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Theresa
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| Posted: Feb 12 2007 at 10:38pm | IP Logged
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Do you belong to a local homeschool co-op? I did but this last year we haven't been able to go to the weekly gatherings because it is the same day as Andrew's speech and OT.  I miss the fellowship and so do the kids. The group meets for park days from 1-3 on Thursday and the kids just play... its a time to make friendships and just be a kid. What is really fun though is watching how the kids don't always pair up how you think they would. There are groups of girls/boys and olders and youngers etc. Of course there are some gender specific groups or games too but its just like a big family and the kids "all" play together.
The group also has a monthly parent's meeting but it's 30 minutes away and I'm not comfortable leaving Samantha home in the evenings while I'm that far away from home. With no family in town it starts to feel a bit lonely.
So I was wondering how many of you belong to a group and what your groups are like. Do you host? Do you take turns hosting? Is it a craft/project meeting or do you do classes?
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Theresa
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 12 2007 at 11:04pm | IP Logged
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You know.. homeschooled kids in general do the multi-age thing real well.
we went to another town, knew none of the kids, when we wanted to have our oldest tested.. and the other kids waiting (distances limit running back and forth) and all the kids when on break played together.. at one time all the kids waiting from early teen down to my 5 year old were playing a game of tag.
Oh and we do have a homeschool group.. non-denominational/religious and we meet once a month and have a loose activity to do. Sometimes do a field trip together. Mostly it's just time to visit except some of the moms can't handle the chaos of no set activity.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Becky Parker
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When I started homeschooling almost 6 years ago the Catholic HS group only had 3 families in it. The non-denominational group was quite large. I went with the Catholic group and am glad I did. Over the years we have all become such close friends. We have grown to 10 families. This seems perfect as we are now big enough to do things (like our up and coming "Festival of the Arts") but still small enough to have that intimacy and friendship that we all need. We're pretty low key. The moms meet once a month for Mom's Night where we usually do a book discussion or Bible Study. We are currently doing "Women of Grace". We take turns hosting this and it works out perfectly that each Mom hosts it once in the year. (We don't meet in June or July) We also go to Mass on Wednesday afternoons and that is followed by park day when the weather is nice.
One final thing we get together for is our monthly Children's Adoration which is followed by a pot-luck. Other than the occasional field trip that comes up and "Blossoms" (our take on "Little Flowers" for the younger girls) that is about it. There isn't a whole lot of pressure to do a bunch of things which helps me out a lot. The friendships are invaluable and the support, for me, is crucial.
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Becky
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Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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WayTruthLife
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| Posted: Feb 13 2007 at 2:30pm | IP Logged
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I am so blessed to belong to a wonderful co-op at our parish. There are about 10 families on average. We meet once every other week on Tuesday from 2 until 4pm. We do Geography, Latin led by our Priest, and then just an hour of free time for the kids to play games and just be kids! The families in our group are so great and since I have no family around, they have become my sisters! Theresa-we are in the southern metro and would love you to join us! 
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Cheryl
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Theresa,
I asked a similar question recently on this thread.
I don't belong to a co-op. I belong to a Catholic homeschool group that I only see on First Fridays, so I don't really know anyone very well yet. The last one was canceled and the one before it I missed because we were all sick. We start with Mass then go downstairs in the church basement. We bring our own lunches, the kids play and the Moms talk. They have a Mom's Bible study/kids play on Thursday afternoons that I've never been to because I'm always out on Wednesdays and many times out on Fridays. I'm thinking about doing it anyway though, because I think I'm really needing some real life homeschooling mom support.
I used to belong to a secular group in my town, but it was cliquey and sort of fizzled out. There is a new one forming. I've been on field trips with them, but I don't want to go to their meetings that are 45 minutes away.
There's also a large Christian group that has great Mom's meetings (about 30 minutes away), but I stopped going to them when my dd was born. They have lots of activities for older dc.
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Cheryl
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Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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MommyD
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I'm so disappointed in our Catholic group. When I moved to this town 5 years ago, I sought out the Catholic homeschoolers. They had a wonderful group that did activities with the kids. Now everyone has older kids and they are too busy to do things for the younger kids (I only have younger kids). We do stuff with the non-denominational (meaning Protestant) group and it works out okay. Not great and we do get invited to alot of Awana stuff but it is the best alternative to sitting at home 24/7.
MommyD
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Lisbet
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Nope, I don't belong to any group. There are many 'issues' in the local Catholic homeschooling group. Our TORCH group fizzled out. (I kinda let it though, as a leader, my duties at home became too demanding to continue, and no one picked up where I left off.) There is a secular group, it's very secular. And the Protestant group requires signing a statement of faith, one that I don't fully agree with, SO, nope, I don't belong. But I'm very okay with that. There is a great preschool co-op in our area and while they are to big to let more families in, they often invite my children to join them for various activities. I really gel with this group too. Our community also offers much for homeschoolers and we take advantage of those things when they fit our needs.
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Mark, 5
Greta, 3
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Bookswithtea
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We've belonged to homeschool coops. I am recently coming around to the idea that I don't care for them. I have children with a wide variety of ages and it is becoming difficult on the babies/toddlers, although the older ones love it. Once you have older children, it can become quite costly. I've also noticed that the classes available to older children are usually high school credit worthy and taught using textbook methods. We went that avenue this fall and I didn't like what I saw...ds becoming more and more focused on testing than on learning. 
It depends on your local group, but the one we belonged to was large, and I started seeing some teen dynamics that made me sick to my stomach. My very independent 13 yr old was changing before my eyes as he caved to the herd mentality. 
I also found that coop day was often exhausting for us and we didn't get much school done the next day because of the need for recovery time. We didn't have time for field trips, either. The coop took up every minute of our free time.
I think mornings at home and a few well chosen activities (after naptime, preferably) are a better way to go for a family with wide age ranges.
The families I know who get the most out of coops with the least stress have 2 children that are under about 3rd grade.
...just a different pov...
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: homeschool groups
