Am I crazy to start a co-op?

[MJmom]

I have 2 sons who will be 10 and 11 this fall. We homeschooled preschool, went to a private school, and have homeschooled for the last 2 years. We plan on homeschooling through high school. We have never joined a co-op because they are far away, although we live in a major city. I guess the outlying areas got it together better. We do belong to several groups, our main one being a weekly park play group. I actually love that they just get to play without pseudo teaching. We are in a few other groups that offer various nature classes and cool field trips. 

But they are getting older.

Watching the teens in our group get older has shown me how boring and sort of pointless park day can be at a certain point. Also, those nature classes frequently end up being 4 hours if you add in commute and social time and they basically get 5 cool facts and some fun out the experience. It's not exactly worth it, but I do want to provide my kids with chances to play and engage with friends. I think as they get older, it'll be more important. That's why I'm thinking of forming an academic enrichment co-op, just for ages 10 and up because that's also an issue. 6 year olds are too disruptive to tween and teen classes. (Some people enrolled kids in Microsoft Office classes and the kids couldn't even read!) My idea is to meet every 2 weeks as a co-op to door some of rfwp's problem-based learning (so cool!), a Spanish conversation club, a science lab and maybe art history/art. In the future we could add Shakespeare, debate, logic. Basically, group activities that are hard to replicate at home. I'd also like to have us do 1 social and 1 service activity a month.

I really don't need or want another project and I've heard horror stories about co-ops, so I hesitate. On the other hand, if it worked out, I think it would be really good for my kids and maybe even grow into something that could help in high school. (I'm a former English teacher; another mom is a former science teacher!) My plan is to keep the co-op smallish, parents must stay, parents will either teach or plan events. The social and service could be open to more families. My question is, do you think it would work? Would it just be a big headache without enough payoff? Any words of wisdom from the trenches? Thanks. 💕🙏🏻

 

[maize]

Where would younger siblings be if parents are required to stay but there is no younger class?

In general I think every week is better for consistency than every other week.

[MJmom]

I don't have a plan for younger siblings. There are a number of families here who have siblings in an older age bracket, although of course, some people have a wider spread. This might be hosted in houses and I know I can't accommodate little ones, just don't have the space. We've also been to a lot of classes in which littles acted in totally age appropriate ways that completely disrupted the classes and left us very frustrated. I think there's a growing feeling that it would be nice to just have something just for middle and high school students here.  Parents can swap or find child care for their younger ones. Down the road, I'd be open to a mom with younger kids creating a program for them, but I just can't see devoting energy to that personally. 

[Miss Tick]

I got together with two other moms last year to lay the ground work for a group. Ice it was organized we opened it up to other people. We three all have middle grade kids, elementary kids, and they have preschoolers too. They belong to the same church which offered us the facility use for free. We have a nursery group, pre-k, lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle grade classes. We do 2 hours of classes and an hour after of free time. We meet the first three Thursdays of the month, September to May.

Keep it as simple as possible. If you have a core group of families on board I think you will be fine. 

As my older two move into high school next year, I don't think they will participate. We carry a strong academic load and I don't want to take away 2-3 hours a week for co-op.

[SoCal_Bear]

I am on the board of a mega co-op in SD of 110 families. My suggestion is that you start small with 2-3 like-minded families. Build a small core and get a feel if you really enjoy doing this. Keep the commitment window to a year. Halfway through, you will know if you like it or not. There's a graceful way to end it, but there's also the option of agreeing as a group to go on and to form a vision and direction for this group if the desire is to grow as a community. Co-ops rise and fall on leadership. Whoever is the core leadership is who defines how the group functions and operates. Also if the core group is strong, then the leadership load and work is spread out and less chance of burnout.

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by calbear

[staceyobu]

Yes, you are probably crazy. but, sometimes crazy people create really amazing things. I started a co-op last fall. We have just opened for registration for next fall. It's taken A LOT of my free time. I already have some horror stories. But, it's been really rewarding. Sometimes I look around and see other moms who have become great friends with one another and they met because of my effort. And, I see kids laughing and learning and playing basketball at lunch, and its worth all the blood, sweat, and tears.  Try to create it with a long range plan. Don't do things that overwhelm you. Do what is manageable. It will still be unmanageable at times, but I try to constantly evaluate how I can make this sustainable for years. I've grown a lot this year. I've seen how I can rise to challenges and force myself to do uncomfortable things. It's definitely been a learning experience.

 

 

[MJmom]

Thanks calbear. That sounds like sound advice. Start small, see how it goes.

