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amarytbc
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I've enjoyed the thread on co-ops. We have tried Classical Converstaion and I'm hoping to start a Catholic co-op of some type next year. When the oldest were small I lead one, but it's been at least 15 years.
How many children total are in your co-op and how many in each of the smaller groups? I would like to start with just three or four in each age group, but with drop-outs I'm not sure how that would work in the long run.
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cathhomeschool
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Ours have varied greatly depending on the year and on what we're teaching, but usually the "smaller" group sizes are between 8 - 16 kids. We always have a nursery too. Total kids depends. We've done "single subject" co-ops with 15 kids + nursery, and co-ops with 2-3 rooms + nursery with 28 kids in rooms and 16 in nursery. There will almost always be sick kids so the daily numbers vary.
When I've needed smaller co-ops, I've approached individual families instead of posting on the local loop. This keeps the numbers small. You can always add families later if things run smoothly or if someone drops out.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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amarytbc
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Thank you, Janette. Anyone else?
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sewcrazy
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we have 26 this year in our coop. 10 in the PreK thru 1st group, 8 in early elementary and 8 in older elementary.
Last year we had 12 in each group, plus 6 in a high school group. It was a bit too much.
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LeeAnn
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amarytbc
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LeeAnn, Was the high school group dissolved or did they graduate?
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guitarnan
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We have 8 high schoolers (I love teaching them!), about 13 middle schoolers, and the same number in our K-2 and 3-5 classes. Plus the nursery!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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MaryM
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We usually had about 8-12 in each group:
Preschool
K - 2nd
3rd - 6th
6 of the jr. high age
We are looking to start one again, but will focus on the Jr. High and High School groups.
amarytbc wrote:
| I would like to start with just three or four in each age group, but with drop-outs I'm not sure how that would work in the long run. |
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What you are hoping to do sounds really doable. The larger group can get hard sometimes.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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amarytbc
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Nancy, I'm guessing your high schoolers are at different levels. What are you teaching them? We would most likely have 9th and 11th graders.
Mary, Your situation sounds like ours. We have been preparing on activities with younger children, but those of us doing that actually have older children. Time to shift the focus.
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guitarnan
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They are 9-12 grade. In fall we did apologetics, Gregorian chant and cryptology. This semester we are doing drama and iconography.
Past years' offerings have included making a movie, Church history, encyclicals, meteorology, photography, drawing...
PM me if you'd like some resources on any of these.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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cecilia4kids
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Oh.. We love our Co-op, we have 135 students with 33 families, its a mother of divine grace Co-op in PA. Its about a beautiful country 40min. drive for us (my daughter is 3rd grade, son k and I do the pre-school 2 daughters are with me). Its our 1st year and we love it. It has been a great help when we are at home (two days there and 3 days at home). Everything runs smoothly well just about and I acutally can plan on doing extra things such as feast days or saint days. God has Blessed so!
Cecilia
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Cay Gibson
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Our experience is similar to Cecilia's. We're in our 3rd year of a MODG co-op in LA. We've had up to 130 children. Jr High and HS meets every Monday. Elementary meets every 2nd and 4th Monday. Play dates on the other Mondays for the elementary students who have older brothers and sisters.
That one day per week makes the rest of the week go so smoothly. The children know their assignments and their work and that leaves me free to focus on doing those "extra things such as feast days or saint days."
It works for our family and we feel very blessed!
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Cay Gibson
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Lisa R
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Cay and Cecilia,
I'd love to learn more about your Mother of Divine Grace co-op. I've never heard of that.
Our homeschool group is currently discussng several different approaches and I'd love to share this one as well.
Thanks!
Lisa
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Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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Joelle
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Oh, I'd love to learn more about the MODG Co-op as well. Our Catholic Homeschool group is also discussing options. Do you have any information you can share Cay or Cecilia?
Thank you!
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God Bless, Joelle
Mom to 7: Boy (96), Girls (00, 02, 04), Boy (05), Girl (07), Boy (09)
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atara
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What's the difference between a co-op and a home schooling group?
Thanks! 
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cecilia4kids
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Well, its our 1st year with St. Philemona Academy Co-op. We meet two days a week (Tuesday/Friday) and the kids come home with their assignments for the other days. We have a very special and very spiritual group. They wear uniform and there is a parent handbook, etc. its their 9th year with about 135 students. Laura Berquist is very close with the family that started this co-op Donna Kurtz.
We love it. It is such a big help with the days we are at home and with those subject that one might have hard time. They also have so many books that you just can't find anywhere. Lots of 1st addition classical books and its just great b/c Cecilia my oldest brings these great books to read. I run the pre-school/nursery and I love it. Its about a 40 min drive from my house but its worth the beautiful country drive and we say the rosary and get to hear ewtn radio.
