The Coop Group: How We Created a Casual Co-op
Here’s the story, of a mom named Mandi, who was homeschooling 3 very awesome kids! Just kidding…kind of. This is the story of how Mandi and I formed our own homeschool co-op, our Coop Group. It is not super formal, but we have worked hard to plan and organize for this group and we adore what we have cultivated! We love the homeschool family we are growing and can’t wait for what’s to come.
Our Story
From Jessica
As someone homeschooled from middle school through graduation, I saw first hand how important community was. I also saw an amazing group of moms work together to provide a network of support and opportunity to bless us with. I always knew this was what I wanted to work toward building for my own children.
My sister-in-law began homeschooling her children when my oldest was just a baby. This meant that I had built in homeschooling support within the family. I knew that I’d still want a big community and would need ways to find that. As a dance teacher to young children, I meet tons of families, and quite a few who homeschool. That’s where I met Mandi (and a few other moms who would eventually become our Coop Group)! Through some dance moms I learned about the homeschool charters in San Diego - which I saw as such a beautiful opportunity. Being a part of the charter school definitely connected me to more homeschooling families. In fact, Mandi and I met a few other moms we really connected with through our charter school (yay Booster Club 2018-19!).
This is where Mandi’s story picks up in time.
From Mandi
Three years ago, summer of 2017, I asked a bunch of new friends over for a Craft Extravaganza event, where we made thermo slime, stress balls, and kinetic sand. I had about 20 kids at my house, all known by me, but some new to each other. Not all the crafts worked out, but it was a sensory explosion anyway. Not all the moms knew each other, but some of us moms grew in friendship, and our kids navigated groupings. This was the beginning. This was the first non-birthday group event where about half of the families decided to stay and do more like this…to eventually become our homeschool co-op. It happened organically as we made friends, observed who showed up, observed enthusiasm, and just saw who jumped in all the way, or who was just fun to be around. This is where is began, with slime, chocolate chip muffins, and a humble home. It’s where discussions began about a co-op.
Next I hosted a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book club event a few months later, with rules and requirements, experiments, $100 of fudge and candy, fruit loops, crafts, a book discussion, lunch, and a movie. This time, I invited friends of friends too.
After that, a few months later, Jessica hosted an Easter Egg Hunt in a beautiful forest, with the same group, where even some husbands came - cementing this idea of a co-op. The eggs where natural shells full of bird seed, and some eggs were the treasured resurrection eggs.
Where Our Visions Met
Seeing my pool of homeschool families grow, I knew that the time had come to start making relationships. Mandi and I had an amazing conversation about our homeschool community dreams, and eventually realized that partnering in this journey might help us realize them. We discussed growing into a group of 20 or so families, planning annual family camping trips, celebrations, curriculum sales, book exchanges, service projects, and so much more. Within a group that big, we imagined that our children could make some close, lifelong friends. Even more, we hoped to make lifelong friends ourselves.
Once we got the ball rolling, we really got excited to build our group. The first year was slow growing, but the following two years became monthly, creative, and more fun. We added in regular moms night out events to be sure we had time to bond and grow our relationships without our children.
How Did We Decide on Our Group Model?
Over the years we have considered the merits of a formal co-op, but so far, the cons outweigh the pros. While our children are still age 10 and under, we like the flexibility of not being overly committed to planning and attending events that could take away from our own individual homeschooling goals. We knew that a formal co-op would need leaders willing to step in at a moments notice to take over for someone sick, to rethink an event that couldn’t run. This was a level of commitment and possible frustration and burn out neither of us wanted. So, we opted with a more casual approach.
We really love our casual co-op - a small, exclusive, invitation only group with organized activities and events throughout the year. We started by inviting like-minded homeschooling friends. Then we opened up the group to others invited by current members at the beginning of the school year and closed it by October. We decided on this to ensure that anyone new to the group could get plugged in and really start meeting everyone before getting into the holidays and possible house parties where inviting strangers over might feel a bit weird. We had a few new families join last year and it was wonderful getting to know some new friends.
How Did We Cope During the Pandemic?
We didn’t. Well, we did great at first, and then we all just took a break. At the beginning of the quarantine, we all took a deep breath, postponed our upcoming events and created a virtual playdate schedule - you can check it out here. It was awesome, most kids had a blast, and events were well attended.
Then the month of planned events ended and we lost our motivation to continue. I found myself just mourning all things then were no longer postponed but cancelled indefinitely.
What’s Next?
Mandi and I are planning our new school year. We are once again planning to open the group to new families by invite. We are planning a few more group learning activities in addition to our outdoor adventures. We are avoiding planning things that may require mask wearing or could get cancelled. We want to be sure we can meet up, so we’re getting creative.
We have worked to grow this Coop Group, because it matters. You can’t always see it in the midst of everything, but our 60 year old selves will thank us for it - for the friendship and encouragement from other moms in the same stage of life, for the struggle, for the fun, for the memories, and for the experiences. And we hope our children will eventually all connect deeply and be able to call each other their homeschool family.
