How is your co-op structured?

[Pegs]

I'm interested in hearing about different models for homeschool co-ops, as there is talk locally of starting something up. 

Does everyone have to teach?

Are teachers paid? 

How frequently do you meet?

[desertflower]

We meet once a week.

There are 3 families.  We each teach.  There is a supply list.  No one gets paid. 

We have 2 groups going on simultaneously every hour for about 45 min.  One teaches the upper elementary aged group while the other teaches the lower elementary aged group. 

I would get together with friends who have the same philosophy and goal as you.

It has been working out fabulously!  I love it.  My kids love it. Good luck and I hope you find something you enjoy. 

[mom2att]

We meet weekly for 2 hours of classes. Families are required to either teach or assist for one of the two hours. We have a few paid teachers that we bring in for specific classes, but most of the classes are taught by member families. We are a large co-op that has been meeting for many years.

[mom@shiloh]

We meet once a week and have about 100 kids. We have four hours of classes, but families aren't required to attend for all four hours. For each hour, there are 9-12 classes being offered for pre-school through high school. A parent is required to be there and to be involved, either by teaching or assisting or doing an administrative task.  Teachers set class fees to cover their costs, but no one gets paid unless we find it necessary to hire an outside teacher for a very specific class. So far, I haven't seen it happen. The four people who are considered executive administrators have their class fees covered as a means of compensation because they put in a significant number of hours. 

We charge a family fee of $30/year which covers basic supplies.  The facility that we use doesn't charge us rent, but we do all the cleaning. 

[happypamama]

We belong to an enrichment co-op. We meet every other week for six sessions in the fall, six in the spring. Some classes are full year, some half year. There are three class periods, divided by age, and children attend them all. Everyone pays the same per child, paid for the year in advance; only the couple of outside teachers we’ve hired get paid (and their classes have additional fees).  Everyone teaches one or two class periods and has the other(s) free or assists in all three class periods. If someone is missing, we shuffle people around to cover classes as needed; our teachers provide a backup lesson plan.  We (meaning the group as a whole) make an overall donation to the facility as a thanks for their generosity in letting us use it for co-op and other events.  Most classes don’t have homework, although a few of them do require reading or a speech to be prepared  

 

My oldest attends a weekly co-op that isn’t really a co-op; they have six class periods a day, and students are able to take classes during as many or as few of those as they want. You pay per class, directly to the teacher, with a small donation requested for the facility. If a student is on campus and doesn’t have a class one period, there is a study hall room provided. It is drop-off, and parents are not at all requested to help.  It doesn’t even take kids under middle school age and is much more of an academic co-op than enrichment. If a teacher has to miss class, the kids simply go to study hall during that class period or can arrive late/leave early. There is definitely homework for those classes, as they can be used for high school credit. 

[Farrar]

We've been part of a couple of radically different co-ops.

The co-op we were part of for nearly a decade was small family (never more than 5 families) - the kids were in charge - when they were younger, they picked and voted on topics and we rotated teaching them with each family taking a different week until we'd done 4-5 days on it. We met once a week. We just used each other's homes. Whoever was hosting served lunch to everyone (usually something easy like spaghetti or tacos or a one pot meal).

The co-op we're part of for high school is basically a school. You pay. The teachers are hired. They have a space in a church. They emphasize STEM subjects with labs though they have a number of different other offerings (a yearbook, ds does martial arts there, they have some writing classes, etc). They meet 3 days a week - you can do one or two or all three. Some classes are two days a week. Kids bring lunch. There are no grades, homework is optional, but the content of the classes is rich for the most part. It's only for middle and high school students.

