Five Reasons to Consider Homeschool Co-Ops

Homeschool Co-OpsThe concept of homeschool “co-ops” is to “cooperate” with one or more families to share any part of the homeschool educational process. They can be as simple as two families meeting together, or large and organized — and even publicly funded. When I was homeschooled in the late 1980s, there were very few organized options for co-op homeschooling. Today, homeschool co-ops are diverse and take many forms.

Whatever the form, homeschool co-ops are very useful for enriching your homeschool plans with additional academic and social learning opportunities. As I’ve shared in the past, I started my own homeschool co-op — a girls book club — this year with a handful of moms and daughters from our local homeschool group, and it’s been a blessing in so many ways for my three daughters and our homeschooling mission.

So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler? ContributorJoin me at So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler, where I am a contributing my complete post on Five Reasons to Consider Homeschool Co-Ops.

I explain what different types of homeschool co-ops exist today, the pros and cons, and how homeschool co-ops can be a beneficial addition to your homeschooling agenda — even if you don’t live in a big city with lots of programs available. Click here for the full post.

Do you participate in any homeschool co-ops? If so, is it a large organized co-op or smaller and informal? What do you enjoy? What are the challenges? If not, what questions or concerns do you have about co-op schooling? Let us know in the comment section below.

What’s Working Wednesday Link-Up: Week 17

NextGen Homeschool’s “What’s Working Wednesday” Link-Up is a place for fellow homeschoolers to link up a post about anything you are using in your homeschool and household that is working well for you, such as a particular curriculum, teaching method, creative ideas, organizational approaches, technology tools, helpful books and blogs, balancing homeschool with life/work/personal, etc. Feel free to link up several posts that follow the “what’s working” theme.

We encourage you to visit the other sites by clicking on the links and reading all of the fantastic ideas and insights shared by other bloggers. Also don’t forget to join the fun by adding your blog links. New to this link-up? Visit our guidelines here.

We request that if you join this link up, please add the “What’s Working Wednesday” link-up button below to your post or blog sidebar so your readers can find us here.

We encourage you to visit at least one link-up post that catches your attention each week, and “like” any posts that you read and find particularly helpful. Thank you for joining us on this journey to discover “what’s working” for other homeschoolers. We are hoping to learn a lot from you too!

The NextGen Homeschool Writing Team

Do you host a weekly homeschooling blog link-up? Add your link-up to our Weekly Link-Ups page!

Last week’s “What’s Working Wednesday” Top Three most viewed posts are:

There were quite a few very helpful posts on the link-up last week: If you missed it, I highly recommend clicking back to What’s Working Wednesday #16 to browse the contributed posts.

Thank you to ALL of our participating bloggers! If you are featured this week, please take our button above to feature on your post. Also please make sure to subscribe to our FeedBlitz newsletter so that you will receive a copy of this week’s “What’s Working Weekly” top posts newsletter via email, where you will be featured.



Tuesday’s Tip: The Perfect Homeschool Planner?

Homeschool Conventions Planner

I have a love/hate relationship with planners — as I do with purses. I am always looking for the perfect planner. I buy them but rarely finish them. I’m sure I’m not alone. When my girls were younger, I used Homeschool Tracker, which is a computer-based homeschool planner. I liked it for its simplicity, but [...]

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Homeschool Conventions Part 3: Vendor Hall

Homeschool Conventions Vendor Hall

Welcome to NextGen Homeschool’s Homeschool Conventions 2013 Series! This year the authors of NextGen Homeschool are covering several conferences all across the country, and we’ll be posting on the experience, the vendor hall, and the big-picture issues discussed at each conference. We’ve also posted a wonderful planning tutorial — Homeschool Conventions 101: How to Plan [...]

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How to Plan for Homeschool Travel

Homeschool Travel

Anytime we have the opportunity to travel as a family, we are looking for fun and adventure. However, one of my favorite benefits of homeschooling is the chance to take a homeschool travel approach to the trip and seize the opportunity to learn on the road. For example, we took a last-minute family trip to [...]

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Homeschool Conventions Part 2: Tulsa Speakers

Homeschool Conventions

Welcome to NextGen Homeschool’s Homeschool Conventions 2013 Series! This year the authors of NextGen Homeschool are covering several conferences all across the country, and we’ll be posting on the experience, the curriculum news, and the big-picture issues discussed at each conference. We’ve also posted a wonderful planning tutorial — Homeschool Conventions 101: How to Plan [...]

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What’s Working Wednesday Link-Up: Week 16

What's Working Wednesday

NextGen Homeschool’s “What’s Working Wednesday” Link-Up is a place for fellow homeschoolers to link up a post about anything you are using in your homeschool and household that is working well for you, such as a particular curriculum, teaching method, creative ideas, organizational approaches, technology tools, helpful books and blogs, balancing homeschool with life/work/personal, etc. [...]

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Homeschool Conventions Part 1: OCHEC Tulsa

Homeschool Conventions

Welcome to NextGen Homeschool’s Homeschool Conventions 2013 Series! This year the authors of NextGen Homeschool are covering several conferences all across the country, and we’ll be posting on the experience, the vendor hall, and the big-picture issues discussed at each conference. We’ve also posted a convention planning tutorial — Homeschool Conventions 101: How to Plan [...]

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Why I Didn’t Homeschool From the Start

Homeschooled Mama Homeschooling

Yes, I am a homeschooled mama — I was homeschooled before most people knew homeschooling was a “thing” you could do. In the late 1980s, my mom chose to include me in her new homeschool plans even though I was only two years away from graduating high school. However, you might be surprised to learn that [...]

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Friday Flashback: Learning on the Road

GrandTetonsNGirls

In our homeschool this week… we took a last-minute “field trip” to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, tagging along with my husband who had business there. This type of homeschool travel opportunity is one of my favorite homeschooling benefits! If you have never considered homeschooling while traveling, check out my tips for how to plan homeschool travel [...]

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