Square25, I've been putting out feelers with some of the families I know and people have been really excited. My approach is to be really clear about expectations and basically have people choose how they will contribute from the get-go. I'm hoping that because there is a lack of opportunities in our area that it will be a high enough value for people not to flake out. 

[MJmom]

Thanks for the encouragement Stacyobu! It's great to hear what you've done. I guess hassles are unavoidable, but I'm feeling called to do this. I think it could be really great. Eek. I just can't seem to steer myself away from crazy ideas. 😜

[SoCal_Bear]

With respect to the long range plan, when the vision and goals of the community are clear and embraced, it carries on and becomes self-sustaining. The group I am a part of was started in the early 90s. It's been through ups & downs, but the consistent inviting like-minded leaders to come alongside the core group have mostly been those who embrace the shared vision and work is why we are still here even those who started the group have long since gone. It doesn't mean that the group can't evolve, things naturally do so as the landscape of homeschooling changes. I think knowing that you have a clear calling to do it helps a lot to carry you through the hassles and problems. Just don't go it alone, that's a recipe for burnout for sure.

[Lori D.]

3 hours ago, MJmom said:

... (Some people enrolled kids in Microsoft Office classes and the kids couldn't even read!)...

FYI: I've been teaching Lit. & Comp co-op classes for middle school and high school students in my homeschool group over the past 7 years, and in almost every class I have at least 1, if not more, teenaged students with dyslexia or low-reading issue, and multiple students with very low writing abilities. As a result, I do NOT have the students do ANY writing *in class*, or require out-loud reading in class, so as to not shame struggling students.

Unless you hand-pick all your families/students, you WILL very likely have older age students who can't do some of the grade-level work. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- all of those students have been great and have contributed in other ways -- BUT, it has meant a LOT of extra work for ME to find work-arounds for in-class activities, and individually adapting writing assignments the students do at home so that these students can have success and move forward from where they are.
 

3 hours ago, MJmom said:

...  6 year olds are too disruptive to tween and teen classes...

I have never seen that wide of an age spread in a single class. I can't image putting a 1st grader in with teens. 😳 I've only ever seen co-ops that had hard age or grade limits for each class -- like: ages 4-5, or ages 6-8. Or like: grades 3-5; grades 4-6; grades 7-8; grades 9-12.
 

3 hours ago, MJmom said:

I really don't need or want another project and I've heard horror stories about co-ops, so I hesitate... My plan is to keep the co-op smallish...

Finding an affordable facility is hard -- most charge a use-fee, and/or cleaning fee, and/or insurance. So if you have a small group, it is a big facility cost even spread amongst the families of a smallish co-op. On the other hand, keeping the co-op very small -- say, 5-8 families at most, means you could meet in homes, and not have the facility headache. It also means you can hand-pick / invite only the families you know who have similar goals and desires. That also will probably eliminate trouble-maker students and potential class behavior issues. And smaller groups tends to mean students are not so apt to cause trouble anyways.
 

3 hours ago, MJmom said:

...parents must stay, parents will either teach or plan events....

JMO, but I really think that is ONLY going to work if the parents DON'T have younger students. Having to stay, AND having to either teach or plan events stretches them too thin.

re: parents staying
From my experience of watching co-ops come and go in my town for the past 18 years, I see parents wanting/needing to drop-off for older students. OR, the co-op also offers classes for their younger kids. Or, at LEAST the facility has some classrooms available for parents to sit with and work with their younger children while older child is in class. Requiring parents to stay on site for a teen student means many families won't sign up.

I get around this by allowing drop-off, charging for my classes, and offering two scholarships each semester -- in exchange for a parent staying and being my in-class assistant for half of the classes for the semester (and the other parent for the other half of the classes), I gift those two parents with either part or all of the class fee. That way, I always have a second adult in class, AND parents can drop-off/pick-up as needed, or older students can drive themselves.

re: parents either teach or plan events
Even "enrichment only" classes meeting 2x/month require quite a bit of outside-of-class time by the parent who is doing the teaching in order to make it a worthwhile class. And from my experience, what I actually see is that the quality of these required parent-led classes is frequently very low -- parents have enough on their plates between homeschooling all week + kid sports/activities + cooking/cleaning/church/etc. Who has time to spend a few hours a week prepping to teach a class that your student may not even be in?

