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Ever have one of those days when you feel as if you are just running…running… running… until the day ends? We had one of those days.

It started out in a rough way — my son John had forgotten to do one of his Geography assignments for his co-op class, and it was due at 9:00 am. I got up at 5:30 to get a jump on the day, then I woke him up an hour later. By the time we had to leave, he had his project done, but that’s about all that was ready.

I knew we had yearbook pictures to take, but the kids didn’t get their clothes out the night before — it was a mad scramble to find something clean that sort of matched for their group picture. As it was, two went in t-shirts, one in a long-sleeved velvety shirt, and one in a hooded sweatshirt. So much for coordination!

After we dropped John off at co-op, my other three children and I ran errands until class was over. When it was time to pick him up again, I realized I hadn’t purchased the right supplies, and I would need to take them all back. Oh well, anther time — we still had to get John and get to the place where the photos were being taken.

The line for the pictures was a little longer than I expected. Normally, it wouldn’t have mattered, except there was a fall party the kids all wanted to go to, and it was starting the same time our pictures were to be taken. When we finally finished up, we were already an hour late.

But we continued on… and unprepared! Everyone was supposed to bring some type of lunch food to share at the party, but I didn’t remember until that morning. We stopped for a moment by the grocery store for cookies and chips, and kept going on our way.

We eventually made it to the get-together, and it was relaxing. We visited with friends and enjoyed the colorful mountain scenery for a few hours. Then we had to hurry to…

Another activity — a PE class for John. We stayed an hour but then had more errands to do. We stopped by two stores on the way home, finally arriving around 5:00 pm.

A day of fun with friends? It was, but did we get any schoolwork done? Except for John’s co-op class, the answer is “no.”  A day like that is just proof of the saying, “You have to stay home to homeschool!”

This morning, John had his first test in his Geography co-op class. The class meets once a week, and he was given a syllabus at the beginning of the course, so he knew the test was coming up. The class meets on Mondays, and we were all headed out of town for the weekend; I knew he wouldn’t have much time to finish his homework. I reminded him all week that he needed to get it done early (I realize now I reminded him too many times), and he said he would.

Off we went for the weekend, arriving home again Sunday afternoon. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” I asked him again Sunday night. He answered in the affirmative, so I went on to help the others prepare for the next day.

This morning we got up later than expected and rushed around to get out the door in time. In the midst of the fray, John calls out, “Oh no, I forgot to study for my geography test!”

“But I reminded and reminded you,” I replied.
“Yes, but you were going to email the teacher to ask her about the website.” There was a certain website that would help with studying, but he forgot the web address.

I grumbled as I continued rushing around, and he went off to study as quickly as he could. I had told him that I’d get the website address for him, but it was still his job to keep up with things.

He went into class, and I saw him just for a moment afterward. “I didn’t get any of them right,” he whispered before heading off down the hall.

I think he probably answered more of them correctly than he thinks he did, but either way, we both learned some valuable lessons from this experience. He learned that he is responsible for his homework and his tests, even if I fall short in emailing a teacher. And I learned that I shouldn’t take on his responsibilities; he knows when his assignments are due, and if he has any questions, he can email the teacher himself. After all, he is the one who receives the grade, not me. If I had to receive one, I’d have given myself a B+ for my efforts. But I probably would have made a C- in Laundry for the week.

To join or not to join a co-op next fall…that is the question. It’s a question I ask myself every spring as co-ops begin accepting applications for the next school year.

We’ve been part of two different co-ops, one for just one semester, the other for a year. When we joined the first one, my children were eight, five, three, and six months. We had several friends who attended the co-op and loved the enrichment classes that were offered. The year we joined, though, the format changed a bit, and my eight-year-old was in a math class with other third graders. It didn’t go very well. Homeschooled elementary students, even those in the same grade, tend to work at math at different paces. Depending on the curriculum used at home, students might also be learning different concepts.

They changed that class to Spanish for the next semester, but a couple other things weighed in on my decision to stop. The class was experiencing a lot of discipline issues that went unresolved. Also, the financial cost was more than we could comfortably afford, and it was hard helping out on my required days with a baby in tow. So, we finished off the year at home.

Two years later, a friend approached me about joining a Classical Conversations co-op. We participated for a year, and since I taught the finances worked out all right. We didn’t re-join, however, because I still wanted to follow the curriculum we were already doing at home, and the lessons from the co-op just became extra work we had to do. Classical Conversations is a great program if that’s the basis of your curriculum, but it just wasn’t the right one for us.

So here we are, with my oldest going into eighth grade next year, so I’m thinking about co-ops again. Co-op classes can be great resources for teaching those upper level classes like Chemistry, Biology, and Algebra II. We looked at a co-op on Monday that offers those types of courses to middle and high school students for a very reasonable price. Right now they’re full, however, and we’re on a waiting list. I’m not sure how long the list is, but the director encouraged me to consider starting a new co-op with friends who are also interested.

So now the question becomes… to start or not to start a co-op?

Photo by ShelahD