When Hannah and I tore everything down and reworked our schooling from the ground up, we scrawled in a page in our spiral notebook a new vision. No longer would we be two families schooling side by side. Instead, on our days together, we would strive for one or both of these patterns:
ONE LARGE HOMESCHOOLING FAMILY
-or-
ONE ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE
Since then, that's what we've tried to create. Sometimes it feels like the "one family," other times it's a little more schoolhousy. You may desire something a bit different. But I wanted to start with our vision so you know what we've been shooting for — not so much where I'm coming from as where I've been trying to go.
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Let's begin with a discussion of scope: what kinds of teaching am I going to be writing about when I use the term "co-schooling" in this series?
Simply put, co-schooling is homeschooling families together.
This is, at bottom, a kind of homeschooling (or you might say it is a method or an approach or a style). I won't be writing about after-school enrichment or playdates. I'll be writing about the education, in a group, of children from a small group of families, by the parents of those children. It's not just enrichment, either — it's real learning, real "school."
Second: The co-schooling I am writing about is repeated, regular, and frequent. It's not one parent calling up a friend and saying, "Hey, let's get together and go to the museum next Thursday!" It's not gathering a group of families together to hear one speaker or do one workshop. No, I'm writing about families who get together on a schedule, perhaps every day, perhaps one or two days a week, perhaps a few times a month, to do real schooling together. I think we can allow the co-schooling to be either open-ended, or temporary: it can be planned to last a semester, or a school year, or through however long it takes to get through this or that curriculum. But it must be repeated, and often enough that it becomes a significant part of the families' school life.
Third: Co-schooling is reciprocal. Each parent works with the kids; each family's children are among the learners. So I'm not going to be writing about the book club hosted by one literature-loving mother, or the Scout troop. (But I might be writing about families where one parent mostly cares for the families' toddlers and preschoolers while another parent concentrates on teaching other children. We're all about lifelong learning here.)
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How does this work with us?
Well. Hannah and I and Melissa are working in each other's homes. These days, mostly at mine and Hannah's. We do spend some time at the park, especially in the summer, and take the occasional field trip. But we spend most of our time in our houses. Tuesday I'm at Hannah's; Thursday she's at mine. I forget what Melissa and Hannah do when I'm not there.
And we're working together on some of the kids' core education. Though the combinations are a bit mixed and matched, co-learning is happening in English grammar, composition, science, world history, American history, and phonics. As well as the "electives" of Latin, art appreciation, and music theory. And a lot of preschool learning as well.
Our frequency is two or more days a week. And we've been doing it for a long time now — this is our second school year since we sat down and really unified our curriculum, and we've been doing it even longer if you count our first, stumbling, clueless years.
And it's definitely reciprocal, too. In fact, it's rather mixed up. I teach Latin and history to Hannah's ten-year-old son and Melissa's twelve-year-old daughter and my nine-year-old son. Hannah teaches English composition and grammar to the same bunch. Hannah teaches science to Melissa's seven-year-old girl and my six-year-old boy and her own seven-year-old boy. I planned music theory and art appreciation, which any of us can teach depending on how it goes on a given day; any of us can run phonics practice sessions for the three emerging readers, although I think Hannah is the best at on-the-fly pho; together we collected a set of preschool and kindergarten materials which we each use at will. Hannah and Melissa get together without me and do some things, too; I can't remember everything they do, but I know that some of the children learn science, cooking, and history together on those days.
But I'm confident it's possible to start small and simple too. Two families, one day or one afternoon a week, just a couple of subjects — that can be co-schooling.
I think in the next post I'll write about some of the changes you might expect, if you and another family decide to take that step. Some may be intended, some not…
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