Co-op's

[Willow]

I am not American, and have never been to the states except for a deeply unpleasant 3 hours in the transit lounge at LA airport! Therefore please understand my ignorance.

 

How do people in the States do co-ops? From what I seem to have read they seem to differ only slightly from schools? Co-ops have classes of students working together on material presented by teachers. The parents do not teach their own children. Co-ops seem to last all day in some places with study hall for students not taking a particular subject.

 

Students leave home to be taught be others. Why is this not school?

 

I'm not meaning to be unpleasant here, I just don't understand so I assume I have got some of the details wrong in my head.

 

Willow.

[ChristusG]

Our co-op only meets once per week. So my child is being taught by someone else for only 4 hours per week. They are with me the rest of the time. I do it purely for the "fun" and "socialization" factor. It gives my daughter a sense of being on her own and having fun at co-op and it lets me have four hours to myself (well, I still have my 2 year old, but it gives me a bit of a break anyways).

[Danestress]

I know many homeschoolers and have never heard of a co-op that met everyday. That would be outside of the norm, I suspect. We do a once a week co-op that meets for a few hours and is for one subject. The parents teach.

[Ellie]

I am not American, and have never been to the states except for a deeply unpleasant 3 hours in the transit lounge at LA airport! Therefore please understand my ignorance.

 

How do people in the States do co-ops? From what I seem to have read they seem to differ only slightly from schools? Co-ops have classes of students working together on material presented by teachers. The parents do not teach their own children. Co-ops seem to last all day in some places with study hall for students not taking a particular subject.

 

Students leave home to be taught be others. Why is this not school?

 

I'm not meaning to be unpleasant here, I just don't understand so I assume I have got some of the details wrong in my head.

 

Willow.

Co-ops among hsers began as more truely cooperative learning: a few parents all using, say, KONOS, and they'd meet together with all of their dc a couple of times a month and work together on activities--all the children, each parent taking turns teaching. Over the years it's morphed into what you have seen: age-segregated classes, often with large number of children, children being taught by adults other than their parents, often core subjects not just "enrichment."

 

It's not "homeschooling" in my mind. It isn't necessarily bad or anything, especially when those subjects are things that many parents find it difficult to teach, such as higher maths or lab sciences. Participation in those kinds of classes is understandable, but like you, it seems to me that when children are in outside classes several hours a week, that's not homeschooling.

 

JMHO.

 

::ducks and covers::

[teamturner]

Our co-op meets for 3 hours once a week and the mothers are teaching. I have taught several classes w/my own dc in the class. It's usually a way for the moms to teach in their area of expertise or interest so that we can help each other. Our co-op has both enrichment type classes as well as academic classes. I do it for both academic classes and social/support group for me and my dc.

[Hillary in KS]

I was a part of a co-op that met one morning a week. We did activities that are hard to do at home, like choir, pe, and speech. Some mothers taught, and others were helpers in various classes.

[txbloobonnet]

I know of one co-op where some of the classes meet twice a week. There are different sorts of co-ops, too.

 

There are the types of co-ops where all moms participate in someway...teaching, setting up, cleaning up and so forth. The idea here is that we all contribute our gifts and talents to the group.

 

Another type of co-op is where mom pays a teacher and still may have some duty to perform...monitor hallways, lunchroom, study hall and so forth.

 

In our area we also have a "co-op" or homeschool classes where you are paying for the class while you drop the child off and leave the campus.

 

All three of these meet one day a week. The 2nd one in the list is the kind I know of that has some classes (like math) that meet twice a week.

 

There is also something called Parent Based Education or a University Model where it is a school that meets 2 or 3 days a week and you pick and choose classes but you are held accountable to work with the student at home. This is closer to a private school but it still requires the parent to be home on the off days and it is considered a form of homeschooling ... at least in our area.

 

Taking classes from others for money is called Outsourcing.

 

Then there is something called dual credit. This is where your jr or sr. student can take classes at the local jr. college and get high school AND college credit for those classes. It saves a ton of money.

 

The face of homeschooling has surely changed since I began 15 years ago. I personally feel like the more options we have the better because education can become more individualized according to what you need. Plus there are so many different ways of educating a person I don't like saying there is only one way.

 

Clear as mud? :001_smile:

[Willow]

We have 'One Day School' here, and co-ops seem to be like that. One Day School is a private school that kids attend (obviously) one day a week. It is popular with homeschoolers. I think they do have a value, particularly for hard to teach subjects (obviously these differ from family to family! :D)

 

I think for me however, I rather like the home in homeschooling, although we do outsource somethings as well. We do college twice a week, but I go too as ds is underage, and we also do a sports club.

 

I was just curious! :D

 

Willow.