Also when we are home we have more time it seems to do other things, such as feast and saints and if I want more on a certain subject for them to do, I add more.
Here is there website: http://stphilomena.weebly.com/index.html
It doesn't give you lots of details but we have been blessed by this community and help in many ways!
I hope it answers some questions!
Cecilia
Hair Bows 4 Life
Little Saints
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cathhomeschool
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atara wrote:
| What's the difference between a co-op and a home schooling group? |
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A co-op is a group that gets together on a regular basis for the purpose of teaching the kids in a group. (We've been in field-trip co-ops, art/drama/liturgical year co-ops and "school subject" co-ops.)
A homeschooling group can be a group that provides support for the parents or kids. They can get together or just communicate via email/message groups. Our homeschooling groups gather for play days, skate days, mom's meetings, one-time field trips/outings, etc.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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VanessaVH
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We just finished up a 10 week semester of our Co-op, it was the first year at this location, (and my first year) but I guess the same leadership had run a co-op in the next town over for quite a few years, so they had a lot of the kinks worked out.
We had just over 50 families, and over 150 kids! It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work too... We met for 3 hours on Fri mornings. Each parent was required to volunteer in some capacity for 2 of the hours. I taught pre-school craft and story time. (we had two groups of 10 3-4 year olds, so I taught the same class twice in a row) They also divided the K -1st into two groups of 12.
We can't wait until they start again in the fall!
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stellamaris
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We had a pretty large co-op at our local parish several years ago. There were about 100-120 children and about 30 families. Here are some of the specifics:
**We met once a week. We alternated meeting 1/2 day one week (10-12) with a full day every other week (10-3). Most families attended the 9 a.m. Mass.
We found that more than that was just too much for us, since the purpose of the co-op was enrichment. Not all the families were using the same curriculum.
**Our co-op was open to non-Catholics. I will say that as long as the number of non-Catholics was kept below about 15% of the total number of students, we had fewer problems with this. Also, each non-Catholic family was told right up front that this was a Catholic co-op, and that if they had any concerns about that, this was probably not the co-op for them.
**Every other week (on the long days) we had lunch together. Each family signed up for part of the meal (bread, fillings, fruit/vegies, drinks, chips), we set it up on a long table and ate as a community.
**Every parent was required to work 2 hours on the short days and 3 out of 4 hours on the long days. Work assignments included:
--teaching a class
--nursery duty
--setting up/taking down lunch
--assisting in a class (every class had an adult assistant, because with younger children, families were often absent due to sickness)
**Every family took turns signing up for clean-up, usually once a semester (we had about 20 families altogether).
**Classes were broken into four age-based levels: K-3, 4-6, middle school, high school. There was also a nursery and for a time we had a preschool sort of level with crafts, stories, naptime, etc. This was necessary to make it possible for the moms to run the co-op and teach the classes.
**In determining the classes, we selected as a group 2 "serious", that is more academic, ideas for the morning hours and 2 "enrichment" ideas for the afternoon hours.
Some of the classes we taught were:
K-3
History and Science (we studied, e.g., Egyptians and
built shadufs and talked about levers).
Westward Ho!
American Indians
Famous Americans
The Saints
Music Time
4-6/7
Art Appreciation
Creative Writing
Music
Yearbook (they made a yearbook for the co-op)
Choir
7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
Spanish
8-12
Taking the SAT
Budgeting
Biology with Lab
Ballroom dance
Drama (we put on several original plays based on the
lives of saints)
Humanities
Poetry
Debate
Botany
Latin
Bible Study
There were lots more, but I can't remember all of them! Each semester, each age level had usually two choices for each hour. There was more writing and math in there, and plenty of history, science, art, drama, and music. We were so blessed to have many talented homeschooling families who gave very generously of their time and talents to teach the children. I have a lot of fond memories of that time in our homeschooling journey.
**In order for a large group like this to work effectively, you need a pretty strong leader who can make the final "calls" and also keep the group on track with its "vision". There is a tendency to sort of slide toward easier "basketweaving" types of classes, but if the organizer(s) can suggest something along the lines of "we need another language arts class", the parents are usually very creative in their ideas regarding the kinds of classes they can teach. We had dads teaching as well as moms.
**We encouraged the moms to spend time with the Blessed Sacrament over in the church during their hour "off". If they left the parish hall, they had to "sign out" so we knew where they were in the event of an emergency.
I know insurance requirements and fingerprinting requirements might affect your ability to use a parish hall these days, but perhaps your priest would be willing to work with you. It helps to have a single "principal" to represent the group, deal with any conflicts that arise, and provide general guidance.
I hope something here is helpful!
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In Christ,
Caroline
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Topic: How many children in your Catholic co-op
