In my part of Ohio, there are quite a few homeschool co-ops. A co-op or cooperative is a way for parents to provide learning opportunities to their children that they might not be able to easily give them at home. Parents share in the teaching and other responsibilities and it becomes a little community.
For my first decade of homeschooling, we did not belong to a co-op. There really weren’t any although we did have an active support group and we did a lot of things with them.
But when my oldest child started high school, I had the opportunity to put him into a co-op for history and writing. This co-op had a lot of strengths although it was not a co-op in the strictest sense. This one was more tuition-based and the teachers were mostly degreed in the subjects that they taught. It was run much like a regular public or private school classroom and it ended up not being a very good fit for our family.
It was a long time before I ever attempted to be part of a co-op again. In fact, it took seven years for me to even consider joining another co-op and that was literally by accident. I had arranged for some math tutoring for two of my high schoolers and the building that the tutor was in was also housing a homeschool co-op on the very same day. In order to keep little Rosie happy and occupied while her siblings were being tutored (she was 9 at the time) I let her participate in some of the co-op activities. Eventually, my older students also became part of the biology class and choir and before I knew it, we were a homeschool co-op family!
I wrote some of the benefits of being in a homeschool co-op group last fall.
After witnessing the growth of the co-op I’m in, and reading about the struggles other groups have had in the past or going forward, here are my top 6 tips, based solely on my own experience, about how to start and grow a homeschool co-op.
- Find like-minded friends. I think co-ops work best if you can set them up with other homeschool moms with similar goals. Maybe you just want your co-op to offer field trip opportunities for your children. Maybe you want to be able to do science experiments together because you know you wouldn’t do them at home otherwise. Maybe you want to offer music, band, drama, art or some other opportunities that are easier and more fun in a group! Or maybe you want to do a faith-based curriculum with other families. Working with moms who share these same goals can be very satisfying and a lot of fun.
- Start small. Maybe keep the co-op between just you and your friends the first year or two and meet at each other’s homes. That way you won’t be overwhelmed with a lot of administrative duties and can concentrate on the kids and meeting their needs and your educational goals for them.
- Share the work! Running a co-op can be a lot of work if all of the organizational and administrative work falls on one person. While that might be fine when you only have a handful of families, it can become burdensome as you become bigger. Right from the start share the responsibilities and help each other out.
- Keep the costs down! if you view it as a ministry to each other instead of a business, you’ll attract more families and have a longer lifespan as a group.
- Set a schedule for the group and stick with it! When will you meet? For how long? When is the first day and when is the last day? Having that accountability (which is one of the main reasons people join a co-op) will help you meet the goals you set.
- Above all, remember that a co-op is not school! Be flexible and give each other a lot of grace!