In my 18 years of watching homeschool co-ops in our city: every co-op that was only all-parent-led and required parents to teach, assist, or work in some way, died within 3 years. Parents just burn out. It's very difficult to find parents with both the skills AND the willingness AND the TIME to teach the higher level subjects that parents of middle/high school students really want help with -- Writing, Math, Science labs, Foreign Language. What *has* worked in our city a co-op is a hybrid: some classes for a fee led by an "outsider" (professional or retired homeschooler), and some free classes offered by motivated parents who have students in the co-op. That way, as the free parent-led classes come and go, the for-a-fee classes keep going and keep families coming back.
 

3 hours ago, MJmom said:

... My idea is to meet every 2 weeks as a co-op to door some of rfwp's problem-based learning (so cool!), a Spanish conversation club, a science lab and maybe art history/art. In the future we could add Shakespeare, debate, logic...
... activities that are hard to replicate at home

I think this is very do-able -- and desirable -- for middle school. Probably far less so for high school.

Again, just my experience in my city:
By high school, a lot of the homeschool families are outsourcing their teens' classes to either online classes or dual enrollment at the community college, so they have schedule conflicts and can't come to co-op. Or students need all their time for the homework of those online or DE classes, and don't have time to come to enrichment co-op.

Or, if parents do bring their high schoolers to a co-op class, it's because the class helps them accomplish a *credit* (or partial credit) for the transcript -- example: Science lab at a co-op that matches their at-home Science program, which takes some of the load off the parent to make the lab happen. In contrast, a Spanish enrichment club that doesn't fully knock out their required foreign language credit would be far less attended by high school students in our city. Debate, Logic, Art History, and Shakespeare are *awesome* extras -- but parents of *high school* students are usually desperate to check the required boxes FIRST: Writing/Literature; Math; Science; and Foreign Language. If they can get some of those credits covered or assisted with at co-op, THEN parents are much more likely to have their teens join in for the "extras".

At least that has been my experience of seeing families at our co-op.
 

3 hours ago, MJmom said:

... We do belong to several groups, our main one being a weekly park play group. I actually love that they just get to play without pseudo teaching. We are in a few other groups that offer various nature classes and cool field trips...

...  I do want to provide my kids with chances to play and engage with friends...
... My idea is to meet every 2 weeks...
... I'd also like to have us do 1 social and 1 service activity a month...
... The social and service could be open to more families...

Based on these items on your "wish list", perhaps consider starting with a tween/teen social support group, and then see if enough dedicated parents WANT an academic enrichment co-op and are the kind of people who will help make it happen, and happen *well*. That would be far less of a "headache project" than all the issues that arise in running a co-op.

Example of a homeschool support group with social emphasis for teens: our homeschool group has a Student Council, for students in grades 6-12. Student Council members meet once a month after the Park Day time (maybe your older students could meet during Park Day play time??), at which the students break out into their committees and plan the (and execute) the once-a-month social activity and the once-a-month community service activity *for the following month*.

Less formal are the "Junior High Boys" and "Junior High Girls" groups of our homeschool support group. Each group plans on doing 1-2 events per month; some years, the "spearheading" parent makes all the phone calls to set up events and keeps everyone in the loop with the details. Other years, the families each take a turn hosting/planning/overseeing one event, and by the end of the school year 8-12 events happened.

Don't mean to sound like a "downer" about your ideas, lol. Truly, if you can find a good group of like-minded people with energy and dedication, a co-op can be fantastic! I believe Mom31257 of these boards has been running just such a co-op (although it's for all ages) for years, and it sounds fantastic. Hope it will work out for you, as well. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

3 hours ago, MJmom said:

... I think there's a growing feeling that it would be nice to just have something just for middle and high school students here.  Parents can swap or find child care for their younger ones. Down the road, I'd be open to a mom with younger kids creating a program for them, but I just can't see devoting energy to that personally. 

When my boys hit middle school, I organized a series of field trips that were JUST for grades 6-12 and parents. That was great! However, as long as I had several other moms who were attending, I allowed drop-off, as some parents had younger children and just couldn't always find child care or swap care.

[MJmom]

Thank you, Lori D. You offered a lot of wisdom and I'm going to take time to think it over. Regarding the Microsoft class, it was a little one who couldn't read, just an example of an inappropriate age range. I think it's fine to work with various levels, but in the same age range. I don't know why so many classes are 5-15 here!  It just doesn't work. I get the feeling that the organizers are just very kind and welcoming, but even they are getting a bit frustrated at the outcomes.

