Co-op/christian school

[Rlight]

Hello all.

I'm new to these boards and saw this board on homeschooling.

I have had a burden about this for a while and wanted to ask a few questions.

I have been thinking about a co-op that runs in our church. Basically, with the pastor and leadership's permission, we could use the room and building and etc for a homeschool co-op. I'm not sure what my question is except to ask those of you with more experience with co-ops how this differs from basically starting a private school. My thoughts are this.

1. The parents would need to be involved on a daily basis, this is not a drop em off and pick them up. Everyparent would be involved in some way.
2. The cost would be covered by a combination of church giving and fee's for the co-op
3. Basically we would pull from different parents talents and abilities and have a co-op based school at our church. It would probably be limited to church members.

I know this is not some ground breakin new idea but I can't find anything like it around me. What are your thoughts?

[NewWorldOrder]

All of the co-ops I have ever worked with opened up their co-op to all homeschoolers, not just members of the church that was hosting the co-op. You can certainly do that if you choose, but then you are missing out on an excellent ministry by doing so.

Most co-ops only operate 1 or 2 days per week, for about 6 to 8 hours each day, offering different classes based on what kind of interest they may have. Co-ops can have all parent teachers who volunteer, or, like the co-op we attend, they pay their teachers but it's not very much. A lot of times, the payment can be free classes for the teacher's children.

What I recommend you do, is contact other co-ops in your area and ask them what their procedures are and what their policies are. They will all be a little different, so maybe you could pick the policies and procedures you like and then start from there. The co-op we go to, started out really small at a church in a town not far from us, but they started growing so much, that they broke it up into two co-ops, and the second co-op meets in a different town in a different church. They are an incredible group, and we have over 600 families, and each year we graduate about 20 - 25 kids whom we have a commencement for, but their diplomas are given to them by their parents not the co-op.

[Rlight]

see, my biggest fear in homeschooling is loosing the social connection that kids have with each other. I see some homeschool kids that do not attend a co-op and they have problems interacting in a group. That could also be parental problems to I guess. My daughter is 4 and attending a private school Voluntary Pre-K next year at a Baptist church. After that we don't know what we will do. There is a good Christian School in the area but its a 45 minute drive and its tends to be just a bit on the legalistic side IMHO. I have no faith in the public school system at all and I think there are more parents like me at our church that would be interested.

The other issue is my daughter. She is very strongwilled and she and wife go toe to toe almost everyday. I'm not sure if Homeschooling is for her, but maybe in the setting of a regular co-op, with other teachers. Are there any homeschool parents with strong willed kids? I'm sure there are! How's that going for you?

[Reason&Hope]

I've done both full-time at-home homeschooling and I've been involved in 3 different co-ops (at different times) and our church is also starting a co-op this year.

Parents on campus: this has been a must at all the co-ops I've been in. It's usually an insurance liability issue.

You said, "we could use the room." Is that a typo, or will there be only one room? If you have only one room, then you will have to really limit the age group. You can have a range of ages in a class, but there are limits; such as: 4-6 grade, or K-3, or 7-9 grade. If you have a broader subject in which people will be learning at their own pace, you can have a broader age range.
Even if you have more than one room, it's often best to begin with a limited age group. It's the old don't bite off more than you can chew principle.

Responsibilities and fees. There should be a standard fee to join the group as a whole (for admin, insurance, etc.). At the big co-op I go to, everyone is assigned a volunteer job. At the smaller co-op, we had a rotating list of jobs, with one or two jobs that were permanent. Fees for classes: at the big co-op, we pay the teachers on a monthly basis. Actually, a facilitator handles all that stuff for the teacher. At the smaller co-op, we paid for each semester, in advance, to the teacher.

In general, money is better than bartering teaching, because not all classes will have equal responsibilities, etc.

The first thing to do is to find out who is interested and what their needs are. Then find out what the different parents can do. The small co-op that a friend started last year began with a survey asking:
ages of kids
what kinds of classes they're interested in (art, PE*, languages, math, history . . . )
what subjects the parent thinks they could teach
what days of the week would be best

*PE is a great thing to offer homeschoolers! It fills a real need and it gives the kids an active break. And it doesn't require mastery - just a few balls, a whistle and a fun teacher.