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Plan For & School Year Around

4 Secrets to Creating Your Own Successful Homeschool Co-op

January 18, 2015 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Savoring the food of the Amazon region in a banana wrapped leaf, dancing the minuet like George Washington, creating Native American crafts with beadwork and studying the healing power of plants like Lewis & Clark did are just a few of the adventures that my sons and I have participated in as I led a homeschool co-op.

4 Secrets to Creating Your Own Successful Homeschool Co-op

In my many years of homeschooling, I have seen numerous elaborate definitions of a co-op, but in its most basic form a co-op is simply a group of two or more families meeting together to share their collective efforts in teaching their children all together.

Depending on your personal experiences in participating in co-ops, you may conjure up in your mind a picture of your children engaging in awesome hands-on activity along with socialization or you may picture a mini-version of a very regimented public school that you probably fled not too long ago.

Understanding some basic facts in how co-ops are developed will help you to determine if a co-op is a good fit for your family.

Enhance Your Journey or Encumber It

There is no one set of rules for any co-op. Co-ops can be very informal without many rules or it can be as formal as public school.

Take time to ask questions after you determine if you want to meet for socialization or to meet strictly for academic purposes.

One note of caveat for new and struggling homeschoolers is that sometimes you may join a co-op to ease the burden of teaching, but actually create an environment where you may feel trapped.

Regimented schedules, turning in homework assignments and preparing extra-curricular activities are a few reasons why some homeschool families find co-ops more stressful than helpful.  They can feel a little too much public schoolish.

Do not leave the rigidness of public school to trade it away the freedom so quickly to a very regulated co-op.

Co-ops can spring up or shut down at any time. Realizing that most co-ops are ran by homeschooling parents like yourself, you will appreciate that rules are made by the homeschooling parents as they lead the group.

Most co-ops expect all the parents to shoulder some of the responsibility of running the co-op whether it is teaching, supervising toddlers, cleaning or making copies.

Unless the co-op is being ran like a small private school, most co-op leaders welcome the help. Normally it is the few doing the work of the many.

Because there is so much variety in classes like teaching crafts to preschoolers to preparing teens for driving in high school, co-ops can spring up and shut down each year or at any time during the year.

Most groups try to have their goals written down by the start of the school year, but even that can change.

Clear expectations by either a group you create or either join will avoid a lot of misery down the road.

Homeschool Co-op Conundrum

Avoid confusion of which co-op to join by having clear in your mind your purpose for participating. For example, I knew when I formed our private local co-op that my main purpose was for socialization and enrichment.

I was not interested in anybody teaching subjects like the 3 R’s to my sons because I wanted to do that.

Did I mention teaching my three at home was way more relaxing too?

The co-op serves as a refreshing break in our routine so I didn’t want a weekly co-op, but one that met once or twice a month. In addition, I wanted like-mind parents who have Christian values and a place where my sons could make lasting friends and memories.

Too, I purposely kept the co-op small because it is easier to make friends in a more cozier environment.
Activities like doing a lab, presenting a geography report to an audience and drama are better done in a group setting. It is nice to have an audience for projects.

My sons have benefited from doing those activities and have become more well rounded out in their education.

In one area I lived in we had a homeschool mom who use to be a high school Spanish teacher. My older sons took her classes which was ran more like a mini private school.

Though I prefer a more informal and hands-on setting, I took advantage of local resources for enrichment. It has only strengthened my sons’ skills in foreign languages.

4 Secrets To Creating Your Own Successful Homeschool Co-op @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

When You Gift Others

I can’t hum a tune, draw a beautiful portrait or shoot professional pictures, but none of those things are required to serve others.

Sharing with other homeschoolers and teaching is a gift.

It’s true that when you serve in a leadership position it can have trials. But I have a secret to admit and that is I am the one that always feels blessed after leading the co-op.

Over the years I have learned that each homeschooling parent possesses a gift or two whether they admit it or not.

You do not have to be a former public school teacher to teach a subject, but you do need to love the subject you teach.

Instead of looking into joining a co-op, can you form one near you? Beginnings are important. So start slow with a just few of your like-minded friends.

Meet once a month and use forums like yahoo to communicate and set up polls.

Avoid the modern day quick methods of communication like texting that interrupts your day schooling your children.

In the beginning, it’s easy to communicate like this, but as the group grows, your time can be consumed by taking care of the needs of others.

Don’t neglect your own homeschool routine and family.
When you use something like an online forum or email list, each teaching parent can respond to emails after she has taken care of her family for the day. It also trains others in your group that your priority is your own family and to be considerate of your time.