I think you're right about the older teens. My kids are both entering the logic stage so that is my focus. I don't mind welcoming hs kids, because it's not like they would be distracting and they might get something out of it. My purpose is to build this around my kids. I think getting a chance to interact with peers and build class discussions would be helpful now. I also see it as a chance to test the waters and make connections that might allow the group to grow into something more appropriate for high school. By that, I really mean someone to run great science labs and a chance for my children to build relationships with teachers who could write letters of recommendation. If it doesn't work, I might consider the long schlep to a group that's has an amazing teen program. (It's an hour away, so I'd rather not.) Many families do DE here and we may explore that as well.

I agree with potentially hiring teachers. I really want this to be a quality program. If the people who have expressed interest follow through, I think we'd have some highly qualified teachers for this fall. My concern is some of us (including me) also work from home which means we are stretched pretty thin. I want to avoid a situation where I am taking time away from my work and family to teach someone else's kids for free while they get work done. In that case, I would want to charge for my time. Our local culture makes me wary of people not showing up on time and blaming traffic, so that's another reason to want parents on site. I don't know how to do things slapdashed, so I'm sure my classes will take time to plan. My first choice would be to keep costs low by everyone contributing, because I know cost eliminates some families' ability to participate. I guess I'll have to see....

I appreciate all the comments. I've been lurking on these boards, saving posts, and scribbling recommendations for a long time. I wish it was easier to find like-minded mamas with children the same ages as mine who have the exact same schedule locally. Until then, this forum is very helpful. 🙏🏻💕

 

 

[MJmom]

One more thing, I don't envision separate classes like many co-ops. I see this as a morning where the kids work in a large group and break into smaller groups as the subjects flow. I want to facilitate friendships and keep the organization needs low.

[mom31257]

Thanks for the mention, Lori D.!!

I do believe our co-op is truly wonderful! God has blessed it in so many ways. He always sends up the families we need to make everything happen! 

We began centered around an IEW writing class for a group of kids and younger siblings had a story time and craft type class. We then broke into boy and girl groups for life skills classes.

That was seven years ago. We still meet every other week, but we have classes for all ages. Our enrollment for next year is 85 students with 36 families total, and we have a waiting list. We only meet sixteen days each school year, eight per semester. In 4th grade and older, we usually offer two academic classes with homework and one elective class for fun. Younger than that is normally enrichment classes. I will be teaching a writing class next year for 2nd-3rd that will have some homework.

We are not a drop off program, and we tell parents this up front. Parents come and stay the whole time teaching and/or helping in classes. In scheduling the parents, lead teachers get one period off as a planning period. Non-lead teacher parents have to assist in classes the whole time, and we ask them to clean more often than lead teachers. 

We do not hire teachers, but we ask each person who requests to join how they feel they can contribute to the co-op  and let them know we expect them to do so. We have several former teachers, a few nurses, a nurse anesthetist, a mom with a doctorate in math education,  and we just had a mom join who was an English professor for 10 years.  We don't advertise our co-op, so it's more by invitation. That allows us to think about who we want to join. 

Our costs are very low because of not hiring staff. Families have to buy curricula, pay supply fees to the teachers and the co-op for cleaning supplies, and give a minimum donation to the church each semester. 

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to try and answer them. 

[mom31257]

2 hours ago, Lori D. said:

When my boys hit middle school, I organized a series of field trips that were JUST for grades 6-12 and parents. That was great! However, as long as I had several other moms who were attending, I allowed drop-off, as some parents had younger children and just couldn't always find child care or swap care.

Our homeschool support group has been offering middle/high school social events for 2 years now. We actually want drop off because we don't want younger siblings hanging out. This is a time for them to be away from the little kids. We do things like meet at Dairy Queen, have game days, go ice skating, etc. The moms who plan it (I'm one of them) are moms who don't have younger kids. It has been a good thing so far. We aim for three each semester.  

I like the idea of field trips just for older kids, though. 

[Lori D.]

10 minutes ago, mom31257 said:

Our homeschool support group has been offering middle/high school social events for 2 years now. We actually want drop off because we don't want younger siblings hanging out. This is a time for them to be away from the little kids. We do things like meet at Dairy Queen, have game days, go ice skating, etc. The moms who plan it (I'm one of them) are moms who don't have younger kids. It has been a good thing so far. We aim for three each semester.  

I like the idea of field trips just for older kids, though. 

