Would you share homeschooling with another family?

[Celia]

A friend of mine and I were discussing this. She has five kids, I have three. She hs'd her eldest until grade one, but found it too difficult with her little kids around.

 

Next year, between the 2 of us, we'd have kids in grade 5,3,2,1 and K, as well as her two 4yr olds, and my littlest will be 2 years old.

 

We were talking about taking turns, each two days a week, teaching the kids while the other took care of the younger ones. Each parent would organize and assign what work needs to be done for their own children each day.

 

I need to weigh out the pros and cons of this. I'd love extra input on any you think I may have missed!

 

Pros

 

-can get a lot of errands and house cleaning done on non-teaching days.

 

-my children would have the opportunity to be taught by someone other than me, so maybe things I can't get across easily to them, she would

 

-her children are precious to me, and the eldest two are not thriving in ps

 

-the kids would get to do schoolwork with other kids, and would see that mom isn't the only one who is a big meanie!

 

-my ds is lonely for more friends, and this would certainly provide lots of play opportunity

 

Cons

 

-we have different views on education, though I am going to lend her my WTM book!

 

-teaching five kids all young at so many different levels with no combined subjects might be really hard. I don't know, haven't tried.

 

-she lives about a 25min drive away, up a dangerous mountain road that scares the life out of me to drive, especially in the winter (I have a thing about skinny dirt roads with cliffs, blind corners, and logging trucks). It would be a deal-breaker for me to have to drive up there regularly, because I honestly find it quite unsafe, but I'd feel selfish asking her to do all the driving.

 

-If we did do school at my house more often than not, would my house take too much of a beating having 8 kids around regularly?

 

-considering the driving, is this really an efficient use of our time?

 

Please share any insights you may have!

[Liz CA]

I think it could work out if you are all on the same page.

It would probably also be fun for the kids to have more variety.

 

All this said, there could be problems if one child needs extra attention.

There could also be conflict if she teaches concepts differently than you, if your form of discipline differs from her, etc.

 

Really depends on how similar your views are and if you can agree on what is really important.

 

As far as the road goes, I am the wrong person to commend on this - I live on that kind of road and I know most of our relatives are scared.

Perhaps she will agree to come down during winter??

[Willow]

BTDT

 

it didn't work for us because I lost what I valued most. My freedom. We could not just kick over the traces and go to the beach and make it up the next rainy day or whatever.

 

The road would also worry me. Yes your house would take a beating, does this actually matter? For some it does for others it doesn't.

 

The other thing to consider is the end of the day. Somedays you would just want them GONE, no matter how much you love them. ;)

Get that sorted in advance, unless arranged in advance you exchange any necessary notes and GO HOME.

 

Willow.

[Starr]

I think it would be difficult. I would be more inclined to get together maybe one day a week for some kind of teaching/activity/playtime but would have both moms there. The mountain road in the winter, bless her heart. I don't think I would leave home if I were her. :D

[cindergretta]

We were talking about taking turns, each two days a week, teaching the kids while the other took care of the younger ones. Each parent would organize and assign what work needs to be done for their own children each day.

 

 

Pros

 

-can get a lot of errands and house cleaning done on non-teaching days.

 

 

 

I don't understand. If you aren't teaching, aren't you watching the younger dc? If that is the case, how will you get all this extra stuff done?

 

I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't be willing to give up my freedom. I like having the ability to arrange my schedule how I like. If the kids are acting nutty, off to the Y. If they are seeming stir-crazy, down to the zoo. Friends want to come hang out for the day? Let's do it. I won't give that up! ;)

 

Then there is the added stress of communication if one or the other of you feels like the other one isn't living up to their end or feels taken advantage of, kwim?

 

I would start with a co-op kind of deal on Fridays or something and see how that works before I tried to commit to a full-time arragnement. Find out how the dc work with each other and how each of you work with all of the dc; see how you handle it.

 

For some reason, the idea is simply not appealing to me. But I do love getting together with other hs'ing families for fun! :D

[Aubrey]

-considering the driving, is this really an efficient use of our time?

 

Nope.

 

Even if it were a "safe" 25 min, that's an hour every day for one of you, & to get the most out of it--time at your own house w/out hs'ing OR time to hs w/out littles around--it would mean an hour every day for BOTH of you AND transporting ea others' kids on that crazy mnt rd.

 

Other than this, I'd consider it, but the time on the road would be a deal-breaker for me. Sorry.

[Ellyndria]

Dangerous mountain road in the winter would make it a no go for me! The others make good points though, about loss of time and such. And if you have different philosophies, and different curriculums, that mean you'd both have to know the other curriculum too. Sounds like a pain..

[5Wizards]

I have worked with another parent from kindergarten through the current year (4th). I have her child one day/week and she has mine for one day/week, then the rest of the week we are on our own. We have an agreed upon schedule, but we are very flexible with it. There are some subjects that we do not cover together due to our children having different needs (math, spelling). We do cover language arts, history, science, and this year she is taking art while I take a basic composer study (I feel like I'm forgetting something too).

