Working together

.  When I started out on the home ed journey, nine years ago,  I was home educating co-operatively for part of the time. I didn't really intend it that way originally, but that's how it worked out. I received a call from another sister who had found my number on a contact list,  we met and eventually I found myself working along with two other families. This arrangement lasted for about a year and then some other friends wanted to start working together also and a new arrangement started. 

Working co-operatively has many advantages, especially at the beginning of the home ed journey, when your children are young (and fewer in number) and it helps to share skills and ideas, and to be able to enjoy friendships. In my experience working together gets harder as the children get older. Their needs diverge more, you have more younger siblings to deal with and generally peoples lives get more complicated. When it works well it is a great benefit - however in my experience it is best not to rely on any arrangements lasting too long. As with everything in home ed, make the most of opportunities as they emerge and be ready to embrace change when you need to, inshAllah.

I was recently asked to put together some thoughts on home schooling co-operatively. The following are some points I came up with. It is certainly not a comprehensive guideline, but maybe of use to someone, inshAllah. I should also point out that the type of co-operative set up I am describing is where the parents are the educators and want to share the task of education with others. In such a set up everyone is involved, and everyone is learning to be an educator. I have seen others organise co-ops where a group of parents clubs together to "buy" a teacher or teachers for their children but I have not been involved in that type of arrangement myself. I have also known of home education support groups which grew into small schools, but again I think of that as something different from a  home education co-op.
There are many ways to homeschool, or home educate, alhamdulillah! It is all about finding what works best for you and your family!

      Meet and discuss objectives. Be honest about why you are planning to homeschool co-operatively. What do you hope to achieve long term? Reasons will include: Islamic education for my child, social group for my child, companionship, not confident on my own etc, but should ALSO include: I want to develop my own ability to home educate my children, become a better educator, learn skills from others and share my skills.  These objectives need to raised clearly so everyone understands them. Such objectives make a homeschool co-op distinct from a group attempting to establish an Islamic school

2.       Research. If you are all new to home schooling assign research tasks on behalf of the group. Each person takes on the role of researching resources and methods for one subject area eg maths. This is NOT to select a method or resources for others to use but to put forward a range of options from what is available. Sharing the research task avoids the need for each individual to research each subject area for themselves and helps each person become familiar with the tools available for seeking out answers to homeschooling questions (eg, forums, yahoo lists, blogs, reviews.)

3.       Team teaching. If co-op classes are to be held arrange for them to be team taught – pairing someone stronger in a subject area with someone weaker in order to mentor the weaker partner. Rotate these pairings regularly so everyone has the chance to be in the weaker or stronger role and to share/learn skills.

4.       Role allocation. Make sure everyone has a role. This includes all roles that allow the smooth functioning of the group, such as looking after younger children while a sister teaches, shopping for supplies, playtime supervision etc. Work must be shared equally. If the burden falls too heavily on one or two people the project will eventually fold.

5.       Discipline. Be clear on discipline of the children from the start. Telling off each others’ children can be a very sensitive issue. Make sure rules and boundaries and discipline methods are agreed upon by all adults.

6.       Keep a group diary detailing activities and classes. Record what was taught and by whom. This diary needs to be available to all participants to update and read to make sure that everyone is aware of what the children are learning. This could be done in a notebook, but a group blog, kept private to members only, would be a good tool to use.

7.       Make 70 excuses for your Muslim sister.