Yes, that's what our homeschool group's Student Council and Youth activities is all about -- drop off events (with a small handful of adults) for socializing, fun, or community service, with no younger siblings. It is a special event at the end of each school year when there is the end-of-the-year party and the 5th graders who will be 6th grade are invited to attend and see what it's all about, and meet the older youth. :)

Some of the Youth (gr. 6-12) social events include things like:
- a hike
- air soft / paintball / laser tag
- rock climbing or trampoline venue
- game night (play board/card games and have snacks)
- mini-golf / go karts / etc.
- parties of different types (swim party; Christmas party; costume party)
- movie night (family with a video projector projects a movie, and kids bring snacks)

For the Junior High group social events, the groups are much smaller -- maybe 6-10 kids, so the activities can be more intimate. For example, the girls have done special crafts, stamping/making cards, jewelry making, or made some baked goods together.

For 10 years, I coordinated the speakers for our annual Youth Seminar, an event for grades 6-12 and parents -- a sort of careers-day speakers + demos, hands-on, speakers on teen topics (such as driving), and organizations that youth could get involved with -- anything from Search & Rescue, to Community Youth Theater, to Worldview Academy. And usually a "track" of sessions for older students or parents on things like college search, college reps, alternatives to college, etc. SUPER fun event! We started the day with a keynote speaker, and then had 6 45-minute time slots, with 3-4 speakers in each, so students could choose which speaker to go to at each time slot. And we served lunch halfway through the day. The last few years I was involved, I was lining up 25-28 sessions, and we were getting 150-180 people attending. Whew!

[Garga]

When my oldest was in middle school, we were at co-op and there was a mom there with middle-school aged kids and a highschooler.  Her high schooler wasn’t at co-op and I asked why.  She said, “Oh, she has no time at all to get to co-op.  Her high school classes are already too much and it stresses her out to think of trying to fit in co-op.”  And honestly, I thought, “Yeah, right.  Her daughter is probably not working efficiently or something.”

And then my oldest hit 9th grade. Yikes! High school takes all his time.  There’s no way he can go to co-op.  He’d be miserable trying to juggle another thing in his already busy day.  I finally understood what that co-op mom meant.

However, with that said, there are a few high schoolers at our co-op.  They’re students who are not very academically minded so an enrichment co-op works really well for them and is a great blessing to them.  But if you think the kids in your co-op will be on a college track, then maybe the co-op should offer classes that count as solid high-school credit.  A high school credit is between 120 and 180 hours of school work, including instruction time and time spent working at home (120-180 depending on whether it’s an elective, a core class, or a class with labs.).  So the class would have to be substantial.  

What our co-op does offer for older kids that can work well are drop off fun events where two adults stay to supervise, but any other adults leave: ice cream parlors, bowling, movies, escape room.  Sometimes we still can’t go to the events because they’ll be scheduled somewhat in the middle of a school day and we school until about 4 and so it doesn’t work for us, but when they’re scheduled for later, that works better.  Even those can be tough for us to attend because they conflict with other standing plans my sons have.  

Basically, I think co-ops are wonderful for 8th and below, but it can get tricky for high school.  You’d have to think very carefully about how to handle high school students at a co-op.  You’d have to understand the goals of the students you have in mind to determine whether there’s time in their day to fit in co-ops, and you’d have to consider how rigorous you want the high school co-op classes to be to decide what types of students you could draw to the co-op.  Kids who aren’t burdened with a college-track load?  Or college-bound kids who want core classes taught at co-op?  Each of those groups would have different needs for a co-op.

I know you don’t want to have younger kids in the co-op and figure that the parents will handle their own childcare needs, but if it gets bigger, then you’d probably have to offer preschool and young kid classes so that those kids have somewhere to be while the parents teach.  But if it’s bigger, then you’d have more parents to pull from to teach the preschoolers/younger elementary kids, so that problem might solve itself.

ETA: drop off events are for 13 years old and up.  One time a few 11 year olds were allowed to join in and it quickly became apparent that the maturity levels made it tricky for the teens to connect with each other with the 11yos wiggling around being goofy 11 yos. They couldn’t help it, that’s just how 11 yos are, but the adults realized that they’d have to be firm on the 13 and up policy for the teen drop offs.  Well, that’s the last I heard...we haven’t been able to go to an event in many months, so maybe they relaxed the rule, but at the time it seemed best to keep firm on the age requirement.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Garga

[mom31257]

6 hours ago, Garga said:

When my oldest was in middle school, we were at co-op and there was a mom there with middle-school aged kids and a highschooler.  Her high schooler wasn’t at co-op and I asked why.  She said, “Oh, she has no time at all to get to co-op.  Her high school classes are already too much and it stresses her out to think of trying to fit in co-op.”  And honestly, I thought, “Yeah, right.  Her daughter is probably not working efficiently or something.”

