Homeschool Co-op Groups

As a parent who is wanting to home school the socialization question is quick to pop up.   I’m sure by now if you’ve chosen to home school your children some well intentioned person has said, “What about socialization?”  My response is usually something similiar to laughing hysterically as I look at my calender crammed full of activity and gatherings (not always homeschool gatherings).  Socialization!? Please!  Follow me around for a week and that will not be an issue with you anymore.

In the beginning I was all for homeschool co-ops and still am now.  Over the years I have gathered experience about what works and what doesn’t in a co-op and for my schedule.  As far as your schedule is concerned I would caution you to not jump in with both feet and offer to teach more than one class.  As a matter of fact I would suggest that you attend the first year/semester to get a feel for it before volunteering.  I can not stress this enough especially if you are a new home schooling parent.  Remember you’ll be preparing all your childrens material and then the material for your co-op class once a week or so.  The first year of home schooling is like riding a bike with training wheels.   One class can dominate your home school week placing a lot of strain on you.  

Teaching others is a wonderful gift for all involved if the class is well behaved. I enjoyed teaching the classes tremendously and in the process discovered that I have natural born teaching tendencies.  In a group of people, however, discipline is always an issue.  When you look for a co-op make sure that they have good policies in place.  A co-op with good policies will run smoothly and be a joy to all.  What are some good policies?  Policies that I would look for in a co-op would be a clear statement of what their goal is as a group, fair discipline issues established for students and teachers alike, a statement of faith if you are looking for one to be in agreement with your faith, and attendance requirements.  Even loose establishments that just meet for play time need to have some simple policies to prevent hurt feelings and misunderstandings.

If you are homeschooling for religious reasons one of the biggest assumptions that I made was that everyone was homeschooling for the same reasons.  Do not assume that everyone feels the same way as you.  Be a careful guardian, fully ascertaining the atmosphere of your co-op.  Attending a few times before deciding to join may be wise and most co-ops will have no problem with you doing so.

Co-op groups can certainly be a blessing to all involved, yet we need to remember that as home schoolers we are not without faults.  This article is intended to be wise advice and not at all a discouragement from finding a co-op.  When I started I wasn’t ready for issues that cropped up and it side-lined me for a while.  Now that the dust has cleared I know what to expect and also more of what I’m looking for when it comes to a homeschool co-op.

What is a Unit Study?

A few years back I got all excited about Unit Studies.  A unit study is essentially where you leave the textbooks behind in search of living books that cover the same materials.  You can do a unit study about trains, bugs, trees, people, nations, etc.  Every bit of learning is drawn from the unit study subject.  For instance:

Bugs are my unit study…………

For Reading – Read The Hungry Caterpillar, Vocabulary is bug terms.

For Language Arts – write a creative story about a Lady Bug’s life & grammar is conducted using bug words.

For Math – bug word problems in addition to regular math

For Science – Bug Anatomy

For History/Social Studies - How about studying the war between man and grasshoppers.  (just saw an excellent documentary on this somewhere in a waiting room)

Okay – you get the point.  Here is a unit study in a basic breakdown.  They are fun but they really require a tremendous amount of planning if you are going to do it for more than one day.  If you are going to carry your unit study throughout the semester than you can plan on spending more time than you originally bargained for in the planning stage.  When I first planned a Unit Study I got exhausted trying to track down all the books I planned to use.  Having three children at the time that meant finding an age appropriate book for each one.  What I couldn’t find at the library (here in little ol’ Ripley County)  I ended up having to purchase (which was not cost effective).  Even if you buy a preplanned unit study you will run into buying a ton of books to go with it.   Near the middle of our unit study  I was completely frustrated trying to gather my materials and complained out loud, “I wish I could just find all this stuff in ONE book!!!!”  Suddenly the silliness of my struggles slapped me in the face as I realized “DUH!, its called a textbook!”

Weigh your options carefully and try not to fall for fads in education.  If you find a unit study that works and your excited about it don’t hesitate, go for it.  I just wanted to warn you it takes more time and more money (that is if you don’t have an awesome local library).  I just don’t want you to end up frustrated like I was wishing for a text book after all.

