Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Question about homeschool coops

I'm feeling a bit isolated with the homeschool setting. Ds is doing well, and I'm enjoying it. But, we are alone A LOT. I really want to make sure he's with other children, so I've been looking into homeschool coops and a school here that offers supplemental classes for homeschoolers. Specifically, I'm thinking of enrolling him in the school's art, music, drama, science, and/or PE classes. I'm not sure he'd do all of them, but at least a couple. Also, he'll be taking gymnastics once a week and martial arts 2-3 times per week. I don't want to overload him, but like I said, I'm worried about the "socialization". Hahahaha!

I'd like to have some personal support as well, so I was thinking about a coop. I really wish I had close friends who were also homeschooling b/c I'm not really comfortable with not knowing anyone. Can anyone share their first experience with a coop? Was it a positive one? Are there any unique concerns I should have r/t giftedness? Anything I should be looking for? Should I just go for it, or am I wasting my time? Sorry to be so vague; I'm just generally uneasy with it. Would I do better to just stick with the part time "school" or is a coop the way to go? Thanks!

Hi. I just started to homeschool my son this fall. I don't know how a coop works, but thought I would mention a couple other options that I do happen to know a little about.

I send my son part time to our local public school for 1.5 hours a day, and we are new members of a local homeschool group. My son is extremely extroverted, and I tend towards introvert, so this works to get him out with other kids while I get my alone time. As the year is progressing we are getting involved in enough activities that I would be tempted to drop the public school, except I don't know another way to get my time alone.

So he does homeschool every morning and public school every afternoon. During the hour and a half he is at school he has science and either PE, Art, Music, or Library. He takes the bus home, except on the day he stays after school for Chess club. Outside of PS he studies French one hour a week with a tutor, he is in swim lessons one day a week, and this week he starts fall Little League with games/practice 1 - 3 times a week. Plus we like to take homeschool classes at the science museum one or two mornings a month, and have participated in a homeschool project with the Game & Fish dept. Our local homeschool group has Friday afternoon park days every other week, preceded by either an hour of board games or a book club. Park day unfortunately conflicts with public school for us, but we can participate in games/book club beforehand.

The best sources of info I have found have been Yahoo! groups. I even found a local Yahoo group for gifted homeschoolers! I'm in a bigger city, so that helps, but perhaps an area large enough to support a homeschool coop would have some of these other resources as well.

Without a whole lot of experience yet I feel that activities with other homeschool families are great for gifted kids because the variety of ages allows kids to naturally form friendships with true peers and age differences are not (as much) an issue.

Jen,

We are part of a co-op and haven't really had any trouble. There are a few parents who are convinced I am the world's greatest teacher based on where DS is at but for the most part everyone has been supportive. A few parents have even taken the time to ask questions regarding DS. Last year when he went to school, no one shut me out. Now that he's back to H/S, it's like we never left.

Our co-op is primarily for play and social activity. We have parkday every week and field trips. There is a math class ongoing but most of it is just play.

I don't think we can answer that for you. It really depends on the co-op and what you want out of it. I say investigate all avenues, pick one, and try it out! Also it depends on the kid. Some kids need more exposure to other kids than others.

We just started homeschooling ds7 this year. We are enrolled in a public charter homeschool. We are in California and it seems that we have many of these public charter homeschools our area. My school provides 1 academic day and 1 lab (fun) day per week. His schedule gives me a little time off and gives him some sense of belonging. They give you some money to pay for curriculum and group classes outside school. He meets friends and I meet many friendly moms in school. The school also has choir, band, soccer team and theatre after school. The teacher is very supportive. We see her every 5 weeks to turn in his works, but we can always reach her anytime during the week. We have a wonderful experience with our school so far.

I have also found a Yahoo homeschool group and a Meet-up group for homeschoolers in my area. However, with all the hsing we need to do as well as classes in school, we have no time for anything else.

I have friends who join the co-op. They meet once a week and have field trips and classes together. There is less restrictions. There is no teacher to hold you responsible, but you don't get the free classes and money to pay for curriculum.

We have done short term classes with small groups of homeschoolers, as well as science fairs, International Days, etc. but for the most part, we do educational stuff on our own and social stuff with our homeschool group. It works out well for us this way.

We are lucky enough to have a co-op in our area that is specifically for HG+ kids. The classes tend to be deep and open ended. And it's been a great social mix for my DS8. But if I had (or find) other options closer to home I would use them. Even if they were just social. (It's about 1/2 hour drive for us. We're in the city so that is a drive for us).

Explore all the options. I've found that the best possible scenario is when there are good social opportunities for me AND the kids. We had some families leave our co-op for this fall and I wasn't around co-op as much last year because my daughter was attending preschool. I feel like we're kind of starting over to see how co-op clicks this year. My DD5 is also taking a class too, so we'll see how it works for her.

We are part of an umbrella organization that offers classes every other Wednesday for 3 hours (PE, Geography, and Art). The umbrella is slightly different than a coop. An umbrella takes the place of reporting to the state (in our state that is). And, they offer screened teachers. If you can't find a good coop, perhaps you could look into an umbrella organization. Our state lists them on the homeschooling section of its website.