[mom2scouts]

Am I the only one who has never been part of a co-op? We join local homeschool groups occasionally for field trips and we've done some zoo classes and homeschool PE/swim classes, but mostly we do our own thing. My son is an introvert and is happier working at home and then doing his chosen extracurricular activities on evenings and weekends. There is a local co-op that I would consider for my extroverted dd if it's still around in a few years when she's the only one left at home. They have all ages, but try to focus on older students, so all classes are separated by age. There is a fee, all parents are required to teach or help in other ways, and everyone is expected to help clean up. Nobody is paid. They meet once a week for three enrichment classes and then there is the option to stay and have a bagged lunch together.

[Clemsondana]

Our co-op is large - usually around 100 families, 300 kids, although it varies.  We have families who have been there since it started, almost 20 years ago, and we've been there for 8.  In ours, teachers are paid but students take classes a la carte.  We have a couple of people in (minimally) paid jobs, but families are also required to do an hour of volunteer work each week (although they can do it in 4 shifts of 4 hrs, or divide it however they want as long as all of the jobs are covered.  Classes run from 8-4:30, although very few people are there all day.

One thing that I love is that we have a great community, but you can choose how you use what is offered.  In the elementary years, all classes are enrichment.  The math classes are for practicing facts with games or doing hands-on activities, and specifically say that they aren't intended to be a full math program.  If you only planned to do science once/week, though, the 'Messy Science' hands-on class might be a great fit.  As students get older, they have the option of taking enrichment classes or academic classes.  Some families use it as a school, taking their main academic classes there.  Others do their main subjects at home and the kids take ballroom dance, fencing, acting, cooking, public speaking, chess, choir or PE.  Many families choose a mix.  My own kids will take their foreign language classes at the co-op.  My middle schooler has taken 2 writing/composition classes, which has been great.  It's not enough to be his full language arts - one hour/week, a writing assignment every other week, reading maybe 3 books in a semester - but it helped kiddo to see that what I was teaching at home wasn't unreasonable.  ?  After 2  years with writing classes at co-op, we're doing writing at home this year and it's going very well.  I've seen some families drift back and forth between using the co-op for academic and enrichment, depending on the situation.  

Some teachers are current co-op parents, many are former homeschoolers, and some are retired teachers or community members with an interest in teaching a specific subject. 

[Shellydon]

Our co-op offers both fee-based and parent led classes.  You can pick and choose classes based on what you want/need for your kids.  Most classes are once a week, but a few like high school math are twice a week.   Classes are drop off, parents do not need to stay.  Over the last 2 years, we have grown to 200 families.

[Petrichor]

On 10/24/2018 at 10:31 AM, mom2scouts said:

Am I the only one who has never been part of a co-op? We join local homeschool groups occasionally for field trips and we've done some zoo classes and homeschool PE/swim classes, but mostly we do our own thing. My son is an introvert and is happier working at home and then doing his chosen extracurricular activities on evenings and weekends. There is a local co-op that I would consider for my extroverted dd if it's still around in a few years when she's the only one left at home. They have all ages, but try to focus on older students, so all classes are separated by age. There is a fee, all parents are required to teach or help in other ways, and everyone is expected to help clean up. Nobody is paid. They meet once a week for three enrichment classes and then there is the option to stay and have a bagged lunch together.

We've never been a part of one.

We do have a support group that is trying to slowly slowly turn into a co-op. Most of the kids in it are young, early elementary or pre-school and the moms are the type that don't see the early years as something in need of an academic co-op We organize extracurricular and enrichment classes/field trips (most of which are a one-off or meet monthly)

A lot of the co-op type schools around here meet weekly and have an offering of classes. Most of them are organized to be an outlet for the virtual public schools. Most people have their classes paid for through their virtual schools and the virtual school allows people to enroll on a part time basis. The school pays for extracurricular elective classes at these co-op schools rather than paying for curriculum + electives. But to take a class without public funding will cost ~$200 per class (meeting once a day for half of the school year.)

We have some other facebook based field trip groups too. Offering various classes, park days, and holiday parties. Every event has a separate fee associated with it (usually less than $10. Some activities, like park days, are free) and the really active groups charge a small yearly fee ($10-$20/yr.)

