Many homeschoolers love homeschool co-ops and find that they add great opportunities for their kids to learn, make friends and more.
I thought I would love it too, but I didn’t. Sadly, I was surprised to discover that I’m not a fan of homeschool co-ops.
Why Homeschool Co-ops Aren’t a Good Fit for My Family
1. They caused added stress to our schedule and homeschool day.
Classes are held on certain days, at a set time and in a specific place. Life happens and sometimes making these classes can become stressful to you and your children.
2. Classes can be expensive, especially when you’re enrolling multiple children.
Homeschool curriculum, school supplies, field trips and more are expensive enough alone without the added cost of expensive homeschool co-ops classes and the gas to get there.
3. Split classes require multiple trips and days away from home.
Unless your children are all the same age/grade you’ll likely have to make multiple trips a day or a week to have all of your children participate in homeschool co-op classes.
4. Homeschool co-op classes often can be taught at home.
Why do your children need to leave home to be taught what they can learn at home? After all aren’t we supposed to be homeschooling?
5. Homeschool co-ops take me away from my priorities.
As a wife, help meet and mother, my home is a priority for me. When I’m running around taking my children to classes a couple times a week, my home isn’t being cared for like it should be.
Homeschool co-ops can be a wonderful resource for some homeschooling families, but they aren’t for us.
If you find that they don’t work well for your family it is ok. No homeschool is like another, so don’t get caught comparing yours to someone else’s homeschool. If your children love co-op classes I’m so glad that you found a a resource that your family loves! The beauty of homeschooling is that it is all about choices and finding what works best for your family!
Have your children ever participating in a homeschool co-op? If so, what was your experience?
Sorry to hear that the co-op you tried didn’t work! The Co-op we attend is nothing like the one you describe, though. It’s free, for one thing : )
Ours has no classes – we go on field trips, visit Churches and do social activities together.
The founder of ours simply started a co-op that was what she and the members wanted : )
Anna, yours sounds more like a homeschool support group (which ours has been like for 25 years). ::)
and that has worked out well for many many homeschooling families.
In our area, there are a wide variety of different co-ops that offer different needs. Some are more academic and some are more social. Some are families coming together that use the same curriculum and they are able to do the art and science and other projects together. Some are more geared towards field trips and fun outings together.
Our co-op is also not like what you described. It is for ten weeks in the fall and ten weeks in the spring, and there is a fall and a spring break in there, so it is easy to schedule vacations and trips around co-op. I pick classes that I do not feel qualified to teach at home… things like Spanish, Writing, and Art. Plus, the church where it is held does not charge the co-op to use the building, so that helps keep the class prices down to just cover supplies and fees for admin to run the website, print name labels, etc. It is just three one-hour blocks for classes, plus one block for lunch/recess, which is a great time for the kids and moms to be able to hang out and socialize together. It has been a great place to share when something in homeschool is not working for us and learn about other curriculums and parents have been awesome about letting people borrow or try out curriculum before they buy it for their own family. Plus, they have an “Up For Grabs” table, which is where people can put curriculum, clothes and a wide variety of things they no longer need and other families can take it home. I’ve picked up some awesome homeschool resources for free this way! So for us, it is meeting a variety of our educational and social needs and it is affordable, even though I have four kiddos!
But I do understand, as I have several friends that do not attend co-op and they have said it is too stressful for them right now and it doesn’t meet their current needs.
Sorry you have had a horrible experience. We love our Co op. The classes are great and my girls learn so much. It takes away some of the stress of having to teach certain subjects at home. It allows my girls to get out of the house and see their friends and it is structure for them. I couldn’t imagine NOT going.
Thank you for this article. I have been in a co-op since August and it doesn’t seem to be working for us. I thought it would be a great fit for our kids since we were formerly in public and private schools. I wanted them to have fun and make new friends. So far, they haven’t made any real friends and I don’t think they have learned anything that I could not have taught them at home. I may step away from the co-op after this semester. I am glad that I am not alone in not fitting into the co-op mold.
I have gone back and forth about joining a co-op for my first grader, and this article describes all the things I didn’t think I would like about it! They are often very expensive, I worry about my 3-year-old tagging along, I truly enjoy teaching my children 1:1, etc. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for this. I may explore the option later when my kids are older, but for now I think I’m comfortable with my choice to just let it be us for a while!
