staceyobu Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Has anyone ever met with a friend one day a week to teach subjects together? Do art projects? We are considering reading SOTW during the week and meeting for projects, science experiments and that sort of thing. Any advice? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 We did different things throughout the years. Plan for something easy to start with and be sure and evaluate after a set amount of time. One has to be flexible if the other has sick kids, doesn't do their reading, decides they don't want to continue etc. But generally kids love to do projects with others. The more families involved the more opinions you get. It can cause problems even with friends. What you are considering sounds great to me. Enjoy! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 I've done this the past two years. It's a commitment even if it's only one other family. Our biggest struggle is we both have littles so keeping them entertained while the older kids do work is hard. Next year we are adding another family. I like the intimacy of it and how informal it is. We can have discussions and really enjoy the crafts. ETA: I started off doing both science experiments and history crafts but it was a lot of work doing both so we switched to every other week doing only one each week. I have a friend that also does a small co-op but divides the work. They have 4 families and 3 moms take a subject, the last mom takes the littles. It works great for them because the work is divided and each parent only focuses on the subject they are in charge of. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Has anyone ever met with a friend one day a week to teach subjects together? Do art projects? We are considering reading SOTW during the week and meeting for projects, science experiments and that sort of thing. Any advice? That is a true co-op. :-) If you and your friend *and all of your children* are kindred spirits, then I could see where this could work. In the true spirit of homeschooling, I would recommend doing activities such that all of the children can be involved at the same time, without someone having to take the littles somewhere else, which is also to say that it would be better not to try to do *all* subjects on that day. For myself, Friday would have to be the day. A midweek, outside-of-the-home, all-day meeting would mess me up completely, whereas on a Friday, we've finished our week and don't have to worry about getting our act together on the next day. :-) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 For myself, Friday would have to be the day. A midweek, outside-of-the-home, all-day meeting would mess me up completely, whereas on a Friday, we've finished our week and don't have to worry about getting our act together on the next day. :-) Wisdom. This might be 90% of why the informal co-op we did last year (and are planning for this year) worked. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Yes! My best friend started homeschooling this year. I also teach her daughter piano. We'd meet one day a week for piano, an art project and her Dd and my ds did Latin together. We'd have lunch. Sometimes we would do other things or go to homeschool group or a park. Mainly it was a weekly excuse to catch up with my bestie! Loved it and it worked well! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Yes, but it didn't have a particularly happy ending. What started as co-homeschooling with two parents teaching different subjects 3 days/week turned into one parent dropping off her daughter at our house 5 days/week. Or worse, not just dropping off but coming inside and trying to chat and distract me. I needed firmer boundaries than I had. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimm Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 No but I always wanted a friend I could do that with. :) I would love to trade science for art or writing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 We did this for about a year and a half- I taught a science class, then we did science related projects. The problem was, and I'm just being honest here, the other kids didn't have the attention span or desired (by me) behaviour that my own kids had. So even though I did some really fun stuff (IMO) the kids would not stay on track. We stopped the weekly science class. And I'm not talking about a little bit off track, I'm talking about ransacking my apartment off track... Instead, this year, the same families are meeting but we don't require anything from the kids. When it rains, we do have craft ideas should they get bored, and often we will have them help to cook lunch (make pizza, etc.), but mostly we just let them play. We moved to meeting once a month since it was no longer academic. The kids love it, the moms still get to visit and do our own socialising, and there is no pressure on anyone. :-) 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegs Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 I'd love to do something like this also. I hope others will come by and share their experiences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 We didn't, but a good friend of mine did science together when their boys were of high school age. They met every Friday, at alternating homes. That was the day that they'd do all of the chapter experiments. Whoever had it at their home that day was in charge of getting all of the supplies, etc. I thought that was a neat idea, especially for science. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 I wish I did. My friend has done it though, sounds great if your families are of like mind. With one friend she traded Spanish lessons for guitar (and piano?). With another family they did history together, much like you are talking about. I, think my friend organized the older kids and the other mom took charge of the younger kids. In general, I think arranging it for a set amount of time is important. That way if it is not going as you had hoped, you have a built-in stop or point for adjustment. I might also try to arrange it so that if the other family started to flake for any reason it didn't hold you back. For instance, if you are planning on doing history reading independently, then if a few get-togethers were missed you wouldn't have to stop reading, the projects might just be a bit out of sync. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 In general, I think arranging it for a set amount of time is important. That way if it is not going as you had hoped, you have a built-in stop or point for adjustment. I might also try to arrange it so that if the other family started to flake for any reason it didn't hold you back. For instance, if you are planning on doing history reading independently, then if a few get-togethers were missed you wouldn't have to stop reading, the projects might just be a bit out of sync. I agree with this as well. We had a lot of adjustment with our group last year, and it helped that it was more than two families. We expect more adjustment again this year--basically two moms are in charge, and the rest of the families are along for the ride to pitch in as needed. The two in charge are the two most likely to continue meeting if everyone flakes. (It's four families total, with 9 kids. Last year it was four families with 9 kids at the beginning but three families and 7 kids by the end. One family this year is different with different ages.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 I have two friends that did this for a few years. One mom taught math, the other science. I'm not sure if they shared any other subjects but I know they did a lot of projects on those days. It went well for a couple of years. The kids (2 each) were at similar levels, they did 2 levels of math, one level of science and had great success. Eventually, one mom began to have higher expectations and requiring more of her kids and they stopped co-oping. I think for the time that they were on the same page, it was a really good thing. The girls all enjoyed it and the moms both benefitted by having their weak subject covered by someone else. It is important to have evaluation times and times that you can get out. They didn't handle the end well and I think that was just because there was an assumption of it going on forever, instead of the idea that it was for a semester, a year, or asking each summer, "Should we do this again?". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Our first year of homeschooling we did this and met at a friend's house to do the Atelier art program. It was fun and gave me a chance to have some mom visiting time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 we have done similar things. One year we had 5-6 families getting together to do geography/art/legos. It was fun. Moms rotated to teach what they wanted. For 2 years I was hosting art...girls were dropped off and we did Creating A Masterpiece art videos. They paid for supplies/snacks. It was fun to do this as a group. I would be open to having other kids here for science, but I worry they won't really care or want to do the work. And I haven't found that family yet ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehogs4 Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 I'm suuuuuper fortunate to have one other family with whom we have done a co-op for the past five years and another has done all years but one with us (due to a new baby in the family an other stuff.) Other families have been involved at different levels of for the same amount of time, but it has been us three pretty consistently. That said... I love it because it provides a level of accountability for the parents and fun for the kids. It's been completely positive, and the kids look forward to that day all week. I would be very sad if this little co-op came to an end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 We done this with 2 - 3 other families using IEW. It's been great. We've also supplemented the writing program material with a unit on poetry. The dc love it. We meet once a week and every week one mom "leads" the class, which means they gather the dc, turn on the DVD and lead any discussions there may be. It's really easy with the prepared DVDs, though. We usually have a specific time for the class, finalize the dates in advance (allowing some space if there are illness or holidays), have built in time for free play, and we've been able to have potluck lunch. Along with having our co-op writing class, we've tacked on other classes to our group where we hire a tutor and have small group classes with Latin. That's been excellent, too. We've also had a session of music theory with a tutor. If everyone is at the same level, as long as the ages aren't too spread out it has worked out well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KateHW Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 No advice but maybe next year I'll have some. :) This upcoming year we will be having another family come to our house and do RSO Life level 1. It'll (hopefully) be great in that we have no transportation during the week and live way out so them coming here means that my son has more time around other kids. I'm stressed about having 4 extra kids in my little house, and trying to keep grumpy old dog separated from kids. I'm a plan and schedule kind of person and they seem to be more go with the flow and right now that is stressing me. What days are we going to meet, who is bringing what supplies? I really need to just start asking and getting an answer even if it makes me feel like a nag. Deep breath. Fun, it's going to be fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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