I don't know of any true co-ops in the area where parents trade teaching time with minimal fees, but I'm sure they must exist. I would expect they are small groups of people who trust each other and share the same philosophy.

[Holly]

We go to two small co-ops (as in 3 or 4 families per co-op).  I'll answer the questions for each one.
 

Co-op 1: Charlotte Mason based, we rotate houses for our meetings.  Everyone teaches, no one is paid, but we each contribute to supplies as needed (or just buy our own books).  Our only expenses are artist study prints and a Shakespeare book each term.  We meet twice a month, for two 12-week terms.  We bring our lunch as spend afternoons playing outside and visiting.

Co-op 2: church based, we meet at our church.  Everyone helps with clean-up and watching the kids, but not everyone teaches.  Teachers are not paid.  We also meet twice a month.  Families rotate bringing a snack. 

 

[Pegs]

Thanks for all of your replies. It's helpful to me to see how things work on such different scales. 

[mom31257]

This is our co-op's 7th year, and we have 29 families and 68 students from nursery through 12th grade.  We meet at a local church. 

Here is how we are structured:

We meet every other week, 8 times each semester taking Thanksgiving to New Year's off.  We are a volunteer co-op, meaning no one is paid to teach; however, all the moms have to come and stay and help the whole time. Moms have to be willing to teach, but we do understand that everyone can't teach every subject well. So we work together in a big meeting filling in our schedules. We usually plan high school and middle school first, and then on another day plan elementary and preschool classes. 

We meet for 3 hours, except for high school science, which goes longer into the afternoon. 

We do offer classes with assigned homework and some that will count for high school credit; however, our teachers do not assign the actual grades. The parents are still the primary teacher, and we are there to assist. The writing teachers are all willing to take the work and give feedback on it, though. I teach physics and government/econ this year for the high school, and I set up Google classroom for each of them. I provide resources to help them while they are learning at home, answer questions, etc. 

Our middle and high school students have more homework than elementary. Science and writing classes have homework for 2nd-5th grade, but they have PE and some other electives. 

Each family gives a donation to the church each semester, buys the required curricula for the classes, and pays a fee to the teacher for any necessary supplies for all of their children's classes. 

Families volunteer to stay and clean up (2 each week) after co-op is over. 

All the students are required to participate the entire time unless they are a senior or enrolled in dual enrollment. They sometimes don't need all we are offering. 

 

[goldenecho]

So, when we were in a co-op (we moved...I miss that co-op so much), here is how it was structured.

It was free, except suggested donations for school supplies.   There was a few generous parents who made that possible (and a local community center that allowed us to use their facilities for free).  Not everyone taught, but a parent was required to attend to help supervise and to assist teachers.   Each person not teaching got assigned to a teacher to help their class.   There were semester and year long classes, and different classes for younger and older kids (kids were divided into either two or three groups by age depending on how many we had that year).   

There were about 15-20 families in all (a core group of 10 families and the rest that fluctuated in and out).   To encourage more people to teach we also had one class session that was shorter (where you had the class from 3-6 weeks), and more people taught that.   Really though 3 people were our regular teachers for the semester long classes (which can cause problems...I suggest trying to spread out things more evenly and not allowing anyone to take more than one class--unless it's the the same subject taught to different groups of kids or modified for different ages, which is not as hard to plan for than two separate subjects).   Because when people start taking on too much they burn out.  It's better to just have less classes.

We also had a separate side  class where several of the families did Story of the World together (it wasn't officially part of our co-op...but people who were in the coop for a while were invited to it if they wanted to do it, so it was composed of more dedicated members).   Every parent was required to teach the same amount of classes (we each took separate chapters to cover).   Really, we didn't "cover" the chapter (people did that at home) so much as did crafts and activities for them.     Then together we would together plan several field trips and a big activity for the end of the year.    I liked this format a lot because everyone participated but no one's workload was too much.