co-op schedules, a survey

[fdrinca]

I've thought of publishing a few of the lesson plan I've drafted for our co-op, and am wondering if there are schedules that are more common than others. Thanks for your feedback!

[mom2att]

We have two 12-week semesters for most classes, but the academic high school options run on an extended, 15-week semester schedule.

[aaplank]

We are in two co ops, both have two 12 week semesters. One co op has the same classes for all 24 weeks, and the other has new classes for the 2nd semester, so the individual classes are only12 weeks long.

[retiredHSmom]

Ours is a 30-32 week year. We do not do semester classes.

[Clemsondana]

We do 2 16 week semesters.

[mom31257]

Our co-op meets 16 weeks each school year. We meet every other week from August until right before Thanksgiving and January through April. 

 

 

 

 

[carriede]

2 12s here.

[historically accurate]

4 5 week sessions (but teachers can do 5, 10, 15 or 20 week classes).

[retiredHSmom]

Unfortunately for you it seems that the only consensus so for is that every c-op does it totally differently!

[Mimm]

The co-ops I've been involved with ran for the entire school year with time off at Christmas, Thanksgiving, Spring break, etc. Some of the people in the co-ops had other children in the public schools, or had spouses with jobs related to the public schools. Most things in my town just follow the public school schedule. For instance, most children's activities have a weather cancellation policy that if public school calls a snow day, they will cancel as well. Co-ops have basically just followed along with the school district's schedule, though they may start and end a week or two earlier or later. And take more time off at Christmas. :)

[Rebel Yell]

Other

 

We've participated in two.

One had 10 week fall and spring sessions, with some high school classes requiring both semesters

 

Another had 32 weeks for K-8, and 9-12 with some high school classes with extra weeks before, after, or in December. Half-year classes for high school varied in weeks, the fall semester was shorter by a few weeks due to Christmas break

[Lori D.]

Also take into consideration whether your curricula is meant to be enrichment/supplement, or a full/complete program. If it is meant as enrichment, then it would be fairly easy to put in the amount of material for a full 15 weeks (and if a group has a 16th week, then can hold a party or wrap-up that day), and then have 1-page schedules for 10-week and 12-week co-ops by dropping out some of the material or showing which weeks or topics in the material to skip. In other words, you'll make more sales if you have a meaty-enough program to cover the longest co-ops, AND make it easy for the shorter co-ops to adapt to their shorter schedules. :)

 

In answer to your question about semester lengths:

In our area, I most commonly see two 12-week semesters, with an occasional co-op holding two 10-week semesters. Some classes are just 1 semester, some are year-long. Most of the classes are for enrichment, rather than meant as an outsourcing option. I run my high school courses as 16 week semesters, as they are full credit, not just enrichment.

Edited June 7, 2017 by Lori D.

[lanabug]

Our co-op has 4 6-week sessions, but classes may differ in length. The early elementary classes tend to change every session, or at least every 12 weeks. The middle and high school classes tend to be all year long.

[Vintage81]

Our co-op is for PreK-7th grade and it has two 10-week semesters in the fall and spring. All classes are enrichment/supplement.

[ScoutTN]

By a session do you mean a semester?

My kids do a tutorial. Not sure if that meets your criteria? I pay tuition and it is drop off.

Ds' is enrichment. Dd's for next year is academic. 

 

32 weeks a year, which is pretty standard for homeschool tutorials here. 

 

[HS Mom in NC]

Our American Girl Club co-op met once a month for 10 months, for 4 hours. 

[SoCal_Bear]

32 weeks but it is divided unevenly. Sept- early Dec. Jan to mid-May. 85% of our classes run for a full year. It's up to the teaching parent. 

[fdrinca]

Unfortunately for you it seems that the only consensus so for is that every c-op does it totally differently!

 

But is that unexpected? We're homeschoolers, after all!

[fdrinca]

Also take into consideration whether your curricula is meant to be enrichment/supplement, or a full/complete program. If it is meant as enrichment, then it would be fairly easy to put in the amount of material for a full 15 weeks (and if a group has a 16th week, then can hold a party or wrap-up that day), and then have 1-page schedules for 10-week and 12-week co-ops by dropping out some of the material or showing which weeks or topics in the material to skip. In other words, you'll make more sales if you have a meaty-enough program to cover the longest co-ops, AND make it easy for the shorter co-ops to adapt to their shorter schedules. :)

 

In answer to your question about semester lengths:

In our area, I most commonly see two 12-week semesters, with an occasional co-op holding two 10-week semesters. Some classes are just 1 semester, some are year-long. Most of the classes are for enrichment, rather than meant as an outsourcing option. I run my high school courses as 16 week semesters, as they are full credit, not just enrichment.

 

My thought was to take my 10-week lesson plans and adapt them to the needs of common co-op models. I'd probably not even try to sell them, just offer them to other families who may benefit from it. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't need to?

[fdrinca]

By a session do you mean a semester?

My kids do a tutorial. Not sure if that meets your criteria? I pay tuition and it is drop off.

Ds' is enrichment. Dd's for next year is academic. 

 

32 weeks a year, which is pretty standard for homeschool tutorials here. 

 

Or quarter, or however your group divides its year (if it does). Our co-op is tied to the local university's quarter schedule, as many families have ties to the university, and so we tend to run trimesters rather than semesters.

[...................]

Ours are paid things not co-ops but one does so many breaks it's hard to get a full academic load in- two semesters, three weeks at Christmas plus two one week breaks a each semester. 28 weeks

 

The other takes NO breaks except the entire montht of December and thanksgiving week. They also start late -September 1st but in this one We get SO much done!!! And it makes so much more sense because homeschool kids all travel and such at different times anyway, so they just comeplte their work via distance while they travel or whatever. I love this system and think it's so much better for the kids.

[cintinative]

We have two semesters of 14 weeks each. I am not sure what you consider a "session."

[Kuovonne]

Our co-op is 18 total meetings, meeting every other week from September to May. We usually have 8 classes before Christmas, a long holiday break, and then 10 classes in the spring.

[fdrinca]

We have two semesters of 14 weeks each. I am not sure what you consider a "session."

 

Semester, trimester, quarter...I thought "session" might cover all the options, but it's vague enough wording to be unclear. Sorry!

[cintinative]

Semester, trimester, quarter...I thought "session" might cover all the options, but it's vague enough wording to be unclear. Sorry!

 

Oh no problem. I was just not sure if should say 28 weeks or two semesters of 14.  =)

[scholastica]

We have 26 weeks. No semesters, the same classes run the whole year.

[strawberries]

Two 15-week semesters here.

[mschickie]

I answer 10 since that is the basic number of weeks in one session of our co-op. We run two 10 week sessions a year but we also do something called high school extension.  For certain jr high or senior high classes (such as science labs) we have additional weeks that the classes meet.  Depending on the class it can be an additional 4-11 weeks for the year.