There are a wide variety of curriculum resources to use from laid out lesson plans to unit studies that make leading a cinch. Unit studies are my very favorite in teaching multiple ages because there is something for all ages to do.

Serving others is a joy and your blessing in giving will be immeasurable not only to your children, but for all others that come your way.

Creating the co-op we had took time. My first attempts at meeting with others wasn’t a fit for our family because of either the scheduling or activities.

Forming a co-op after my previous failed attempts ended up being a blessing for our family because we then met with like-minded families.

Shared experiences and fostering friendships for a lifetime have heightened our homeschool adventures.

Have you been part of a co-op that has changed your life?

3 Homeschool Co-op History Resources Worth Exploring

5 Days of a Homeschooling Co-op Convert

4 CommentsFiled Under: Homeschool Multiple Ages of Children, Homeschool Teens _ From Teen to Graduation, Plan For & School Year Around, Teach Unit Studies Tagged With: homeschool, homeschoolco-op, homeschoolmultiplechildren, multiple children, teachingmultiplechildren

Planning Homeschool When Drowning in a Sea of Ideas

December 28, 2014 | 9 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Sitting in my living room and deciding what we wanted to do for school next, I realized that planning homeschool when drowning in a sea of ideas can be daunting and energy zapping.

Like you though, ideas, projects, and lists are all made because we want to problem solve or craft ideas into projects.

However, my to-do list and ideas for everything from homeschool to personal goals to my blog was growing more detailed by the moment.
Impatient person that I am to meet some of these goals, I realized it can make you feel defeated before you even start planning.

Do you find that you just pull back and don’t do anything because you can’t find a starting point? Organized or not, this can happen to anybody and it has happened to me more times than I care to admit.

One top of that, a problem with most people who love organization is that we have our noses so buried in the details of homeschool planning we can’t see the big picture.

I focused on things that inspire me to find a starting point. Don’t let your brilliant or creative flashes harness you.

Look at these 4 steps for a starting point as you plan your new homeschool year.

STEP 1. Clearly Identify

Start by just writing all that you want to do, but don’t worry about organizing your ideas just yet.

I want to finish a book on homeschooling that I have started, get my youngest son caught up with where I want him to be, help my next highschooler finish and graduate this next year, lose more weight, blog more passionately, help new homeschoolers with more detailed articles, create more unit studies, spend more time with the Mr. now that we live in beautiful South America and . . .  and . . .

Pen your ideas and identify them as clearly as you can, but don’t separate them into categories just yet because that will stifle what is on your mind for now.

STEP 2. Slice And Dice

After you have mounds of ideas and things that you want to do, take your list and prioritize what is most important to you.

What I have found in this step of the thought process is that some ideas are not worthy of my time after I weigh them against other things I have on my list.

You need to either shelf or shave ideas that you can’t get to this next year.

I have been ask, but how do you know how many to delete or shave off and how many to keep? I have found that a simple way to accomplish more is to use the 12 calendar months or physical year as a strainer.

In my mental process, I limit myself to 12 ideas or things that I want to get done for a new year.  Some ideas or things will only take a few days or few weeks and other ideas may take longer.  Too, some things like my goal of spending time with the Mr. can be grouped with another goal.

I find that a base of 12 ideas is a good starting point because it allows one idea or project per month.

It’s a natural way to plan, but most of the time we over plan with no filter in place. The physical year is my filter.

Don’t give up any of the ideas you have if you see in looking over your list that there are more worthwhile projects to pursue right now.

Just put them back for now and save your list because you never know during the year when you have time to reach into your treasure trove of thoughts and get one more project done.

At this point too, I can see a clear picture of how many are homeschool related, personal related, and business related and I group them together now.

STEP 3. Arrange In Importance to YOU

We both know that clearly our homeschool planning takes a prominent place.  But so should your health and spiritual welfare.

If you have been homeschooling at all costs and sacrificing either your physical or spiritual health, your homeschooling journey may not survive.

Some years, I have added in workbooks for the kids or hired a tutor because I needed the break.  Balance has always been hard for strong-willed homeschooling mamas.  I’m right there with you too.

The homeschooling survivors are ones that are willing to change when something needs to be done instead of heading straight to burnout.

Too, sometimes you have to decide what is a want versus a need.  For example, I am so over the top giddy on wanting to finish my homeschooling book, but I won’t do it at the expense of sacrificing Tiny along the way.

Will there still be homeschoolers the next year or the next?  For sure. But my son’s homeschool years are fleeting so it maintains priority for me.

Priority is uniquely different to each of us and we need to not only dig deep to determine them, but be honest on what is something we need to do versus something that we desire to do.

