The Homeschool Resource

Polaris Coop 2008

Co-ops, cooperatives, are gatherings of a few to several families, usually once a week, to pool their talents and resources for group teaching times and community development.  There’s typically a nominal fee to sign your children up and an understanding that every family will contribute their time and energy to the group in some way such as teaching a class, caring for younger children, organizing field trips, etc.

Creative Kids Coop: This is the largest coop in the Harrisonburg area with classes from age 3 through middle school with nursery available for teachers.  Students are grouped by grades and cycle through about 4 classes on Friday mornings.  They meet at Covenant Presbyterian Church. Contact person is Vicky Becker at gandvbecker@msn.com.  See also: http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com/show_group.asp?which=2384

Classical Conversations Foundation meets on Mondays at the First Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro from 9am to 3am.  Contact Tiffani Fuster at classicalfoundations@gmail.com. This is a Classical, Christian coop geared towards homeschool students in Pre-K thru 6th grade (higher grades then go the Challenge program).

Classical Conversations Foundation and Essentials (for K-6) has newly come to Harrisonburg in 2010!  Currently meeting at Grace Covenant Church on Wednesdays.  Contact Ashley Hill at classicalteaching@yahoo.com.  This program feeds directly into and prepares students thoroughly for the Challenge Program.  Parents who want to teach and trained and hired as tutors.  The remaining parents are required to be on site, but do not have to teach.  Check out the website to get details on what is covered at this stage. All foundation and essential programs in the CC program offer the exact same material.

Classical Conversations Challenge Program is a 30 week Christian Classical program for students aged 12 and up.  Students meet weekly with an experienced parent-tutor to practice dialectic and rhetorical skills in 6 challenging subjects.  Check out the website to determine what program you’re interested in.   The group meets at a church in Weyers Cave.  Contact persons for each level are:  Becky Elkins, Challenge A, beckyelkins4u@yahoo.com;  Catherine Strickler, Challenge B, homeschool3@comcast.net;   Tina Brower, Challenge II, terbrower@comcast.net.  Currently meeting on Wednesdays at Grace Covenant Church in Harrisonburg. (Students share a full school day with their tutor and have plenty of homework to see them through to the next week.  Less parent involvement is required, but the price is a little higher than regular co-ops).

This fall Classical Support Group (CSG), a local homeschool cooperative serving grammar age students (pre K-6^th grade), is expanding to include Dialectic/Rhetoric (D/R) age students (7^th– 10^th grade or higher at families’ discretion) . CSG assists parents in equipping their children with a Biblical worldview and the classical “tools of learning.”  A la Carte class choices include: Tapestry of Grace, Aplogia Science, IEW, Art with Dorothy Scheel, Logic and Foreign Language (TBD). For most classes parent teachers, using their God-given gifts and talents, teach students in a variety of challenging academic topics. Our goal is that the combination of a God-centered and classical education will be used to build in students a solid academic foundation within a distinctly Christian worldview. CSG meets on Wednesdays at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg. For more information or to obtain registration materials, contact Lisa Smith at go.bucks@comcast.net or 540-908-1740, or Julie Smith at juliesmithteaches@gmail.com or 540-810-5415.  (This classical option is less expensive than CC because it is mostly parent-taught – truly a co-op.  Also offers more flexibility in class choice)

HIS: (Home Instructed Students) is a Christian homeschool group that meets in Edinburg, VA (about 30 miles north of Harrisonburg) on the 3rd Thursday of the month, Sept. – May from 9:45 – 2pm.  They offer programs for children in pre-school through high school.  The morning is class time where they study different topics each year (Creation, 7 continents, How America was settled, etc.) with play and clubs in the afternoon.  The contact person is Lisa Schroeder and you can reach her best by e-mail at lschro@shentel.net.

Funschool (Dayton): no longer meeting

DOVE (Elkton): status unknown

Okay, obviously someone needs to start some new co-ops in our area. How about you?  A lot of coops are just an organic gathering of a few families who know each other and want to get together on a regular basis.