Minute to Minute
Readers Helping Readers

October 20th, 2007

Since last week when Nancy wrote in asking how to unschool her co-op group, Minute to Minute received numerous helpful letters. Among these was a letter from Heidi who works with our partners First Class Homeschool Ministries. Because First Class Homeschool Ministries helps churches start homeschool co-ops, Heidi has had much experience co-oping. We are grateful for her words of advice and hope they help Nancy and all of our readers who face the co-op dilemma.

Please enjoy Heidi's letter as well as the letters from our readers, and remember, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:6) If you place the Lord first, whether in homeschooling, co-ops meetings, or support groups, He will direct your time and help your children to learn and play together.

Something Special

From Our Partners at First Class Homeschool Ministries

Dear Nancy,

You've asked a great question. One of the beautiful things about a homeschool co-op is that children and parents are there voluntarily. Since they choose to be there (as opposed to being sent to school), they usually choose the classes they are taking based on interest. When children have a genuine interest in a subject or a skill, they are motivated from the inside-out, making the classroom experience at the co-op enjoyable for both the teaching parent and the students.

At our co-op, we encourage the parents to help their children choose classes based on the interests of the children, rather than "forcing" them to take a class that the parents are interested in but in which the children have little to no interest. This really cuts down, and in most cases, eliminates the "disinterested child" syndrome that we see in many traditional school settings.

Most homeschool co-ops are designed (or should be) to supplement what is being taught
at home, not replace it. Of course there are exceptions. Even though most of the classes offered at our co-op are considered "supplemental," we also offer a few "core" classes, especially for older students. This year, our oldest daughter, a sophomore, is taking an Apologia Chemistry course through our co-op. Just by being there one afternoon a week, she has been challenged in her schoolwork and has made several wonderful friends who are also homeschooling.

The goal of co-ops should be to nurture the relationships that help us all "go the distance" in home education, help create wonderful friendships for our families, and empower parents so that they have the support and encouragement that they need to keep homeschooling all the way through high school. Co-ops can make all the difference in the journey!

Blessings,

Heidi, First Class Homeschool Ministries

Small vs. Large Co-ops

Dear Nancy,

As a military family, we've had the opportunity to be involved with various co-ops throughout our 16 years of homeschooling. The small 3-5 family co-op was the closest to an "unschooling" situation as we've ever found. The small numbers resulted in more intimate, lifelong relationships. You can find families that are like-minded with children that match up for playmates and build from there. We used character based unit studies and did lots of hands on teaching. The highlights for the children were the many field trips we'd go on. The best part for me was the accountability and the good use of time. I figure if we're going to build and erupt a volcano, we might as well invite some friends to join us. By keeping our numbers down, we were able to be flexible.

On the other hand, we are now involved with a larger co-op that offers classes to all ages. I have been thrilled by the subjects my children have been offered and don't find the classroom setting to be too much for them. There are some things that cannot be accomplished in a home setting, like the public speaking experience our high schoolers are getting from an Oral Communications class. I also am very grateful to the ladies who stepped in to teach dissection last year; what a blessing to have all those various animal parts at the church instead of in my kitchen! The younger classes offered in this larger setting are varied but include time playing outdoors. This is a great opportunity for our children to learn to play with others and to listen to other adults. Keeping order in a larger setting makes it look like a more "traditional schooling" but the interaction between the students and the teachers is much different than I experienced as a public school student.

Pray about your situation and see what God has planned for you and your family. It may be that a smaller family co-op is what you are looking for. I'm confident that as you seek God on this journey, He will equip you for the good works He has planned for you.

Blessings,

Barbara

6 Ways to Focus on Relationship Building

Dear Nancy,

This is truly a tricky thing. Here are some of the things that we do--boundaries we put around ourselves--to stop slipping over into school mode.

1. Focus on relationships. We try to see ourselves as a group of moms getting together for a structured "play" date. Though it may be a play on words, using different vocab does help with changing mindsets. If the organizer of the day is having a bad day, we cancel activities and have a cup of tea (at least for a while). This is what we would do if we were stay-at-home moms prior to homeschooling. Relationships between the moms and kids come first. We make room if a relationship needs to be patched; we cover for each other as friends do.

