Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Homeschool co-op with older students

I'm researching all our options for science next year and will then weigh the pros/cons to make a decision. One thing we are considering is a homeschool co-op class where ds would be several years younger than the other students. Does anyone have experience with a similar arrangement? I would love to hear about your experience and advice. I will be contacting the instructor and co-op administrator soon, so any tips about that are appreciate (as well as how to prepare son for questions about his age, etc).

It's very helpful to hear this. I knew I would need to "prove" to those in charge that ds was ready academically, but I had not considered the fact that they probably would like to avoid something that would cause a major change in the peer interaction. Do you have any advice for how to address this concern with them?

The challenge I'm facing now is that I can't do the academics better at home. For the past 2 years, ds has had to work through curricula independently. It's gone well, but I feel like I need to find an instructor he can talk with, especially as the difficulty increases. We're exploring co-ops, virtual classes, and private tutoring.

Honestly?

No.


There is no real way to counteract this belief, because even "can we give it a shot and see if it works?" is likely to be met with selection bias on the part of the (skeptical) observers.

We've run into this again and again and again over the years-- it's the primary reason why we've stuck with a schooling situation which is sometimes a lot less than ideal, in fact. When you live in a place with a lot of prepping/helicoptering parenting, and a lot of social status associated with "my kid is gifted" then this one is a no-win situation until your child is old enough to be placed by someone OTHER than a parent-- and in settings where placement is not done purely by age.

We gave up library programs when my DD was about 9 because of nonsense like this. We could not convince the organizers that DD would be fine with the other 6th-8th graders. All pressuring them did was make them more resistant and more convinced that they'd labeled us correctly from the start-- pushy parents.

They were concerned about the "social dynamic" of including her-- and more presumptuously, were concerned about "inappropriate content" in book club selections. Well. My feeling was that if it was inappropriate for my 9yo, then in all likelihood it was going to also be inappropriate for any number of 12yo's, too. She had read every single one of the middle-school book club selections... and was so sad that she still couldn't participate. I tried on a number of occasions to get them to make an exception... but they just wouldn't do it. I understand. If they did do it for us, because they'd be basing it not on the kind of hard data that school use for placement decisions, then they'd have to do it for others, too... and believe me, in this town, there WOULD be others, and they would not all be as well-prepared as my DD.

Still-- there was a patronizing quality about it that still sticks in my craw.

My tip? If your child is enrolled in ANY kind of formal educational setting and has been accelerated, that gives you the best leverage. Because then your child isn't
"five." He's "a third grader."

We had a pretty shaky experience trying to have my children take a class for older students at a local homeschool co-op. The teacher welcomed them, based on an e-mail introduction. We met with her, and she kept commenting on how little and young they were. Imagine my lack of surprise when she sent an e-mail removing them from her class because she feared they would get "hurt" because they were so little. (They are small for their age, but still. Major eye roll here.) I think homeschool co-ops, run by other moms, has its inherent limitations -- to the point we primarily participate for social reasons with no expectation that my children actually receive any real education there.

We had much a better experience enrolling them in science classes for much older children held at a local science museum. They have been welcoming of the children, despite the palpable age difference, which is even more accentuated because my children are tiny for their age.

One thing that I think has allowed us to have a positive experience is that I emphasized with my children the importance of being extremely "good classroom citizens," i.e. participating (appropriately, not dominating), following the teacher's instructions, etc. I am pretty sure that if my children had misbehaved in class it would have been taken as "proof" of their inability to participate well in the class.

This is extremely interesting to me. I've always assumed that homeschooling co-ops and classes would be Totally Cool. After all, you hear all those stories about how homeschoolers are such awesome learners who college professors end up loving. But we've been to a couple of homeschool co-op classes lately, as an afterschooling kind of thing, and I've been . . . underwhelmed.

Maybe I've developed skewed expectations by reading too many blogs by parents homeschooling pglets.