 

Our partnership has evolved over time. We originally met 3X/week together, but that became increasingly difficult over time due to growing families/activities/etc...

 

We have very similar parenting styles and ideas about how we want to educate our children. We both bring different strengths to the table.

 

Our children LOVE the set-up, and I really feel like it is good for them. Next year, we will be tweaking things once again as we add 2 more children to formal education. I'm not sure how that's going to look at this point, but we'll see.

 

Anyway, it can work, but I think you have to have a great relationship to start with, and you have to be willing to be flexible. I'm not sure how easy it would be to start with so many children at once though! :tongue_smilie:

 

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

(Oh, and I would definitely choose to have her drive to your house even with the added mess. Set up time at the end of the day where everyone helps to clean).

[happi duck]

I think it would get 'old' really quick. I'd opt for a monthly get together at your place. At this get together you could do public speaking and reports, science experiments, crafts, service projects, display projects and tests from the month etc. You moms could take turns running errands, if needed.

[Miss Sherry]

No, I wouldn't do it.

I agree with the other poster that getting together once a month is a better idea. If once a month isn't enough try once every 2 weeks. But even then I would only want to do it for a short session during the day.

[Hannah]

We get together with 2 other families for 'history club' one afternoon a week and we also do science experiments with another family.

 

For history, the moms take turns in preparing the activities from the SOTW AG. We do the reading, mapwork, additional reading, etc on our own during the week.

 

For science we used the Sonlight 'Discover and Do' dvd's and did the experiments from the Usborne books. We're actually currently looking into what curriculum to choose for middle grades.

 

I would not do more than the hands-on stuff with another family. As others have said, we'd loose the freedom and ability to adapt to our own children's needs.

[Homemama2]

What I would probably do is one day a week plan to do the subjects that can be for all those ages together. For example, you could do 9-12 on one morning and do :

History 45 min (9:00-9:45) something like SOTW

Science 45min (9:45-10:30)

Art and Music 45min (10:30-11:15)

Something fun?? Unit study perhaps? Foreign Lang? 45min (11:15-12:00)

 

Then eat lunch and play (P.E. ?? ) and everyone can leave when they want. I'm one who would NOT drive on those roads (and would probably be nervous asking my friend too all winter....) so "I" might do this for only fall and spring and skip the winter.

 

I would not try to do all the "individual" subjects like math, reading, etc. That would be extremely difficult for whoever was "teaching"...esp. if your views on teaching are different.

Edited October 31, 2010 by Homemama2

[FriedClams]

There are a ton of red flags as to why I would not do this. A play group - sure. Field trips - sure. Babysitting - maybe. But to commit to teaching together is a totally different game. When you are "teaching" together there is a totally different group of expectations - and when there are higher expectations there is more room for disappointment and hurt.

 

I personally would never do it (unless of course there was some CRAZY extenuating circumstances - like a major illness or something). I have a friend with almost identical educational philosophies and work ethics for our kids. Our kids get along perfectly. We are dear friends. Our kids are the same ages and grades. We've been trying to do science together this fall - just for experiments. We're 6 chapters in and have met twice. There is always something - sickness (more so with 5 kids), travel, appointments, sports, tired from being up late with a baby, etc. It would be HUGELY annoying to her to have to "wait" for me to catch up so we could move on - or for me to have to hurry up so we don't miss anything. Right now - we meet when we can and it's fun. LOW expectations, LOW disappointment. We do our own thing and generally regroup together - when we can.

 

I think the idea of schooling together sounds fun and makes things look easier - but when you start having to get everyone ready, leave the house, drive a half hour, take on other kid's issues, deal with discipline and expectations, chose curriculum based on what someone else wants, watch other people's kids, deal with their schedule (canceling for sickness, etc). - it's so much less fun. My advice - be friends, have fun, encourage one another, but don't mix friends and school.

[Pretty in Pink]

The drive alone would be a deal breaker for me. Aside from that, I don't see how you will get much done on your non-teaching days because you will still be in charge of a gang of (little) kids! I think this arrangement would get really old, really fast.

 

Anyway, I would start with one day per week and see how that goes.

[Mary in VA]

:iagree:with what all the pps have said. Plus I had this thought, on the days you were teaching you would have to be prepared for higher grades in which you don't even have children, since your oldest would be 7. Seems like a lot of extra work to me. Since you only have one technically in school at the moment you would be adding a lot more work to your plate in comparison to your friend. Second grade shouldn't take more than 3 hours a day or so, and if you do just the basics could take less. Seems like you'd end up more stressed, not less.

 

HTH,

Mary

[RanchGirl]

I don't think it would work out for my family to participate in something like that. I can see once a month each mom hosts an activity day or theme day that goes along with history/science/art/gym, something multi-level and fun. Then each mom gets one day a month to herself, and only has to plan one day a month of taking on all those kids by herself. Also no concerns about different teaching styles/philosophies/priorities... if all your kid gets out of the day is a fun art project, baking project, and gym/friend time, then it's still a good day and no harm done academics wise, so no opportunity for conflict there.