2. Keep away from public meeting places such as halls and meeting rooms. As soon as we use such a venue we seem to put on a school attitude; we become formal and forget that we are a group of moms. We have had better times in a home, or park area. Though it may be tricky to find a home big enough to accommodate the size of your group, the benefits of keeping a family atmosphere are huge, just think of it as a Christmas party. In a home there are extra rooms (to put babies to sleep in), and there are kitchen facilities clean and ready to go. It has a homestyle atmosphere ready for relationships.

3. Choose activities that are beneficial to all ages, and limit how many peer group activities you have. We keep peer activities to families to arrange for their own children outside of co-op times. When we have to break up into smaller groups we try and have mixed ages, though we generally break up family groups so the children are interacting with different kids. Even with social time we encourage the children to look out for each other which reduces the opportunity for peer-clickiness.

4. Don't us overly academic teaching matter. We choose more interactive, hands on type experiences. We have felt that learning academic subjects are best left to smaller groups such as 2-3 families. Our focus is for our children to learn to work together with
other people, to build relationships (but not through free play), to encourage each others strengths and weaknesses, and to try different things.

5. Don't totally break down family groups. We actually encourage the older kids to look after their toddler siblings if appropriate. This has also been particularly helpful where there are learning difficulties as the older siblings encourage their peers how to be helpful, kind, and considerate to a child with LD.

6. Moms stay for the duration. The moms are involved with their children throughout the morning even if it is just one mom leading the activity. We are a group of families homeschooling; we don't use co-op as a rostered day off. This helps spread the load of a lot of little children and helps us when dealing with discipline issues.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to you. I must admit this relationship focus is harder the bigger the group grows and sometimes I think we have to bite the bullet and recognize the group may need to be smaller to achieve all our goals.

All the best with your co-op,

Belinda

The Co-op Spirit Even With Some Structure

Dear Nancy,

Let's be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water. In other words, examine what you mean by "all the absurdities and repressions we've rejected by choosing to homeschool."

For example (although a pretty silly one) in my homeschool co-op we use tables and chairs in the classes. Just because institutional schools use tables and chairs, should we reject them? Of course not! We need a place to sit, a place to put books and papers.

In some of our co-op classes for high school we grade work and assign a grade at the end of the semester. Schools do that too, but many of the co-op teachers find that the grade motivates students to be more diligent. It also prepares them to work under deadlines and authority similar to what they'll encounter in adult life.

Here are some other random thoughts:

Our homeschool co-op rejects most school-based curriculum and has wonderfully creative teachers that make up their own lessons. That's the co-oping spirit!

Encourage co-op leaders to be flexible. Schools are rigid but we can change, adapt, and bend. If a 2nd grader wants to be in a 3rd grade class, be flexible and let her!

Avoid homework in the younger grades. Assign no grades at all in the 1-6th grade years.

Offer fun classes like Legos, Vikings, Choir, Gym, Cooking, etc. . . No homework, just learning!

Emphasize learning over grades. In my Personal Finance class for high schoolers I tell them that learning is more important than getting the exact correct answer. So I grade on completeness of assignments. I also give them the correct answer, but they are rewarded for completeness.

Have rules for safety's sake. "No running" is a good rule because someone will get hurt if we allow running in the halls.

Just some thoughts. Hope it helps!

Carol, Homeschool CPA

Co-op Ideas From Other Homeschool Moms. . . .

My recommendation is that you make sure the subject, no matter what it is, has a hands-on approach and can be done with a partner or group interaction. Classes at co-op do not have to be the standard. I teach a creative ministries class at my co-op. It includes drama, sign, and many other things that we do together. I did make sure to replace the idea of a class project with a team project and allow the children to tell me when they have better ideas that they would like put into action. We recently had a pizza party where the children had time to interact and practice a piece that they were excited about learning. I bet you would get some great recommendations from the children themselves on how to combine the interaction with learning.