And then my oldest hit 9th grade. Yikes! High school takes all his time.  There’s no way he can go to co-op.  He’d be miserable trying to juggle another thing in his already busy day.  I finally understood what that co-op mom meant.

However, with that said, there are a few high schoolers at our co-op.  They’re students who are not very academically minded so an enrichment co-op works really well for them and is a great blessing to them.  But if you think the kids in your co-op will be on a college track, then maybe the co-op should offer classes that count as solid high-school credit.  A high school credit is between 120 and 180 hours of school work, including instruction time and time spent working at home (120-180 depending on whether it’s an elective, a core class, or a class with labs.).  So the class would have to be substantial.  

 

I think this is why our model has worked so well. We only meet 16 days per school year, and most of that day is support of what is being done at home. We only meet for about half a day as well.

For example, we usually offer science. The class time is used to review for tests and to do the labs.  We usually offer literature/writing classes. Writing methods are taught, literature is discussed, and presentations are made. These are great support to high school classes. That's not to say there isn't a little stress when projects or papers are due at co-op. I feel a little of that is just getting them ready for life, though. 

We do normally have electives without any or much homework. This year was an exception because I decided to offer government/econ as an option. Again, this was a great supplement to what was being done at home. 

The kids get to experience some things they might not at home, too, which I think is one great benefit of a co-op. This year we had a mock election, mock trials, a crime investigation, and two groups presenting a wax museum.  Next year we have a group who will put on a play, make the props, etc. We have a mom who is teaching real wood working skills and another mom teaching career skills (resumes, interviews, etc.) and exploring careers with guest speakers. Another group will be exploring foreign languages and the cultures they are spoken in. 

None of our families want co-op to take over our lives. In fact, we have several new families coming next year from Classical Conversations because of our model versus its model. I don't even think it is the cost that has motivated it.

If you work hard to keep the co-op with the vision you have, then I think you can make it work. We have had families who would love for it to meet weekly. We have had families who wanted less homework and more enrichment. Those families are free to stay or go, and we don't take it personally. The board has set the vision for the co-op, and it will remain that way. I started the co-op, and my ds is 10th grade. So I told the board that we needed to start working on someone to take over as director and train with me. The first thing they said was it had to be someone who would keep the vision the same and not try to change the direction of the co-op. We have a person, who I think will do a great job. And the best thing is that I see this organization lasting for years to come.  

Really think about what you want it to be and then find the people who want the same thing. 

[Momto6inIN]

I think it's possible you may be projecting too much into the future to be able to predict what your high schoolers will need ...

As Garga mentioned, high school takes a LOT of time. And most of the co-ops I've seen (never joined, but heard from others who are in them) are not all that academic in nature.

We've had better luck cultivating friendships/social interaction and group collaboration by having our teens join clubs and organizations based on their interests and finding their tribe that way instead of having one picked out by their parents as a result of which moms decide to go to which co-op together. With only so much time in a week, my teens would much rather spend a whole day per week with their speech and debate team or their drama troupe doing stuff collaboratively with them on those types of projects and doing their academic work at home than (in their words, not mine) waste their schoolwork time with a co-op and not have as much time to do extracurricular stuff that really matters to them. YMMV of course

[BakersDozen]

Having a middle/high school co-op for my kids was the best thing I've ever done as far as home schooling. The challenge my kids got from being with their peers and knowing they had to show up prepared (or look/sound foolish) was amazing! Initially I limited it to just 7th-12th and it worked wonderfully. I never required parents to stay, mostly because they had younger children (whom I didn't want here) and I would have lost students had that requirement been in place. I do, however, have a strict attendance policy; if kids don't show up, they are dropped. Usually the parents step up and make sure that requirement is met. I kept my co-op classes 100% academic in nature - no fluff. We covered Physics, U.S. History (AP level), Literature, Speech/Debate, Ethics, Government, Economics, Psychology, and Art History. I know that time is important especially in those high school years so every class was well worth the drive/effort for my families. We meet weekly and each class takes 1.5-2 hours (otherwise I could cover everything) and it's worked just great.

I have had parents balk at the idea of a high school co-op (not so much middle school...those classes are very popular) yet once their student is involved and the parents realize the work their kid is doing I get nothing but good feedback. But again, I don't waste any time and I set the bar very, very high as far as work, attendance, etc.

So obviously I'm all for starting/hosting co-ops, especially for high school. Starting a co-op for middle school students ensured that those kids continued on through high school which I absolutely loved.