To Co-op or Not to Co-op...

At the end of the last school year, as I contemplated having all of the girls home with me, I worried about the transition from public school days to homeschool days for Mackenzie.  

I also had some worries about our science and math and even writing curriculum for Katy who would be entering the 9th grade in the fall.  I always knew I would homeschool her for High School, and I did not have any second thoughts about that.  But I wanted to be sure that all of my children have the correct classes and knowledge if they choose to further their education by attending college.  (I have an idea for a blog post about college that I will do in the future! *Smile*)

So I started investigating Co-ops in the area.  A Co-op is an enrichment program for homeschoolers that basically involves the parents getting together to teach some extra courses to a number of students.  They pool their energy and talents and work together for one or two days a week.

I found a Co-op called Mighty Oaks Enrichment Center that met two days a week, Mondays and Wednesdays from 9am to 2pm.  They could accommodate children from Kindergarten to 10th Grade.  (The founders of the center had daughters in 10th grade, and each year as their daughters got older they added another grade level.)

Ava Marie is in their First Grade program, she has 5 other children in her classroom and there are 2 First Grade classrooms.  She studies Reading, Science, Art, History, P.E. and Writing.

Madyson is in the 5th Grade program, she has 6 other children in her classroom.  She studies the same things that Ava Marie does with Speech  & Anatomy, additionally.

Mackenzie is in the 6th/7th combination class.  There were more of each of these classes, but not enough to add a complete new 6th or 7th Grade classroom.  She studies History, Physics/Chemistry, Writing, Speech, Art, Choir & Drama.

Katy is in the 9th Grade program.  She studies Physical Science, Drama, Writing, Art and World View Discussions.

My original idea was to have the girls attend on Monday and Wednesday and then do our Sonlight schoolwork at home on the other 3 days.  I also enrolled the twins at a little pre-school down the street for the same days the girls would be gone.  That way I would be home alone for 5 hours on two days and would use that time to meet with clients or work in my office!  Great plan, right?!!

Alas, it has not turned out as planned.  First of all, the Enrichment part of this idea is not like that at all.  I imagined that the girls would learn a lot of things, but that the classes would be more supplemental to what we were learning at home, not too heavy or too much work, just extra.  Not so much, it turns out these are full blown classes...with homework!!  Yuck!

Katy has so much homework for her Science class that she spends almost all of her days home working on that one class!!  There are additional books to read, projects to work on and papers to write for all 4 of my girls!  I have been pulling my hair out trying to keep up!!

So last week I finally had a breakdown/breakthrough!  Since the girls love the interaction with the other kids, and I don't want to just quit, we are going to stick it out this year.  In order to make it work, I have basically put away almost all of the Sonlight...(insert sad face here!)  

At home we are doing Bible, Math and Reading.  It is definitely NOT how I wanted the year to be, but we are trying to make the best of the situation.  I figure that when Tax Season rolls around, I will be grateful to not have to do as much work at home and everyone will be pretty independent!