Keeping A Homeschool High School Transcript

Although I do not have any children that are high school age I have already begun doing research on how to keep a homeschool transcript.  It turns out that it isn’t as complicated as I had originally thought.  You simply write the subjects in as in the following examples, keep their grades and grade point average, and mark how many credits/units of attendance per class.  The following links are some excellent examples that I have run across on the web.  The first one, in my opinion, is the best one.

http://www.homeschool-curriculum-savings.com/support-files/sample-home-school-transcript.pdf

http://www.etsu.edu/admissions/forms/homeschool_trans_form.pdf

Grading and the Homeschooling Family

No one can argue the importance of grading papers.  If we don’t grade papers than we don’t know how our student is progressing.  While this may not seem to important in younger years since it is easy to tell if your student is reading well or counting well in years to come as they begin to work more independently it will become the best means of evaluating your student’s progress. 

Just how important IS grading?!  Grading serves as an evaluation of your student and their understanding or memory of the subject matter before them.  Grading tells us how well they are paying attention.  Grading lets the student know where they stand in their understanding of a subject.  It isn’t meant to be a tool of discouragement but a tool of evaluation.  In our school if the grade is poor than we back up and go over the subject again (like in Math).  We do not move forward until the grade is acceptable and understanding is shown.  This is an area where public schools fail because the teacher does not have time to take with each student who does not understand the new concept presented that week.  In areas such as science or history, grading shows us the diligence of the student in their studies.  Low grades in these two areas can mean either a lazy student or too high of a grade level for the student to understand.

With all this said, I didn’t start out as a grading enthusiast.  I merely checked the work right or wrong and than it was corrected.  I didn’t keep a written evaluation but instead opted for the section of homeschool law option D that stated that I could keep “other written credible evidence.”  The problem with that was that I found I was putting in more work writing a written evaluation of all that we had done and that they had accomplished.  This was especially ridiculous of me since I had already put in the work of grading the papers but just hadn’t documented them in a grade book.  Another problem that I ran into was that my children ended up asking me all the time what there grade was even though I was trying to avoid the “grading mentality.”  I found that they wanted to know because it helped them to understand where they were but it also gave them something to talk about to parents and friends, especially those not home schooled. 

So, sign me up for the grade book after all and the quarterly report card because they are really more a blessing than a curse after all!

Homeschool Education: Diploma or G.E.D.?

The question always arises to perspective homeschool parents, “what about their diploma?!” Here is an excellent page provided by Homeschool Legal Defense on frequently asked questions regarding this very issue. 

http://www.hslda.org/highschool/diploma.asp

Missouri Requirements for Homeschool Teachers

Let me encourage you by saying that if you are eager enough to try homeschooling than you have what it takes to be a good teacher.  Missouri state homeschool law does not put an educational restriction on the teacher.  Homeschool teachers don’t even have to have a high school diploma.  If you have a love of learning and the desire to pass it on then you have what it takes to be a great teacher. 

The best teachers are mothers and fathers.  If you have potty trained your child, if you have helped them sing the ABC’s, and counted with them 1, 2, 3… until they mimicked you, and you sang “twinkle, twinkle” until they could sing it by themselves than I congratulate you for being already a wonderful teacher!!

Be diligent, be purposeful, be convinced of your calling, be firm, be loving, be PATIENT! (That one is the hardest to learn but don’t give up! If I can get there so can you!)

Beginning Homeschooling from Preschool

Beginning homeschooling in Missouri is such an easy task.  Although the law says we “may” send in a letter of intent it is not necessary.  I personally have never registered with the superintendent or principal of the public school system.  In this small rural community most people who know me know that I homeschool.  However, if you live in a heavily populated neighborhood with people that you don’t know it may be in your best interest to notify the superintendent of the school district your child would be attending that you will be homeschooling as this will help avoid truancy inspections.

