Boy howdy ya'll!
This school year has been crazy to plan!! As many of you know, we do year round schooling, and it's constantly changing and varying year to year. Some years we have friends with us, some are with private school, some have been with co ops, and others have been quiet and just us! This year, however, was a HUGE change and it happened all kinda suddenly. This is definitely not something we would have thought a few months ago, but God has truly brought together an amazing group and plan, and it has been coming together so smoothly!
So what is it we are doing??
Well, the closest things I can come up with is a pod school, or university model school/co op intense/momschooling as a group!
Thankfully we all live in a state where we have a LOT of flexibility with homeschooling, so we have more options to us than in other states. A few weeks ago a mom asked me for help with homeschooling. Now, this is nothing new, because over the years, I've offered a LOT of moms help. What was different was they were willing to school WITH us a couple days a week. This way we could share schooling, our kids could still socialize, and it evens out the burden on the moms, and we can encourage each other! At first this was pretty awesome, but over the days, it quickly became more and more families. In the end we ended up with multiple families and LOTS of kids! :)
I know a lot of people are looking at homeschooling and asking for help and ideas, etc, so if you have a group of encouraging mamas, this is what we are doing as a brief outline.
Twice a week (Mondays and Wednesdays) for us, we meet at my house and we split up the classes. One mom teaches Bible, one teaches history, one teaches science, some do the prek/K, and the rest help with kid management. We all use the same curriculum (I use primarily www.mfwbooks.com and www.masterbooks.com for math and grammar) so in that way it's more of a school than a co op. We do ALL the subjects together, except math and grammar which are done one on one. So also in this sense, it is more intensive than a normal co op. We are also not quite a private school because all of the moms are teaching it, and we meet twice a week. On our off days (Tuesday and Thursda) we all do math and grammar at home. For the kids who need more assistance I tutor them individually, and as a team we work through all the subjects. On Fridays, we open a group event/fieldtrip/playday to the community. We keep it mainly outdoors at parks, pools, splash pads, etc. This allows for any moms to socialize and play and get encouraged who aren't necessarily needing the full time school help.
As a team we have quickly developed some great friendships, and the children have been so much happier having friends over more! They love learning together, they challenge each other, and they also have the connecitons they have been missing since the shut down all summer. The bonus of this is having the off days with just our family, so we aren't burned out with people over 5 days a week! For our family this is HUGE. I teach music all day Tuesday and Thursday, so the kids have been doing their math and grammar quickly in the mornings, and then they have been playing and relaxing and having chill time the rest. Friday we aim for the FUN friend day or a family day, whatever is more needed that week.
This has been a dream of mine for many years, but to watch it happen without us planning ot trying has been incredible! It truly has all fallen into place quickly and smoothly, and it has been so encouraging to find a bunch of other mamas who all mesh well without drama!!
I couldn't ask for a better group, and I cannot wait to see what further dreams and opportunities this presents to us!!
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