If you’ve been following our homeschool journey, you know how important our co op group is to us. It’s where our kids feel most comfortable with their friends, and it’s become a community of mothers who uplift and support each other through this homeschool endeavor. This group has been a critical part of our homeschool experience, and if you haven’t read about how it came to be, please check out my post here. Now I’d like to share with you how we plan our days together and how we divide and conquer to create really special learning experiences for our kids.
This year we are using the beautiful and thoughtful nature-based curriculum from Treehouse Schoolhouse. The weekly themes correlate to the seasons we are in, and it provides us with a pretty complete package for our group. There are really only one or two things we need to add each week because this curriculum is so thorough. Right now we have 15 children in the group, ranging from the 6 preschoolers to the 3 third graders with everyone else in between. When we plan our weeks, we are mindful of the age range and often will bring slight adaptations to the activities we plan so it will be accessible to the younger crowd while also posing more of a challenge for the older kids.
For planning purposes, we have a Google Doc with a template for each week. Logging in from our home computers (or phones!) we can choose to lead an activity station, run the morning meeting, or plan for the preschool crew. We have time slots there as well which help us to split up our 3 hours together and we more or less stick close to our schedule. Each week we start with a meeting where we will sing the weekly song (all provided by Treehouse Schoolhouse) and do the hand rhyme a couple of times. We always make sure the kids have a chance to share with our group as an abbreviated show and tell. We give a preview of all the activities and fun we have for them that day, and split them up into two big kid groups and the preschool group to dive into the first two stations.
Each week, four of us moms will plan a short 20 minute activity to do with the older kids, most of these provided by our curriculum. We have the kids focus on a nature activity, an art project, a writing prompt, and a math/miscellaneous activity each week so it’s varied, interesting, and keeps us focused on the theme. At the end of our time together, we end with a group project of some sort, usually a story (recommended by the Treehouse Schoolhouse reading list!) with an accompanying craft that everyone can participate in together. It’s so nice to gather at the end of the day and do one last thing before we clean up for the week.
Putting together a group like this takes a little bit of organization to start, but after a few weeks of getting used to the energy of your kids and your group, it gets easier. Oftentimes, I would plan a month or two at a time for myself so I would be able to order supplies and ensure I had everything I needed ready for the upcoming weeks. Things like ordering library books and getting that one last things I needed for that week’s co-op really sneaks up quickly, so planning a bunch of weeks at once is really helpful. Another piece of the planning puzzle that I would often forget was making a sample of the activity or project I was teaching that week. It was really helpful to the kids was to see a model of a completed project as they were embarking on making their own, so I made sure to set aside time to finish that as well before considering myself “ready” for co-op that week.
Of course – we had (and still do have!) mom’s night out planning meetings. Getting the opportunity to sit together, enjoy a meal, and talk about the kids and how everything is going is not only a fun bonding experience, but it’s really important to keeping your finger on the pulse of the group. Chatting about the types of activities we’re providing, what everyone was most enjoying, what was challenging and brainstorming ideas together made for a lot of really meaningful conversation about what we wanted our kids to get out of the group. We noticed that we each have a gift for teaching something different, and that we will be able to pass our love and our passion for those subjects on to the kids through our time together.
No matter how a co-op comes together or what curriculum you choose, these groups can help “check the boxes” so to speak on many homeschool “must-haves.” They provide a loving community of people who share in learning together, and allow for endless social experiences for the children. The curriculum that is covered can count for hours towards your state required learning time that you committed to as a homeschooling parent. My dear friend and fellow co-op mom said it best: “Let’s do life together.” Planning for co-op where tasks are shared and love is poured into each and every learning experience for the kids is one of the most fulfilling uses of my time. As the years progress, we look forward to expanding this template and allowing for even more as our children grow up together.
