Posted by Christina in GA

I tried a science co-op that ended up a disaster. People who promised to help didn't help. I dealt with all the purchases for the group, then people ended up not coming to most of them. I wanted to do a lot, but with a small amount of funds and almost no help or participation, it just didn't work out. I don't know that I would attempt another co-op again. Anything that I want to do I just do on my own with my son.

Posted by Lilliepad

I was just out for a random blog and your site came up. My second year of homeschooling I started a small science co-op with another woman from my support group. Before we did anything, we prayed that God would send us the right families for the group. We kept ours to five families that lived within a five mile radius of one another. We all had similar parenting and homeschooling styles which worked well. At first we met every week for three hours in the morning. That was too much and we cut it back to every other week. It was such a success that the following year we did it again, only it wasn't a science co-op, but each mom taught her specialty. If you have other questions, I'd be happy to help. Our co-op was a real blessing and we still have some lasting friendships from it.

Posted by SchoolinRhome

I started a co-op in our church for our church families. I organize it but it is run by all the moms. Everyone decides what they want to teach and the teacher is resposible for photocopies etc. for all the students in her class. If there is a project that was costly, then the teacher announces the upcoming project and cost (never more than $2 or $3 per student) and the parents than pay that. We charge nothing else for the co-op. Each mother does her class and helps with lunch and clean-up and it works out well. I make a schedule for the day and I kind of keep things running throughout the day. We only meet once a month.10 am -3pm. We do videos in the afternoon for the smaller (napping) children while the other classes go on. We usually do classes that can include a wide variety of ages. We do a nutrition and cooking class, art appreciation, a Bible lesson, the human body systems, latin roots, and we might do a play. In the past, we did some songs, sign language, character traits, Historical People and lapbooks. We have had many families outside our church ask to join in our co-op. We have about 9 families with 30 children. We meet at our church and each family brings one part of the lunch. (That I co-ordinate too.) Give it a try if the Lord so leads you! It has been a blessing and the kids love it! They do the classes in a group setting plus they get to do show and tell and we do a month to month Cretive Writing assignment. (They stand up and read them aloud.)
Best wishes
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SchoolinRhome