duration of the program. The ideas (over 100 of them), depending on how quickly you go through them, could easily last you for 8-10 years and many could be repeated at greater depth as the girls grow older.
We set our club cost at $40 per child for the year including the book and sash. Next year for returning students they will only need $25 for the year to cover all of the projects and activities that we offer. This easily fits in my desire to mentor my girls while keeping a frugal, simple lifestyle. We all look forward to club time each month and have had great opportunities to grow our relationship through crafts and projects with spiritual significance.
There is also a club for boys, Contenders of the Faith, which we are looking to incorporate even more next year for the boys that have joined our group as well. These are great programs that offer a framework and concepts to build into the lives of our children.
And, while the end result is priceless, we don’t need to break the bank to get there. This wonderful program has definitely worked for us.