How is my life, and my children's schooling, different because we've chosen to co-school? Some thoughts off the top of my head.
(1) It's the central pattern around which our week revolves. Since co-schooling is Tuesday and Thursday, there is a comfortable routine with no two days in a row the same.
(2) This means I never have to spend two days in a row isolated in my house with my children. I'm never more than a day away from being able to spend a significant amount of time with another adult -- someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to vent to, someone to celebrate successes with.
(3) Teaching someone else's children is interesting and challenging. It often prepares me for teaching my own children. I also find myself coming up with cleverer, more interesting lessons, since I know I will have a somewhat larger audience, and since I feel more acutely (if less deeply) the responsibility of teaching someone else's child.
(4) My children are learning alongside people with different learning styles and personalities. This occasionally has some unexpected results. Some days, it seems that between my 9-y-o and Hannah's 10-y-o we see (and are exhausted by) the dynamics of an entire classroom of fourth-graders. Other times the kids work together with a peculiar synergy. At the same time, our kids are learning to respond to different teaching styles as well.
(5) It pushes other things off our schedule. Whatever else we choose to do, we have to consider whether it conflicts with our co-schooling Tuesdays and Thursdays. This has on occasion meant giving things up that we like. My family also belongs to a Catholic homeschoolers' co-op that participates in some great science classes at a local nature center. My kids got a lot out of the classes, and I enjoyed passing time with the other mothers, as long as the classes were scheduled on Fridays. This school year they went to Thursdays -- so we had to drop them. That was disappointing to me. But it is a trade-off I was willing to make.
(6) But it hasn't completely destroyed our flexibility. We occasionally shift things around to make room for doctor's appointments or travel plans. There is always room for extra flexibility at the beginning or end of the day -- sometimes we meet for only a half day, sometimes someone leaves early for one reason or another. At times it enhances our flexibility, because we know that we can definitely count on each other for child care on those days -- sometimes instead of co-schooling, one of us is watching the others' children. Usually some school manages to happen even on those days, even if it's improvised. I had my kids plus two of Melissa's, all on my own, for a couple of days recently when Hannah was out of town; since nature study had been about birds for weeks, we had a showing of March of the Penguins and then drew comic strips retelling the story, a lesson I invented pretty much on the fly, but which went surprisingly well and was effective for ages 3 through 11.
(7) It changes the "off days" too. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are my days at home. But on those three days we have to do five days' worth of the non-co-schooled subjects. At times it feels like Oscar spends half his MWF time doing math. On the other hand, we've all gotten pretty efficient.
(8) We are able to have much more interesting discussions about what we're learning when other families are involved. I'm so glad that my oldest is learning both World History and American History in a context that allows us to develop ideas and debate them. Our Civil War unit was fantastic, largely because of the contribution made by all the different members of the group. I watch the children working on Latin together, spontaneously making up silly sentences ("Oculus meus non est mensa!" "Ursae non navigant!")
(9) The kids also get plenty of play time together. Particularly important for me, my children get to spend time in the other families' more-spacious backyards and roam a bit wider in their less-urban neighborhoods than they can if they are at home on a school day. I can tell, too, that they are just as happy to see their friends, to play board games and dolls together, as I am happy to see my friends, to collapse into a chair with a steaming cup of tea and catch up on our last couple of days.
(10) And then there's the relationship-building. My situation is a bit unique because we've been doing this for a long time already, but it's good to feel those bonds growing between the families. It's so much more than me and my friend spending time together while each child makes a friend around the same age; no, I'm learning how to teach each of my friends' children as individuals, and they're learning how to respond to me, and my friend is teaching each of my children, and I'm learning how to let go and let someone else be the teacher. It's good all around.
(11) Of course, there's the simple benefit of specialization: I don't have to plan anything for English grammar or composition or nature study because someone else did that. Although I do try to stay at least a little bit on top of what's going on just in case I have to step in and teach it (as I did with the penguin thing). We also get the benefits of each other's resources -- I don't have a piano, but Hannah and Melissa each do, so my kids get to fool around with theirs. I hate to deal with messy art supplies, but my friends are generous with the homemade play dough and other fun things. And of course there are all the books and games we can share with each other.
(12) Advance planning has to happen. Last Wednesday evening Hannah and I met in a coffee shop for a couple of hours to hash out our vision for next year. We'll have to meet like that several more times to nail down the details. Once, these planning sessions were all about which days we do what when. This time, being a little more experienced, we spent much more time on general academic and character goals for our kids -- how to get this one to think more deeply, how to motivate that one to remember dates and names, how to stop this other one from blurting out all the answers, how to encourage yet another one to stretch herself beyond her fears. Which days we do what when, that we know by now we can do on the fly.
(13) It changes how you set up your home school. I don't think I would ever have contemplated putting a whiteboard on the wall, for instance, if it weren't for the fact that I'm teaching a group larger than my own family. I probably will put one up soon as soon as I can find a place to hang it.
(14) It changes how you think about the future. Maybe someday we will hire a Spanish teacher to come to one of our houses once a week to teach all the children and adults together. Maybe someday we will send everyone that's interested for piano lessons in a big group. Maybe some of the kids will walk together to take martial arts lessons at the Aikido studio up the street from my house. Maybe someday the older kids will teach the younger kids. We don't know. They are all so young. The possibilities seem endless right now.
(15) I don't have a "large" family, not six or eight or ten children like some people I know. But two days a week, I feel like I have a large family. These are the fun days of my week. Perhaps I have the best of both worlds.
Comments