Scheduling Issues

[raganfamily]

I am hoping someone has had a similar issue and could give advice. I have 5 that I home school and we use the classical/CM method. This is our first year to start a one day co-op. I have heard great things about co-op's, however, it is affecting the time we have for schooling.

 

The co-op is on a Monday. So I have Tuesday-Friday for our school. There are many field trips, grandparents visits, etc. that occur on Fridays. So I have a good Solid 3 days for school. (It has become a NON-relaxed environment).

 

I want my children to benefit from the socializing aspect of Co-op, but not sure if it is worth the impact.

 

Does anyone have a suggestion? Has anyone been in a similar situation? or in that situation now? BTW: ALL the kids love the Co-op and look forward to it.

[Chris in VA]

For me, it would depend on how old my kids were--for maybe 3rd grade and under, 4 days a week would be fine--even 3 days, if they were able to at least get to math and some reading on the the 4th day. But around 4th grade, I would not feel I was offering enough learning opportunities in 3 days.

I've learned, for my family, that small things, done well over time, lead to big gains.

[EKS]

If at all possible, I would move the field trips and grandparent visits to the weekend.

[katilac]

How old are they?

 

What is your school schedule? If you school year-round or close to it, then you may be able to get away with your current schedule. If you want to take long summer and Christmas vacations, then not so much.

 

Keep in mind, a field trip or visit to family does not have to mean no school that day. It's pretty rare that we don't do *something* on any given day, even if it's one subject or one hour. Everyone needs to be aware that, on 'out' days, it's required to get up and get at it right away. It helps to have a folder with independent work set up - - handwriting, spelling, copywork, drill sheets, and so forth. This folder work can be done every single day, field trip and co-op days included.

 

Make a list of what can be done in the car. My kids find it impossible to write in a moving car, so they do stuff like memory work, Latin and French vocab, basically anything that is visual or auditory. It's a great time for them to quiz each other.

 

If your kids love co-op and field trip days, I'd lay it on the line for them. This is what has to get done each week; how are we going to manage that? Discuss, decide, do!

[Jean in Newcastle]

If you do a search on this board for "co-ops" you will find that there is a lot of mixed feelings about them! In fact, there is a poll going on right now and half of us do not participate in them. I don't participate specifically because it wouldn't leave us enough time to do our school. We get together with friends by including them in our field trip days.:)

[missmoe]

My feelings on social co-ops----if your kids went to school (private or public), would you pull them out of school for a whole day, so they could have social time? If you did decide to do that, would you not expect them to make up that work at a different time?

 

I don't know the ages of your children or your goals for school, so I can't really answer any more. For me, I've found outside things during our regualar school hours to be big distractions. I only do them, if they help us work towards our academic goals. But my kids have lots of oppertunity for socializing. Perhaps, the social aspect is important for you and helps to meet your goals? Perhaps, evening time on that day would work to fit in another hour or two of school time?

[eternalknot]

We aim for a four-day school week, with our fifth day as a field trip/homeschool park day. We have frequent visitors and guests from out of state that sometimes take up a school day, sometimes leaving us with just three solid days of schooling.

 

We get around this by schooling year-round, so I second that suggestion. I consider our school fairly rigorous and thorough, but just like I don't want a workaholic spouse ... I don't want academics to be our sole focus. For us it's all about balancing the important things in our lives, and developing our entire selves. My kids don't always like doing school during the early weeks of summer when their non-HS friends are on vacation, but they also enjoy scattered days off during the public school year - and they're old enough (at 5 and 10) to understand the trade-off. It might change as they get older and school requirements deepen.

 

If the co-op was more for you than for the kids, I'd consider dropping it. It sounds like your kids are benefitting from the experience and enjoy it, so I'd try to make it work whilst remaining true to your academic goals and expectations.

[dm379]

We were having a hard time at the beginning of the year because ds has speech therapy twice a week in the mornings. By the time we'd get home, it's nearly noon and we still have a hard time getting anything done on those days. We do school for an hour in the evenings on non-activity days. Also if we're really behind they work for 2 hours on Saturday mornings.

