Organise a Smashing Homeschooling (Learning) Co-op

Be selective in who you invite.

Local home education groups are fantastic for casual meet-ups that don’t require a minimum number of attendees to secure a group discount such as park days, community picnics, and even casual sporting events.

But they have their challenges too. There are no clear rules or consequences in place for acceptable or unacceptable behaviour. With parents attending who represent a wide range of parenting styles, there are bound to be differences and this is difficult to resolve, mostly because no one wants to have difficult conversations; aka deal with conflict.

This is where forming a co-op can be beneficial. A co-op can include all of the best of what a local home ed community offers and trim off the worst of the problems whether it is run by a single person, a small group of like-minded persons, or even democratically by consensus. But how does a co-op start?

It depends . . .

If an individual has the idea for a co-op, they can start it themselves and retain the reins of being the primary organiser/leader of the co-op. This method of running a co-op works best as long as the power of being head of the co-op doesn’t go to the leader’s head. It is still a co-op and to function effectively, input from the members is vital.

The small group and large group democracy by concensus styles are beyond the scope of this article, and I will write about them in future articles.

Answer the Big 5 Ws

To start a co-op, first, answer the following questions: who is it intended for, are there geographical boundaries, ages that will/won’t be included, what activities will be included, where will it meet, when will it meet, how often will it meet, how will costs be shared, how big do you want/need the co-op to be, how many families, how many children, what is the primary purpose of the co-op, is it more social or educational in purpose. Ask the co-op as many questions as you can to get a clear understanding of what it is, and isn’t before starting.

Recruit Friends to Join

Once you have these answers, you are ready to start recruiting members. Start with friends who you believe are the most suited to what you are offering. They will start inputting their own thoughts and ideas straight away. Be ready for this and accepting, but also keep your primary purpose in mind.

Co-op is short for a cooperative. A successful co-op values input from every member without judgment. It doesn’t all have to be acted on or added to the schedule, but it has to be heard and valued; otherwise, it isn’t a co-op.

Location, Location, Location

Secure a location. Talk with the initial group you are putting together and discuss the pros and cons of using one family’s home or rotating between homes vs renting a room or hall. There are pros and cons on both sides which can vary depending on the intended ages of members. Inviting 10 families with children all 11 yo and younger is a much different experience for the hosting family than 10 families with children all 12 yo and older.

Personally, I would hold co-op in a rented space unless it was small, 5 families or fewer and they were all already very good friends of mine. That said, renting a space adds the whole dynamic of not only paying for supplies, but also rental, bond, and liability insurance. *sigh I know

And finally, the fun stuff . . .

Set the cost per term for membership, write up some guidelines everyone has to read and agree to and start collecting ideas for activities and topics to dig into. Start planning how the kids will have opportunities to learn and have fun. Ask members which activities and/or topics they will run or facilitate (they agreed to do this when they joined the co-op) and assign roles to the ones who don’t volunteer (play with the littlies while the big kids do projects, be on the clean-up crew, etc).

And voile! A co-op has been organised. Running a co-op is a topic for an article in the future.

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