Preschool Cooperatives

Although I had always tinkered with the thought of homeschooling, and had hoarded educational supplies for years, my fourth little guy's homeschool preschool cooperative played a big role in giving me the final push I needed to take the plunge :)

BACKTRACKING: CENTREVILLE PRESCHOOL

My first introduction to the idea came years before when we were living in Virginia and looking for a preschool for our eldest.  Everyone I spoke to raved about a local preschool that had started out as a preschool cooperative.  A group of moms met in various spaces and taught their children preschool skills together.  Eventually it grew so big that they hired two professional teachers as directors, bought a sweet little Victorian to house their preschool, and formed a board of parents.

Centreville Preschool in Centreville, VA

When I came along there were three levels of involvement to choose from, and over the next three years I tried them all :)

1/ No involvement - the highest tuition.  This worked like a standard preschool - you dropped off your child and picked them up a few hours later.  These classes had a paid teacher and aide.

2/ Volunteering in the classroom - Tuition was lower because the parents took turns being the aide for the teacher.  FUN!!!  I loved this :)  It worked out to being in the classroom once every six weeks.

3/ Volunteering on the board.  I chose the state licensing director position and had a blast.  My friends and family know I love researching just about anything and it was fascinating to read all of the safety regulations and work with the teachers to make sure we were in compliance for our inspections.  I saw to it that we had more separation between playground equipment, more mulch under swings, and that all of the magnetic Polly Pockets were goners.

This was a social preschool with no apology.  Play was seen as the work of preschoolers.  The teachers were caring and nurturing and there was oodles of creative play and art time.  This fit in perfectly with my own preschool philosophy and the boys loved it.  Teddy's favorite stuffed animal seven years later is still the little bear he made a little bed for on his first day of preschool.

If you live in or around Centreville, Virginia or are interested in starting something similar check it out here :)

FASTFORWARDING: HOMESCHOOL PRESCHOOL COOPERATIVE

We were now living in Austin TX.  Jack and I were at a playgroup for four year olds who were close to hitting official Kindergarten age when a few of us moms struck up a conversation.  It turned out that we were all planning to hold our boys back a year.  One of the moms told us about a homeschool preschool cooperative she was in that reminded me of Centreville Preschool's original format.  I had been doing what I considered homeschool preschool with Jack (for the first time I had a child who WANTED to learn how to read and was picking up letters easily) and we were loving it - doing it with other moms would be so much fun!

I HAD TO CHECK IT OUT!

I contacted the organizer and discovered that it was a friend I hadn't seen in a while - from a mom meetup I used to belong to.  The thing about the Austin area is that even though there are over a million people, you are usually only two degrees of separation from anyone else.  Three at the very VERY most :)

Jack and I jumped in right away and it was a BLAST!  Here is how it worked.  Each semester was twelve weeks long.  There were +/- twelve moms (and sometimes a grandma or a dad too).  Each mom would teach on any topic she loved, or pick from a list of suggestions.  Moms who were more interested in support roles could pair up with other moms. 

We would start out singing a hello song and doing some accompanying sign language.  Then the teacher mom would introduce the topic with any mixture of books, song, movement, lecture in a way that would (hopefully) hold the attention of 3-5 year olds.

Sometimes there would be a big group activity - like the time the kids wrapped their egg using assorted recyclables and tape and we dropped them from a ladder.  That was messy.  It was also physics! :D

Health: Jack learning about the importance of eating a rainbow :)

Five or six stations would be set up with hands on activities related to the lesson and we would all move around at a child led pace with little siblings running around underfoot.  Our first semester I was pregnant with my fifth, but spent our second and third semesters with baby Echo strapped to my chest.  Sometimes we had a babysitter available to watch the little ones in a toy room :)

At some point some or other child would get hungry (which would of course set off a chain reaction) and we'd take a break for a snack.  In the end we'd all meet back together, do some show and tell and sing the goodbye song.

Recycling: Jack showing off his six toilet paper roll people living in a beer caddy house with baby Echo underfoot

There was a very minimal cost in the $40-$50 range to cover rent of the space we were using and supplies.  We maintained a closet of educational and art supplies but there was also shopping money allocated to each unit.  The topics were so varied - anatomy, recycling, space, art, the brain, health, safety, creativity... 

Even though most of the moms hadn't hit official school years yet, they were excited about homeschooling then and in the future, and their excitement and confidence were contagious.

 Compost - Jack studying the various stages of veggie decomposition

I decided I would homeschool Jack his Kindergarten year too (I was holding back a year after all) and then see where it went from there.  Maybe I'd put him in Kindergarten the following year, or first grade, or even just keep on homeschooling him!  I knew of people who had some kids in public school, some at home.

Little did I know that I would soon be homeschooling ALL of my children.

We made a difficult decision to leave the cooperative after our third semester.  Jack was just starting to outgrow the activities, and I had started homeschooling his older brothers.  There were many other homeschool cooperatives out there for older children but we decided to focus on finding our groove.

THANK YOU

Thank you to all of my fellow coop parents who shared their creativity, talents and enthusiasm with Jack and I.  A special thank you to my friend Becky, organizer extraordinaire - who played an especially important role in my eventually having the guts to homeschool ;)  Yes lady, really!

MORE STUFF

Read about why we decided to put our children in public school despite originally wanting to homeschool here -  Before We Homeschooled

Read Sawyer's story - why we decided to pull our eldest out of public school in the middle of 5th grade here.

Coming next (Teddy's story, Everett's story, Early Days of Homeschooling, What is Everschooling?)

COMMENT BELOW

Have you worked with your preschooler at home?  What types of things have you learned together?