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What's the best way to co-op with other families? For the ultimate home schooling tips, visit Jessica teaching co-op at www.homeschoolmentor.com. There are a lot of ways to do a co-op. A friend of mine was in a co-op where all the moms stayed, but they divided into groups - one mom had babies/toddlers for a whole unit, one mom had K-3, one mom had older. If there were more moms, they team taught. They also only met from 9-2. I could never sustain a long day like you had! Our co-op is a "drop-off" co-op. We never have more than 6 or 7 kids involved and there's never more than a 3 year spread (grade wise) with-in the group. If we have a large group with a broad spread (K-7 or8) we break it into 2 smaller groups. The drop-off is great for us. I plan to teach only one or two units - the rest of the year I have those mornings for errands, special time with my toddler, etc. We have 2 planning meetings in the summer-one to choose units, the next to pass out our plans to every mom so we don't duplicate at home what one mom has planned to do on her co-op day with the kids. Another possibility is to do one or two units together, then pursue your own units and meet for a "sharing" day each month where you do some fun activities that don't require any pre-preparation for the others. We did this one year when a bunch of us had babies at the same time. The neat thing was that, on our share day, my son really carried a large part of the teaching because we had completed the unit we were sharing and he had a lot of information. As the other boys left at the end of the day, they told their moms that they wanted to stop at the library and get some books on what we'd done that day! I've found that our best co-ops were shorter but intense days with units lasting 4-6 weeks. We take 2 weeks off between units so everyone can have some breathing time at home. Hope this helps some. Linda Trumbo, KONOS Rep |
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