Now the challenge – number each one from the most important to the least.

Can you see the plan emerging? Remember, you should have only 12 numbered.

You can have more on your list, but only 12 numbered. Remember, this is about getting them done, not dreaming about them.

Too, some things which are long term projects, like my homeschool book, can be worked on throughout the year as I accomplish my 12 tasks.

So leave one or two long-term projects on your list that can simmer on the backburner while you meet your other goals.

STEP 4. Make A Visible Plan of Action

The fourth step is the most critical and it is to write it all down.  Did you know this is where a lot of people stumble or just give up?

After going through the grueling process of planning, they fail to make it cement or concrete.

Get it off your mind and onto something that you can see and physically check off.  Put the plan into action by writing it down.

See the big picture by assigning it to a calendar month. If you shriek at paper planning (can’t imagine, just saying) then put it down in your digital planner.

It is not a plan – well until it is.

Sounds easy enough, but a major reason we feel trapped before we start is that if it is not put down in some action form, our ideas might stay as pie in the sky goals.

In an upcoming post, l will show you how I finally solved my problem and got my nose out of those details that I love to wallow in.

Keeping this process of how I arrived at homeschool planning for the year does me no good to keep it in my head and so I hope this 4 step process simplifies the planning process for you.

Follow the four easy steps of homeschool planning which are clearly identifying all that you want to do for the year, organize ideas by category and slim your ideas down to just 12 with a few extra long-term projects, arrange them in importance by using the cruel (you cannot start them all at once, I tried that one time. Stay sane, don’t try it) number system because you have to have a Number 1 starting point and then avoid using invisible ink by writing it ALL down.

I guarantee you will have success in planning for a new year if you try faithfully to follow those four easy peazy steps.

What about you? Do you see a new plan of action or are you using one that works for you?

You’ll love these other tips!:

Over Scheduling + Over Planning = Over Load

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

How To Create a Homeschool Schedule That You Can Stick To    

Hugs and love ya,

9 CommentsFiled Under: Plan For & School Year Around, Schedule/Balance Home & School Tagged With: homeschoolplanning

4 Ways to Not Plan the Most Boring Homeschool Field Trip Ever

December 16, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Besides changing the monotony of a hum drum day, homeschool field trips are learning adventures.

Maybe it’s how captivating I find the challenge of adding in all the homeschool subjects on any field trip we take or maybe it’s the charge we get after we meet up with other families that makes us wanting to plan more.

Too, when others join in, it can make an enormous difference in how much you remember the trip.

But if you want others to join your family, then there are 4 ways to not plan the most boring homeschool field trip ever.

You take charge of it.

I don’t view myself as a funny or even entertaining homeschool mom.

However, with that being said, planning and taking charge of our learning adventure is something I have done with much success.It doesn’t take the most entertaining mom to do, but you have to have a fun loving spirit that is infectious.

Don’t sit back and wait for field trips to happen.  When you plan your trips like one that you would want to attend, then others will come. Excitement is contagious and when you are excited that trickles down to each member.

Maybe you don’t feel like you have time to plan it, but a little known secret in planning field trips is that it is just like lesson planning in a way.

Field trips are your lesson plans for the day and when you view it like that, you are not adding to your already hectic schedule, but you are adapting it.  Not extra work, just different.

Treat Others Like You Want to Be Treated.

The families in my group and in many groups are the most grateful creatures and it has made my planning numerous field trips such a delight.  I just don’t say this lightly because planning can be such hard work at times, but the payoff in friendships have been worth every ounce of extra stress.
When I plan thinking about others, it makes their experience more engaging.  For example, many years I had to use a baby stroller and always ask questions about how easy it was to get around using a stroller.
I tried to pick field trips that would make it easier to handle several little ones alone when you are venturing out solo. When we outgrew baby strollers, I still asked detailed questions and passed on that information to the moms in my group.

When you haul around several little ones, all the tidbits on how to make it easier to attend and still enjoy the outing makes the field trip one that many will not forget.
On the flip side, if the field trip was primarily for little ones, I was very specific in adding in a suggestion or two that could include the teens.

Since most of us have kids of different ages, we like to bring them all to each field trip.  I would suggest time at the park afterwards and ask the teens to bring their games or things they wanted to share with their friends.
Our teens never had problems with field trips based just for the little ones because they knew some part of the day they could be with their friends.  A couple of places we went to even had a few things that only teens could do after the little kids finished.

So a few moms would go with the teens while the others stayed with the little kids. Treating others like you would want to not only feels good, but the whole group benefits.

Forget “Normal”When Planning Seasonal.