Probably the biggest obstacle faced by any parent who is going to home school is the choice of curriculum to use.  In the beginning I taught my children how to read using the A Beka phonics program.  Once I learned the format to teaching phonics I left A Beka behind and now use a very similar format found in a MUCH cheaper book called Phonics Pathways.  For phonics practice I am now using Getting Ready to Explode the Code and Explode the Code for my two younger sons.  They have become my favorite phonics workbooks for content, ease of use,  and minimal preparation which is an important quality to me.

Not being very confident of my own math skills I wanted to find a curriculum that would be easy for me to use (and didn’t make me look too stupid)  After two to three years using various math curriculum my children and I were frustrated.  The books were either too advance or too simplistic.  If I wasn’t in tears my children were.  Then I stumbled upon Math U See’s website.   I got really excited.  He had a DVD that taught the lesson for that week so that I could either watch it and then teach the children or we could watch the video together.  The price was affordable – not much more than the expensive curriculum I had been buying PLUS this DVD!!! So, I bought it and we tried it and we LOVED IT!!!  We went from tears to happiness and I’ve consistently bought Math U See every year since and plan to continue doing so.  Not only have the children now enjoyed math but I have found new interest in an area I thought dull.  My daughter who cried at the sight of numbers know says Math is her favorite subject.  Hands down Math U See has my vote. www.mathusee.com 

I hope that this insight into what we have found to work for us be useful and helpful information.  When I’m looking for curriculum I’m looking for cost effectiveness, proficiency, and ease of preparation.  I think most of us could say the same.

Scheduling Those Hours…

Scheduling those hours can be tedious work when you are totally new to it.  I’ve latched on to a few things that work.  First, decide how busy during the day you want to be?  Do you want to put in eight hours or six a day?  I’ve done the work here for you in several different formats week/day formats.  I hope this helps you with your planning!

33 Weeks, 7 days a week = 4 1/4 hours per day

33 Weeks, 6 days a week = 5 1/4 hours per day

33 Weeks, 5 days a week = 6 3/4 hours per day (I round to 7)

33 weeks, 4 days a week =  7 1/2 hours per day (this is what I currently use rounding to 8 hours)

36 Weeks, 7 days a week = 4 hours per day

36 Weeks, 6 days a week = 5 hours per day

36 Weeks, 5 days a week = 5.5 hours per day

36 Weeks, 4 days a week = 7 hours per day

40 Weeks, 7 days a week = 4 hours per day

40 Weeks, 6 days a week = 4 1/2 per day

40 Weeks, 5 days a week =  5 hours per day

40 Weeks, 4 days a week =  6 1/4 hours per day

45 Weeks, 6 days a week = 3.7 hours per day

45 Weeks, 5 days a week = 4.4 hours per day

52 Weeks, 5 days a week = 4 hours per day

Logging the Hours

In my experience with keeping the daily log one of the first questions I needed answered was what in the world is an hour?  An hour can sound so simple until you go to log one.  Through the years I’ve learned since Missouri law doesn’t really define the word hour that there are two schools of thinking-

1. Track the actual time spent on the subject through minutes and hours, or
2. Track the subject as if they are similiar to college credit hours.

I prefer the credit hour method for myself simply because I have five children and it would drive me crazy to be tied to a clock.  Instead I set aside an hour each day for that subject and check it off as we go.  Others “log in” the time they started the subject and than “log off” when they are finished, noting the actual time spent.  My suggestion would be to use whatever method works best for your family.

Where do I log hours for Reading or Language in my daily log?

One of the things that confused me when I began homeschooling was understanding the difference between Reading and Language Arts.  Some places seperate the two and some teach reading as part of Language Arts.  Unless you are ordering all your curriculum straight from a place like www.abeka.com or www.bjupress.com than you may have difficulty understanding where to log the hours for these two subjects. 

Language Arts includes:

• parts of speech
• sentence structure
• word usage
• punctutation usage
• writing
• reference skills
• using reference materials

Reading

• phonics
• word recognition
• vocabulary
• oral & silent reading
• reading comprehension
• literature
• composition

You can find more detailed information in the following link.  It is the scope and sequence from Bob Jones University Press.  http://www.bjupress.com/catalog_pdfs/scope_sequence08.pdf