[tricia]

From a large family mother to another! I am currently schooling 6 of our 12 children. 5 have graduated our homeschool and one still isn't old enough to enter. As far as co-ops go they can be a great asset. I've had many opportunities over the last 23 years of homeschooling to join them and participate but I've always had to say no. Like you, that limits our school days immensely. I suppose though if your children weren't too young you may be able to pull it off but I've always had a couple toddlers and a baby in tow until just the last couple of years. I have had to really balance our days over all the years and the one thing I have found most helpful is to one, if possible plan events in the evening or weekends, or two, I just would have to say no and stay home during the day. We also do CM. Ambleside online is our core curriculum. HTH

[raganfamily]

Thank you for all your advice. My kids ages are soon to be 13, 11, 10, 7 & 5. I am still torn and in deep thought about this.

[JoyfulMama]

I guess it boils down to what you are gaining from the co-op.

 

We do a more social co-op, however for us, it provides concrete needs: 1) gym time with a group of kids (we have no neighbors, and let's face it, some games are much more fun with more than 4 people), 2) art instruction, 3) music/drama instruction, 4) creative outlet for me ;).

 

I did make the choice to not do a full-day co-op, but am home by 2pm even with doing an errand on the way home (to conserve gas). This allows us time to still do some work on that day.

Also, I don't limit us to M-F. One reason is that I like our schooling to be more relaxed, therefore why does it have to fit into a rigid schedule?

[Tidbits of Learning]

I am hoping someone has had a similar issue and could give advice. I have 5 that I home school and we use the classical/CM method. This is our first year to start a one day co-op. I have heard great things about co-op's, however, it is affecting the time we have for schooling.

 

The co-op is on a Monday. So I have Tuesday-Friday for our school. There are many field trips, grandparents visits, etc. that occur on Fridays. So I have a good Solid 3 days for school. (It has become a NON-relaxed environment).

 

I want my children to benefit from the socializing aspect of Co-op, but not sure if it is worth the impact.

 

Does anyone have a suggestion? Has anyone been in a similar situation? or in that situation now? BTW: ALL the kids love the Co-op and look forward to it.

 

My advise if you see definite benefit from the co-op is to do school at non-school times as well or year round. We go to co-op on Mondays. We are doing a Tuesday through Saturday school schedule.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I have not read all the responses, but, I'm going to post what we do.

 

I homeschool 4 kids--3 are mine and one is a friend. We have full days on M, T, and W co-op on Thursdays and class on Fridays. What we do is, I'm available for them the three days a week and then on Fridays, they work on individual projects, reading, math, writing, and any science, art, or music homework they get from co-op. I go to women's Bible study at my church in the morning and I am home in the afternoon to help with any questions they may have. It works for us and we also are classical-CM.

[TheApprentice]

We have co-op every Wed. and this is our first year of co-op as well. It is definitely time consuming, so if I had field trips and family visits on Friday, I would probably not do the co-op. We are struggling with 4 days of work, and field trips occasionally (maybe 1 a month). It sounds like that schedule would get a bit stressful. (for me anyway)

[katilac]

Thank you for all your advice. My kids ages are soon to be 13, 11, 10, 7 & 5. I am still torn and in deep thought about this.

 

11 and 13 are too old, imo, for a three day school week, unless you are schooling year round. My oldest is 12, 7th grade, and I cannot imagine trying to get all of her work done in three days! If you only complete 3 lessons a week, you'll fall behind pretty quickly, and, at this stage, most of her subjects benefit from daily attention rather than an attempt to double up on lessons - foreign languages and math in particular. My 10 yr old is in 5th grade, and it's definitely easier to skip days here and there with her, but I don't see 3 days a week the entire year really cutting it for her, either.

 

Is there a particular reason the three older kids can't do some work on co-op and field trip days? Even doing one hour or one subject really adds up over time, as opposed to completely taking those two days off all year long. It can be done in the morning before you leave (my preference), or in the evening when you return.

[Ellie]

Co-op would be out for me.

 

Field trips and other activities are enough for socializing. A whole day sucked out of your time with your dc is just...time sucked out of your day. You're feeling it; time to get out now.:)

[hsbaby]

We do four days a week due to a tutorial that is all day once a week. It isn't strictly social as they are doing Latin, history, and science. The four day schedule is fine for us. We just start our year a little early and end a little later. I don't think we could go down to three days though. That would probably put us schooling year round! I would try to do field trips, etc. over the weekend if your kids really enjoy the co-op. I know mine would be devastated to have to leave the tutorial.