~Sharon

I would suggest that co-op be reserved only for areas that lend themselves better to group activities (i.e. choir, orchestra, drama, and possibly speech and debate). Most learning is more efficient, more effective, and more meaningful when it takes place through private, one-on-one tutoring. Do not allow a setting with one teacher and fifteen students. If the children are there, the parents should be there also. Sometimes I have seen two families share or trade teaching. For example: one mother can't sew but can bake bread. The other mother can't bake but can sew. The two families exchange children once a week or so and cover those skills for each other. ~Mary Beth

We try to do as many hands-on activities as possible. All the cool science experiments and art lessons that we never get to do at home make great lessons for co-op classes.
~Jasmine

I teach two classes at our local homeschool co-op, and I believe the key to loving all your classes is that they must be fun activities that use almost all hands-on activities. We have been studying Africa in my geography class so we have made salt clay topographical maps, African huts, and clay hieroglyphics. The kids love the class and have learned so many things they will never forget. I think the key is to do things the kids might not do at home and make it fun! The other class I teach is a conflict resolution class and we do lots of role plays. I pick a few kids to act out situations together. They love it and so do I. I leave all the really boring book work to be done at home so the time we have together is fun but also educational!! I believe this can be done at all levels. The kids will want to come to their classes, and they will learn more and enjoy time with their friends!

~Laura

It is great to have children together for a fun time of learning. I would suggest a unit study. All the families study a topic at home and then come together to share some of what they learned. For example, in a study of Mexico there are several different areas of study such as holidays, education, games, food, families, geography, history. Each family could take a different area to study and then bring it all together. The game family could share games, making it fun for everyone. You could share food; therefore, they could eat. Art projects revolving around the theme would be fun. In this type of study everyone participates and learns from others. It is fun, exciting, and there is fellowship while learning.
~Jane

You ask about making a home school co-op group less like school and more of a social opportunity. My first question would be, is this the goal for everyone in the group? People come into co-op situations with differing expectations and ideas. Often parents join a co-op hoping to enrich their children's educational experience in areas where they, as teachers, feel weak. Others see it as a chance to socialize with like-minded families. If your group has differing expectations, you need to address that first. One solution may be to have the older children design the lessons and teach the younger ones. They could spend one meeting time planning the lesson and deciding what part of the activity each one would be in charge of and the next meeting actually teaching the lesson. This has benefits on many levels. The older children can choose topics of interest to them, spend time on their own learning more about the topic, and then reinforce their knowledge by teaching it to others. I would think of it as a unit study and include a variety of activities. Have the adults help the older children identify their favorite learning style (hands-on activity, lots of visuals, presenting a skit, showing a video clip, etc.) and plan a part of the lesson that uses that style. Younger children usually respond very well to being mentored in this way by the "big kids." This approach allows for both social interaction between various age groups and educational opportunities they wouldn't get at home.
~Sue

In the one room schools of the past, students did much of their school work orally, using the recitation method, involvement of the students; reciting, discussing, and doing also made the class more exciting. I think that is part of why our co-op choir is so successful. The students are doing (singing and playing bells) and not being lectured. Activities like choir, woodworking, and athletics allow the students to socialize and be actively involved, rather than passively involved in "schoolish" subjects.

~Ladonna

Homeschooling Resources

The Colonial American Lapbook through Knowledge Box Central includes 22 booklets and activities which address John Smith, Pocahontas, William Bradford, Mayflower Compact, Pilgrims, 13 Colonies, Geography, Vocabulary, Colonial Dress & School, First Thanksgiving, William Penn, Holidays, and much more.

Available on CD which allows you to print only the portions you need as you are ready, using your own choices of papers, etc.

Click here to see the E-book version of the Colonial American Lapbook.

Thank you for all your help in aiding Nancy in her co-op predicament. If you have a question you would like to ask please email us. When you email us, you give us permission to post your question in the Minute to Minute e-newsletter or publish it in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's My Voice column if selected.

Sincerely,

Elisabeth Marlowe, The Minute to Minute Editor
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine