Starting a high school co-op...any experience and advice?

[6packofun]

This will be my ds' first year of high school and I think I'd really like to try a co-op experience, maybe even for my middle school dc as well. NO co-ops within a reasonable driving distance.

 

Sooo, I'm faced with the very probable reality of just starting a simple co-op where moms trade off and/or we hire teachers for a once-a-week type of thing.

 

What are some things I should consider? I want to keep it simple and later, if all the families are interested, maybe offer more classes for the lower levels. I do NOT want this to be a co-op that provides all the core classes, necessarily, but one that will offer help in, say, science labs, speaking opportunities, more electives and some different literature courses and maybe a book club. Plus, the social aspect for both kids and parents. Once-a-month "support" meeting.

 

I thought about advertising at the libraries in the area (any other good spots?) and renting a room for a getting started meeting-brainstorming session at my library to see how many people are interested. Website and/or e-group for keeping in touch and schedules, etc.

 

Any thoughts? This doesn't have to be REALLLLY complicated, does it? LOL

 

Thanks for any words of wisdom!

[LisaNY]

What a great idea! I think it is SO vital to get your dc out with other dc their age when they hit the jr/high school years.

 

We have a literature circle in our co-op for 8th gr. and up. A bunch of the kids get together at the home of one of our moms one day per week. She's a professor at the college, and she homeschools her son. The kids are getting so much out of her class. You could start with something like that.

 

I'm not sure about advertising at the libraries, though.

[6packofun]

 

I'm not sure about advertising at the libraries, though.

 

I literally have NO contact with other homeschoolers except those who go to my small church, so I'm not sure how to even find them. LOL But I know they're out there because whenever I talk about homeschooling with people I meet, they almost always KNOW some homeschoolers! I figure they hang out at the libraries at least a little! And I know that I can put an ad on their bulletin boards with approval, especially if I'll be using their free room for our meeting(s).

[LisaNY]

I literally have NO contact with other homeschoolers except those who go to my small church, so I'm not sure how to even find them. LOL But I know they're out there because whenever I talk about homeschooling with people I meet, they almost always KNOW some homeschoolers! I figure they hang out at the libraries at least a little! And I know that I can put an ad on their bulletin boards with approval, especially if I'll be using their free room for our meeting(s).

 

Oh! Sorry about that. I did not read your post carefully enough. If/when you get things going, post back to share how it goes. :001_smile:

[DollyM]

but if you start small you may grow into the complexities as a group - which is a natural progression .

 

a couple of things:

1 - you can't be effective teaching math or foreign languages and meeting only oncea week - so a 1-day-a-week-co-op should avoid those subjects.

 

2 - you can be effective meeting once a week for science labs - more so if everyone uses the SAME TEXT at home - and you have a syllabus that assumes everyone comes to lab having read the same chapter at home. This produces the best experience for the student. When everyone is working off "their own idea of a good textbook" the labs cannot be tailored to sequence properly for everybody - so the class is GREAT for the kids whose reading sequences properly, and MUCH LESS SO for the other kids.

 

3 - Book club and literature discussion groups are GREAT and EASY to do in co-op. Ditto other electives like Art, Drama, Government, journalism, even writing.

 

well, there are lots more aspects of runnign fullfledged co-op but these are basic.

[Mostlyamom]

One of the challenges that I've seen in my years organizing co-op types of opportunities is that homeschooling breeds families that have to make unique choices that work for their family. It can be challenging to get everyone to want the same things that you want for the group.

 

So, before you begin think long and hard about EXACTLY what it is that you want with regard to curriculum, hours, friend development, etc. Proximity, so that there is less driving, and "kindred spririts" really help in the process. This whole thing is really worth doing if it meets YOUR family's needs. I would not start this with a committee approach, but a something targeted for your family, as I have found that it is rewarding, but work!

 

Hesitate to hire teachers unless you want to organize and run a mini-school. You might want to do that, but I have found a lot of homeschoolers who are financially pressed and do not want that type of commitment.

 

On the other hand, two parents in our area run a one-day-out program that has science, art, etc. for 5 classes/day at a cost of about $5/class for preschool through 6th grade. Parents drop off and have a day to themselves, or to work with other children that are not in the program. This has proved very popular. However, I think that to get a big enough class size to be able to pay the teacher, there is a compromise in rigor. Many of the people on this board want a more rigorous school experience, so this may not be the way to go for you.

 

Hope this helps! Pat

[LisaNY]

Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader. GP, RS GUIDE, RS-PL,,MS-MESOS, well, I love my site, let’s try our best together, size everyday, and think just do it, I can!

 

SPAM!

[NCSusan]

We joined a large co-op this past year that was very well organized and has been running for over 6 years. To pay for my 2 children I taught 2 science classes - general science 7th grade and physical science 8th grade. It was based on a classical approach. My younger dd was 6th and did alot of memory activities with acitivities to learn them in class. She studied history, science, bible, math(memory only) latin and greek roots, and art. She had a great time and had 8 projects to do with 2 minute oral presentations. My older dd was 8th grade and studied- history, science, writing and logic/art. She did 4 5 minute presentations. It was a very hard year for us. We actually had to finish everything that was assigned each week - that was hard for us. We all learned disciple this year and actually finished all the books from start to finish. She even completed a timeline!!! She had test and was graded on weekly notebooks assignments. Both made so many friends and look forward to it even though the work was hard!!! It was our most successful year and worth all the work.

 

The best part is I love science and was surprised at how many people don't - so I taught a subject Iwas good at and the students became enthusiatic because I was. I have struggled with teaching writing but my dd went this year from struggling with a simple sentence to writing amazing papers because she had a wonderful teacher who was great at writing.

 

I am sold on co-ops for the middle to upper grades and so are my dds. However, we were blessed to have been in a good well organized one. We meet once weekly from 8:30 to 12:30. Everything was very organized. Everything stayed on time.

 

The down side- I can't decided what we study or the curriculum used. The positive side it worked out OK and my dd's actually started and finished everything!

 

Starting one can take time and effort. I would start with friends and local hs groups. In our area each county has a home school group. This group advertises with 3 counties. We have people who drive 1 hour to get to this group. Our local group will place information like this in their newsletter. Also talk with your hs friends you might find someone like to teach a subject you don't and you can just trade off on those subjects. The year before a good friend and I meet for 3 hours friday afternoon and studied science and did a state study together. That also was fun and worked great.

 

Good luck!

Susan

[Sandy in KY]

Our co-op will begin its 6th year this fall and it has grown and evolved over the years. A few suggestions:

 

 

• Have very clear goals for each school year in writing.
  
• Decide together on your criteria for co-op membership. Will your co-op be limited to a certain age-group, or centered around a curriculum or a certain homeschooling style?
  
• Accountability is a must, but everyone has their own idea of what that means. Will you require homework? What about attendance requirements? How will these requirements be enforced? Write it down, and be sure everyone is "on board."
  
• Be flexible.
  
• Bear with one another in love :-)

Here's a link to our co-op's web page, if you'd like to see how we do things: Classical Christian Co-op

 

HTH!

Sandy