If you do regular co-op or enrichment classes...

[Mommy22alyns]

How do you fit in your teaching around it? Do you just teach 4 days a week and not worry about it taking a little longer to get through some of your curricula? I'm considering an enrichment class for my girls (if they can find space for Becca) - it's one day a week, all subjects. They wouldn't be completely "in line" with what I'm doing at home though. Do I treat it separately as a day of school and just do my thing the other 4 days?

 

Anyone with experience care to weigh in? :D

[MaMa2005]

DS has enrichment classes one day a week. He is taking four classes (each class is an hour). By the time we do some reading right before bed, I consider that we have had a full day of school. I just teach my curriculum the other four days.

 

DS's classes are truly enrichment and don't correspond to what I am teaching at home. However, both DS and I love the classes and they have opened a whole new door into other areas.

 

ETA: DS is working two years ahead of his age so I am not having to deal with speeding up my teaching. If anything, that one day week helps us slow down just a little bit.;)

[Mommyof4ks]

We only do 4 days of school work in addition to our co-op classes. It works well for us and we still finish up in May.

[ThatCyndiGirl]

Well, the curriculum we use in our co-op IS our curriculum, so I consider it one day of co-op and the other four the other four school days of the same thing. (clear?) I don't think I could do a co-op if we weren't using the co-op's curriculum. (to be fair, we just started this co-op and we all had input on what books/programs we were using, so we CHOSE this.)

[Emilylou]

We attend enrichment co-op classes on Fridays for 26 weeks of the school year. Works OK for us... We are just a little off each week because our curriculum is based on a 5 days.

My kids love the co-op day.

[Carrie12345]

Ours is a "loose" co-op that meets for 5-6 hours, once a week. Nothing corresponds with our curricula, but the kids enjoy it.

 

Right now, two of their classes are 13 Colonies and British History. We're still doing Ancients at home. I put the co-op classes in ds's portfolio because they ARE educational, even if they weren't in my master plan.

 

On that day, we usually get some of the basics in at home- math or language arts in the morning, reading at night, and sometimes a fun history or science activity. But it's mostly light and less formal than a typical day.

[Ravin]

DD goes to an enrichment program on Mondays. For K-2nd it's a bit like being in a regular classroom once a week; they have a unit study, subject area folder activities (often tied to the unit study), PE, library, computer, and music, along with lunch and recess. Starting in 3rd the program allows students to pick what classes they want.

 

It doesn't really factor into what I'm teaching at home (other than it's useful to me to compare where DD is at on the math/phonics type stuff they do with her to what we're doing at home), except that they also have a curriculum room and I've gotten some math and phonics worksheets from there to supplement what we're using. I shoot for at least a bit of home instruction every day besides Monday, with activities or outings or whatever usually shunting it aside 1-2 other days in the week. We don't do any home art, music, or formal PE (she was in basketball earlier in the year; now I just make her go play outside and leave the rest to her active nature).

[Rosy]

Same as the others--we do 4 days of school and 1 day of co-op. Our co-op classes don't correspond with what we do at home, though I can teach classes based on my kids' interests and those could, in theory, fit with our curriculum. We do have to make adjustments in our curriculum--some things are shortened, some things are omitted. But honestly, we would probably only do 4 days a week anyway. The times that co-op is on break and we have 5 days at home we get burned out if we try to school all of those days. But my kids are still young (3rd grade on down), so we might do things differently when they're older.

[hsbaby]

I count our tutorial (enrichment classes) as a full day of school as well. We use the same science, but do add a little to the history. I add in relevant chapters from SOTW, etc. I've never felt like we have fallen behind even though they don't do their 3 R's that day. I just add in a little extra the four days at home and it's hardly noticeable!

[plain jane]

The enrichment classes my oldest is in take up 3/4 of one day. I make sure she gets math, grammar, Bible/religion, and Latin done before the classes start at 10, and call it quits for the rest of the day. The only other subject that we do 5 days per week is writing so she does a bit of extra writing on one other day during the week- when I can best fit it in without overwhelming her. I also try to squeek in her assigned reading in the evening when she has her classes, but if she's worn out I don't push it.

 

All our other subjects are based on a 4 day week and I simply made the time spent on them longer so I could run a 4 day week and still finish in May. I feel that what she is getting out of the classes far outweighs the drawbacks of a missed History/Science and geography lesson.

[Jen in PA]

We do our curriculum 4 days a week, and have one day just for co-op classes. Although the classes don't align perfectly with our curriculum, they are a fun addition. DD takes a class in math topics that she loves, and it makes her want to do even more math. She is taking a biology class that has such great hands-on projects that she's not really duplicating anything we covered last year. And she's taking creative writing and an art class, which lets her spend time on things I might not otherwise squeeze in. I haven't had any trouble fitting our regular work into 4 days, and I think we all enjoy the change in routine (I also teach at our co-op, and DS gets to take some fun preschool level classes).

[ChristusG]

We do four school days (Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri) and then our homeschool group on Wednesdays. The homeschool group runs for 4 hours each Wednesday and includes fitness time, game time (physical education type games), science time, music time, art time, book club time, lunch, show and tell, and recess.

[AuntieM]

When my kids were little and our co-op classes were for enrichment only, I taught the other stuff 4 days a week. It was enough time to get through our books.

 

Now that my kids are older, their co-op classes are for academic courses. Their instructors make assignments for non-class days and they are responsible for their work. These classes are cafeteria style, which means that my 3 older kids are not all in class at the same time. So, instead of just dropping them off, I pack other subject materials and work with them one or two at a time in the family study room. Not all subjects get covered every day, but I don't let down time go to waste if I can reasonably work in a subject.

 

At their ages (10th, 7th & 7th grades), I couldn't really justify a full day of enrichment-only co-op classes, we'd not get all our academics in (disclaimer, I am speaking for my own family, others' mileage may vary). But it was great through about 5th grade to just have fun one day a week.

[mom2att]

When my kids were little and our co-op classes were for enrichment only, I taught the other stuff 4 days a week. It was enough time to get through our books.

 

Now that my kids are older, their co-op classes are for academic courses. Their instructors make assignments for non-class days and they are responsible for their work.

 

This has been my experience as well. For the elementary grades our co-op classes are electives, like Art and P.E., and it works out well to have our academics on the four days of the week we are at home, leaving Fridays for co-op only. By middle school, though, missing out on a whole day due to co-op means it's harder to fit everything in. For that reason, we start to take advantage of the more academic classes that the co-op offers beginning in 6th grade. We add more each year, and now that dd is in 8th grade, all of her classes are either taught through the co-op with additional work to do at home, or through virtual school classes. It's worked out well so far, and my kids love having a four day school week (can't say that I disagree, either!)

[CalicoKat]

We do 3 days a week at home and 2 days at co-ops.

 

One co-op is more like a private school with home rooms, PE, Art, Music, Recess, Assembly and Lunch. (Wednesday) Finishes in March.

 

The other one is more loosely run but still has a science, art, and PE curriculum. Kids are more mixed across the grades. (Friday mornings) Afterwards the kids have piano lessons scheduled. Finishes in May

 

At the beginning of the year DH and I wondered about this schedule and I thought about dropping the 2nd coop but couldn't because of committments I made last spring. I'm glad I didn't. Even when we were 4 days at home our best focused, most accomplished, days were MTW. Their attention and diligence drastically started tapering off until Friday became just the 3R's get-it-done day. So our days out really have saved Fridays. They get "credit" for a full day of school. Our weeks are very full and it's been nice to have a break from each other on Wednesday and stay busy on Friday.

 

Now this does make a difference in when we finish our curriculum. We are year round homeschoolers. So the subjects that are taking longer will be finished up from March - July. Some subjects are finished in January each year though so this really isn't a biggie. We get it done. And hopefully this year the fun factor will help attitudes.

 

So far it's working well. And I feel we're actually getting more learning/teaching time weekly.