I needed to read this. We just joined a co-op because I felt like we “needed” to be in one. My daughter has an incredible amount of anxiety and so far it’s only been stressful for her. Thank you for reminding me that I only need to make a decision that works for our family.
We also have had great experiences with our local Classical Conversations group. CC groups meet one day a week and ideally serve all children K4-12 (ideally. sometimes there isn’t enough interest for upper levels, or the building isn’t big enough for a whole program.). For elementary aged children, the program covers memory work in 7 areas, public speaking, fine arts, and science projects. Jr. high and high school is a complete curriculum. For that age, I find it’s so very valuable for my kids to have positive peer pressure (my oldest daughter learned to draw a map of the world by heart in 7th grade, something she would have had low motivation to do if doing it alone at home). It’s a great outlet for them to have others hear what they have written and offer feedback. They get to practice skills like debate that are hard to do at home with your mom and 10 year old brother 😉 CC programs provide opportunities for students in Jr. high and high school to enjoy conversations centered around big ideas related to what they are studying across the board in all subject areas. As a mom of many, I simply can’t read every single book and have those conversations with all my kids every time. CC makes me feel like they are able to explore different regions that we don’t get around to at home.
A homeschooling mom or dad (or grandparent) is always the trained tutor. As a mom who has led in many different areas at the local, state, and even national level, I was given incredible opportunities to grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. My training was always top notch and free.
You are right that it an be expensive, CC is not unreasonable, but for me, with 7 kids, the price tag got to be more than I wanted to pay. However, there is generally a way for most parents to offset that cost by tutoring a class or directing a program (or working for CC at a higher level). That’s how i always paid for CC. It never came out of our household budget. This year, I didn’t feel led to take on a leadership role again, so we stepped back.
I Do agree with you, however, that co-ops are not for everyone, you’ve made some very strong points. But for many, they are valuable at different seasons. For us, this year, we are not doing any co-ops. (well, my oldest daughter is taking 2 classes at two different sites, but to me, that’s different). This year, I wanted to pull back and be able to take things at my own pace (one draw back of our CC program, it’s difficult to scale back, or change out books in the curriculum!). So far, we are having a great year. Although I DO miss the accountability from a group setting.
We don’t exactly participate in a co-op…but my kids are in piano lessons and theater, and for one month this year they did a biology lab which they loved. And I am getting a little overwhelmed by it all! But I also believe that these things are great opportunities for them to grow in creativity and public speaking, and to get to be around other children at times.
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The co-op in our area is not a good fit for my family either. It’s one day a week, with a requirement that you have to be there ALL DAY, even if you were only participating in one class. Its structure sounded too much like public school. Rigid structure was a big reason public school didn’t work for our family. There was also a contract that we weren’t comfortable with.
i know of a few around me. my kid is 3 so haven’t joined yet. but the one I’m thinking about is every other fri. about half a day. most use it to help with subject kid has hard time with and so do mom and dad. or for fun class. like music or art. wow 2 times a week for a co-op. when would you homeschool. I see why that would be hard.
Co-ops aren’t for us either. Leaving the house is stressful! 🙂 I prefer us to stay home and it works for us.
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I agree, yet disagree. We were in a local co-op for several years where all of the parents volunteered and had to work other jobs with the group too. That got to be crazy and my kids rarely got into the classes they wanted/needed until I got into leading the group and then we were so busy that noone was happy. We paid them money to work and not be happy.
The last couple of years we have switched to just taking classes once a week from other parents. This is great with junior high and high school students who need a taste of more structured work, but only once a week with all of the homework to be completed around “life” the rest of the week. Now I am teaching two classes in my background and actually earning money to help my family. That may sound just as stressful, but because I am using my passions and we only sign up and pay for the classes we need, it is a huge blessing! I am glad that we found this group.
If you have children younger than junior high age, I suggest you stay home and just visit park groups. For students a little older, taking classes is a better way to go over traditional co-ops, in my opinion.
I am in 100% agreement. We live in a rural area, so attending the nearest co-op would mean a long drive and time away from our HOMEschool. And we all love our homeschool, so why add the extra stress? I admit, we have a neighbor who does just that, but it seems to work for her family. It just would not work for us, and I am more than comfortable with that decision. Thanks so much for letting other homeschooling mamas know it’s ok to make that choice. I think sometimes we get too caught up in what others are doing and don’t realize we don’t have to model our homeschool after someone else’s.
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I am in total agreement with you Misty!
This is our 10th year of homeschool and I’ve always felt a bit guilty about not wanting to be part of a Co-op. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.
~Jennifer
Agreed. I had a not so good experience here too, so I don’t feel compelled to join a co-op any time soon.
another problem…. in small co-ops, kids get sick and don’t come! Then, my son is left alone to do the ‘co-op’ that we could have done at home…..
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We participated in a co-op for a year when my older ones were younger. I thought it would be great to meet other homeschoolers. All the parents took turns reaching which really stressed me out. It’s one thing teaching and interacting with my own kids, but to have to teach others was not what I enjoyed.
When a couple of my girls were older they did a biology lab class with friends that was taught by a friend who had graduated. That was a great fit and it was every other week. All they had to do was read the chapter and be prepared. She provided all the supplies for a small fee.
I still have many, many years of homeschooling ahead of me, and staying home is what works best for us. Maybe that will change as my youngest gets older, but we have grandchildren her age, so I figure any co-op we do participate in will be Mom/grandma teaching the multiple generations! That is a “co-op” I will love
I believe there are valid points on both sides, however, the reason we started a coop was for the interaction our children would be receiving in an educational setting. 4 moms in my community created a coop with specific classes like presentations, science experiment & projects, learning to sing together with a children’s choir, as well as a writing class and a phonics games/math games for the younger ones. Already the peer interaction has been invaluable. And we are having fun doing it,
it is not a drudgery it is a joy!
I have participated in co-ops for 20 yrs. The benefits have been worth the effort for my children. They meet good friends who share our values, learned about many subjects, and learned how to act in a classroom. I have observed over the years that children who have only a home experience have to adjust quite a bit when they get into an academic classroom environment. They make the adjustment, but it takes time. I get that co-ops can be stressful, but you just have to keep trying different ones to find a good fit (or start your own to fit your needs). All my best friends were people I met at co-op.
Our co-op doesn’t sound like the one you tried out either. You can take just one class if you like and leave. The options are endless. We take drawing and painting classes the whole school year, and it wasn’t something I could teach. My social girl gets an outlet to be with kids and make friends. There are so many classes for high school that I couldn’t or don’t really want to teach including speech, debate, psychology, sociology, graphic design, computer coding classes, government/econ, Spanish, and more. These classes are taught by people where it is their passion. Thankfully, our classes are all 25 dollars or less, with about 8 dollars being the average. Oh, and lab sciences for high school are invaluable and a less expensive than purchasing all the materials myself, which could be upwards of several hundred dollars. When you split the cost between families, the cost becomes doable. I often teach a class that always gets put to the back burner at home. This way, it forces me to do it, and it was something I wanted my kids to experience anyway.
On the other hand, I didn’t do co-ops when my kids were little, though. I didn’t see any reason for it. I could do it at home easily. Now that they are middle schoolers, though, I see great value in it, but maybe it’s just that our co-op is awesome? Haha!
I can understand how you came to that decision for your family. Our co-op meets once a week for 2 hours and holds classes for all age groups at the same time. Since it is a ministry of the church, it is only a voluntary $30 donation per family. They teach only art, music and P.E., which are not the 3 R’s we spend the most time on at home (with specialty classes occasionally for the older kids (like year book or put licensed speaking). The support between moms/families has been a huge benefit as well. Since it’s a ministry is try of the church, I know the standards that are set are compatible with mine. I feel blessed to have this group.
We have been in several co-ops over the years- good ones and a couple bad ones. Even with the better ones I came to realize that I really don’t enjoy them at ALL. Not only that but my kids don’t either! With what it cost per semester to enroll them in classes, at least some of which they didn’t want to take, it just became more of a dreaded chore than a helpful resource to us.
Misty:
I taught my children in what they called the dark ages. No plethora of homeschool curriculum to choose from, (all that was available was ACE and another from California which was way out of our budget), No homeschool groups, (I don’t think they would have worked for my children because I have 2 sons who have learning disabilities), and as you said we couldn’t afford the travel costs), No computer and the top of the list according to my children there was no internet. I am sure they would have pestered my husband to buy a computer if there had been internet until he broke down.
The good side I was able to let my children learn how they learned best. My daughter is a book worm, give her a book and she is happy, My boys learned by doing.
My children had been emotionally and physically abused in PS and I don’t think they would have been interested in co-op classes. My youngest son would run and hide and we had enough land that he could hide until he heard desperation in my voice and by that time it was too late to work with him. I learned how to break that habit and he was able to do the best he could. Of course going to another town to do school because I had enrolled them in our Mission boards homeschool program and they got to help our board president clean and pack up the mission as they were moving in the next year. They had a ball and they learned a lot.
I also had teacher friends who provided me with textbooks, workbooks, copybook and more. By the time we went on the mission field we had enough curriculum up to 6th grade.
They loved homeschooling, I’m glad we started before they got involved with all the extras. They learned their way and enjoyed their classes.
We don’t do COOPs anymore. They are often run like poorly organized private schools. My child is very much age-appropriate on a maturity level, but several years ahead in Math and English. It’s very difficult for us to find classes in English/Math that engage her (homeschoolers can be just as biased about having a child “skip ahead” as public school teachers—with the added issue of feeling insecure or jealous because of it).
Add in the hyper-competitive homeschool parents who often ruin the atmosphere (you only need one or two), the peer pressure of seeing who can stack on the most activities and spend the most on curricula, and we’ve decided to steer clear of those groups.
What we find that work for us are homeschool classes through organizations that specialize in their subjects (ex – museums, zoos, nature centers, etc…), and/or after-school programs. This is a wonderful way for kids to meet many different types of children and make new friends. I keep our outside class schedule low-key (no more than 3 weekly classes out of the house), and beef up organized playtime (extended one-on-one playtime about 3 times a week at least). This seems to work well for us so far. The kiddo seems plenty well-off socially—outgoing and polite with people of all ages. Of course, social needs could change when we hit the teens so we may be revisiting schools at that point.
We *do* explore social homeschool groups, though—usually mostly in the fall and winter. Those are more low-key, and are much more likely to be good places to find people who are actually supportive of each other.
Yep, no COOP for us. My oldest is in 5th grade (we’ve been homeschooling since he started in kindergarten). The longer I’ve been doing this, the more “big players” I’ve seen from our local COOPs who end up divorced or dumping their kids into public school without any kind of transition, because of the ridiculous pressure they put themselves and their families under.
The last COOP we were at had been started by well-intentioned friends. They had intended just to hire teachers who had actual experience and skill, but the “education center” they began quickly became just another COOP. They solely depended on “friends” to teach (most of whom were not equipped to handle groups of kids—especially as a number of them had special needs), because they were worried about charging “too much” tuition to the community.
It quickly digressed into an expensive waste of time and stress with the added insult of it containing nasty little cliques of ladies who always tried to outdo one another with the latest activities or over-priced curricula or “cleanest” house.
Most of them relied on (and bragged about) owning 3 or more planners—which they toted around like designer scrapbooks. I can’t imagine how any of them actually got anything they needed to done when it came to teaching at home. Some were in 3 or more COOPs at a time. Their kids were so stressed, and not great kids for my children to learn “socialization” around.
My kids are very happy we left. I am, too. We only do classes that take place later in the day (sometimes with—gasp—public schoolers) so we have time to do school at home. The classes we pay for we make are taught by people who actually know how to teach their subject. It ends up costing the same or less as what we spent when it comes to tuition, time (volunteering), and expenses for the supplies for the “education center.”
We are still busy (in a positive way), but this has been the most low-key year we’ve ever had. We have time for a structured school routine, and also downtime and play, too (which children really need in order to develop).
This also benefits all of the adults in our home—including the non-homeschooling spouse. The homeschooling one has time to return to being able to study and work in her field and go out once in a while with friends to do more things than talk about the latest curricula. It is refreshing, and we are happier.