It is easy to plan seasonal activities like a leaf hunt in the fall or planning a back to school pool party in the summer.

I am not encouraging you to not plan seasonally, but what will set your group apart from the others will be the not so normal things you plan during any season.

Stretch your creative juices during the seasons to plan for not so normal activities.

For example, one year when we had scorching hot Texas weather and planning a back to school party, we went to the chilly ice skating rink.

When the ice skating rink got scraped, we got asked if our kids wanted to play in the snow/ice outside.

Playing with snow afterwards was an unexpected treat for our kids.  All ages got involved.  No homeschool mom was spared in the snowball fight.

Another example would be planning a swimming party in the winter.  Of course finding a heated pool would be a must.

Why do we find activities that we normally can’t do in one season as appealing?  Making the unexpected happen in your group will make your group unique and you will attract families plenty!

Mind the Details.

I’ll just say it.  There is nothing more aggravating to any mom of many than to show up at a lack luster planned field trip.

If you are the kind of person that doesn’t mind shooting from the hip when planning, then this might not bother you so much.   However, field trips can be a lot of work especially if you have a distance to drive and especially if you need to make arrangements to have the vehicle if you’re a one vehicle family.

Then, there is lunch to think about and fees, if any for the field trip.

One small tip that has been huge in avoiding miscommunication with the group is to keep everything in email or in written form.  I love to text and pick the phone up too when I want to get the answers to my questions quickly.

However, after doing that, I email the personnel at the field trip location just to be sure I have my details correct.  But here is the secret, then forward to your group, the response you get from personnel at the field trip location.

Why? This cuts down on any aggravation if a family did not understand the costs or details.  Even if there is a mix up, the group can see that you had your details straight and those that appreciate your hard work will stay part of your group.

Another detail to be aware of that is extremely important is knowing exactly what is going to happen when you arrive at the field trip.

One thing I have done right is to ask meaningful questions regarding the length of a program.  Because our field trip group was formed primarily for socialization, an equal part of our day needed to be left for the kids to visit.

Do not forget the primary purpose of your group when planning.  For example, we were not interested in long winded instructors who were trying to follow common core standards and who chewed up most of our day as we sat in desks.
By asking meaningful questions ahead of time, I was able to ask in a gracious way if the speaking parts of some instructors could be cut back.   Of course there is no need to have to go into detail about why we were short on time.  I always let it be known we had time constraints.  We did.

{Our field trip to the federal reserve was geared toward highschoolers, but knowing that other ages of children would be there, we cut the discourse in half and still enjoyed what we learned.}

Too, even if the subject has your student’s rapt attention, unless it’s planned ahead of time, be sure you stick to the hours you communicate about to the group.  Some kids may not be interested in the same things your kids are and too some families may have distances to drive back to their home.

Bringing the ewww and awww to field trips is easy when you think about how you want to be treated when planning.

Taking charge of a field trip, you can determine the atmosphere and keep it a meaningful part of your day and create awesome field trips by not thinking like everybody else.

Finally, when you take extra care with the details, your field trip group remembers.  And the best pay off yet, your children are not only provided with endless ways to explore the world around them but make life-long friends too.

If your first planned field trip was a flop, what are you going to do differently this time?
>Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Appreciating the Culture of South America Through Dance

Look at these other ways to plan field trips.

Beyond Museums and Zoos Homeschool Field Trip Form

Homeschool Field Trips – An Important Piece of the Educational Puzzle Part 1 + Free Field Trip Planning Page.

Homeschool Field Trips – An Important Piece of the Educational Puzzle Part 2 + Free Editable Field Trip Tracking Guide.

 

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Plan For & School Year Around, Plan, Attend, and Explore Ideas for a Field Trip Tagged With: homeschoolfieldtrip

Beyond Museums and Zoos Homeschool Field Trip Form

August 22, 2014 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Pondering the possibilities of field trips in South America has my brain racing about new field trip ideas and places.  But before I scoot on to that adventure, I want to share today my ideas for beyond museums and zoos homeschool field trip form.

After you have homeschooled for a few years, you realize that some places are what I call keepers for each year.  They are places you don’t mind visiting again and again like museums and a zoo.  But as time marches on and kids grow, you need ideas for other places.

So I created a homeschool field trip reference chart that is divided by season that you can easily add to your 7 step homeschool planner.  I added 10 ideas for each season.

In listing the ideas, I tried to avoid some places, not all though that would be pretty obvious in a particular season.  You know about them already and besides you probably have traditions or will have them in each season.

