Our Co-Oping Journey

One of the first concerns nearly every new homeschool parent has is the fear of their kids not getting enough social interaction. It doesn't help that when well meaning friends and family who don't homeschool are also voicing their concerns. In our quest to "socialize" our kids, many of us will join a co-op with hopefully like minded families who can join us on our homeschooling journey. Not only are we gaining a community for ourselves and our children, but we are also checking off some of those academic checkboxes. Co-ops can be especially helpful if you find one offering classes that you don't enjoy teaching or feel like you aren't able to provide at a quality level. In our case that was P.E..

We excitedly joined a co-op when Saha began Kindergarten. It was set up so that students could attend 5 classes throughout the day, one day a week. The parents stayed on site and volunteered in various ways ranging from teaching to rocking babies. I chose mostly academic classes that year in hopes that we could supplement what we were already doing at home the other 4 days of the week. I quickly realized that what we were doing at home didn't mesh at all with what we were doing at co-op. Some of the classes would send homework to be done later in the week. This became a huge burden on us because it became just one more thing to do when we were already working out of another curriculum in that same subject. Spending time on homework for co-op caused us to get behind in our studies at home which are the ones I felt were more important. I was viewing co-op as a supplement, but after talking to other parents I found out that many of them were using those classes as their base. Everyone has their own styles of homeschooling and I respect that, but for our family, using co-op classes as our spine wouldn't be enough. We made it through that first year but I decided that the next couple years I would only sign my kids up for extra curricular type classes and not academics. Saha and Bot both enjoyed classes like lapbooking the Bible, sign language, dance, piano, music, sensory time, etc.... Stuff that I most likely would never do at home. The only academic class we stuck with was the American Girl class which studied history through the American Girl books. Saha could easily do her assigned homework reading while we were in the car and we even listened to some of them on audio during our 30 minute commute back and forth to the co-op.

Once we figured out that the "fun" extra curricular classes were the best fit for us, everything seemed like it should be perfect. We no longer had extra homework but we still were battling the fact that we lost a full homeschool day each week. I like to keep a few days in reserve for when we just want to take a day off to play outside, take a field trip, or need to run to appointments. I felt like I never could have free days because we were really only doing 4 days of academics to begin with. Plus the 30 minute drive both ways was really wearing on me. All of the friends we had made at co-op lived at least 30 minutes away so playdates were few and far between. That kind of defeated the purpose we intended on in the beginning.  After three years I decided it was time to make a switch so that we could get the community we needed for social and academic purposes. I chose a completely different co-op only 10 minutes down the road from our house. This one is a hybrid school with Saha going two days a week to a classroom with a teacher and then at home the remaining three days. They provide us with a curriculum list and assignments so our work meshes with their work. I won't lie. I have struggled tremendously with giving up control of picking our curriculum but Saha is entrenched with a great group of friends that she also sees at church and other community functions. THAT is exactly what we were looking for. Bot is an almost identical program at his Autism therapy center, also 10 minutes down the road.

Looking back on all of this I realize that if I had known then what I know now, I would have kept my kids home full time and never did a co-op those first few years. We spent so much time playing catch up that we didn't get to do as many field trips and fun activities as I had wanted. Now that Saha is going into 4th grade, I do think our hybrid school set up is good for her as her academic work becomes more strenuous and there is more accountability in her assignments. The downside is, we still don't have a ton of wiggle room in our schedule.

I guess the moral of the story is that you have to sit down and figure out exactly what your vision is year to year. If you are like me and focused on a keeping a set schedule for academics, then I would caution you to strongly consider if a co-op will be beneficial or if it will become a burden. I don't think co-ops are a necessity for homeschooling, especially if your kids are already involved in extra curricular activities and have a good group of friends. If however, you are feeling lonely on your homeschooling journey and are looking for some extra classes for you kids, then a co-op is the way to go.

Homeschool time with our kids is valuable, fleeting,  and so very precious. Use your time wisely.