For example, we had one annual event in January to Incredible Pizza that all of our kids loved.  As adults we could never figure out why not just one, but all ages, young and old loved that trip!!  The place is huge and had lots of games, an indoor skating rink, car races and bowling.  We just couldn’t figure out why it was more special than other places like that we had visited.  It became our group’s tradition in January.

Another thing to remember about field trips as you enter more relaxed homeschooling is that not every field trip do you need to meet educational objectives.

I know groups are different from area to area, but in forming my field trip group it was understood that our main goal was socialization.  I learned as a hard-nosed teacher that learning didn’t have to be so hard and it was better remembered in a fun setting.

Meeting educational goals is tops on our list, but it runs second to our main goal of socialization.  The families in my group preferred our field trip time to be one where the kids had time to interact, form lasting friendships and not be about hearing long-winded lectures.

Beyond Museums & Zoos. 10 Field Trip Ideas for Each Season

Surprisingly, when I relaxed as a teacher and tried not to drill my kids on everything we learned, they too relaxed and wanted to learn more about the places we visited.

I hope you enjoy this form as I plan for a few more field trip forms, but wanted to get this to you as the new year started.   You know how I take my time in creating my forms because they each come from a special place or from my experience in my journey that I want you to know about.  So I really want them useful and practical too.

Download Homeschool Field Trip Reference Chart Here.

Begin building your Free 7 Step Homeschool Planner

7 Easy Steps – “Tons of Options & Pretty Color”

Step 1. Choose a Pretty Front/Back Cover

Step. 2. Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers

Step 3. Choose Goals/Objectives

Step 4. Choose Lesson Planning Pages Right For You!

Step 5a. Choose Unique forms JUST for You! Not a kazillion other people

Step 5b. Choose MORE Unique Forms JUST for You!

Step 5c. Choose MORE MORE Unique Forms Just for You!

Step 6. Personalize It

Step 7. Bind it! Love it!

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Helping our Homeschool Children Find their Inner Drive When We are Not Sure We Have It

4 CommentsFiled Under: 2. My FREE Organizing Printables {Any topic}, Plan For & School Year Around, Plan, Attend, and Explore Ideas for a Field Trip Tagged With: fieldtrips

Homeschooling Through the Summer with My Highschooler

April 13, 2014 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschooling through the summer with my highschooler was always fun.

I have shared before how we enjoy schooling year round. Last year was the first year in a long time that I followed a more traditional public school schedule, i.e. beginning August and ending May-ish or so because I knew it was Mr. Senior 2013’s last year.

Homeschooling Through the Summer with My Highschooler

Now that its spring and will be summer soon, I have been waffling about what we want to cover in high school for Mr. Awesome.

Making the decision to homeschool year round here in Texas is not hard to do because you don’t want to be outside too much during the heat of the day.

It just makes sense to me to school during the hot summer days and enjoy more relaxed days in spring and fall and we do.

I have two things I know for sure I will tackle with my highschooler this summer.

  • We have signed up for an online writing class with Fortuigence. I really love the fact that Mr. Awesome will receive feedback from somebody else at the high school level.

When my kids were very young, I didn’t want the outside help because I wanted to form and develop their character and study habits. 

As they have grown older and especially when they enter the high school years, it is a nice bonus to receive positive feedback from others because it really mimics real life.

Your child receives feedback from others, whether in a college setting or a work environment and it helps them to learn now how to accept that feedback, positive or otherwise.

  • The second thing I know we are going to scoot along on and focus on is our study of North Star Geography.  Because we are going to work on this through the summer we are going to savor it and plod along on it.
Homeschooling Through the Summer with My Highschooler

Talking about North Star Geography, the planned release date is close.

I do have a few more snapshots though of what the highschool level hands-on geography program will look like.

Here is the front cover and

Homeschooling Through the Summer with My Highschooler

here is the back cover.  They are so smokin’ hot, I love them.

back cover homeschool higschool geography north star geography

For now, we are still using our notebooks and moving along on it.  I will be sharing more as the boys put the finishing touches on their DIY Atlas Covers.

I plan on starting our next unit study too so no rest for us though I will slow down a bit.

Finishing Strong Link Up Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus-1

I

What about you? Have you started making plans for the summer yet?

Hugs and love ya,

Want to read some more.  Look at these posts for year round homeschooling.

  • How to Use Summertime to Put a Foot in Homeschooling
  • 30+ Summer Activities for Middle School Kids
  • A to Z List: 100 Fun Summer Homeschool Unit Study Ideas
  • What is Year Around Homeschooling? Part 1
  • What is Year Around Homeschooling? Part 2

1 CommentFiled Under: How To - - -, Plan For & School Year Around Tagged With: summerschool

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