Starting a Charlotte Mason Cooperative (Co-op)
Soon after Cottage School was over (Summer 2012), we began to discuss forming a co-op. We considered starting the co-op right away that fall, but we realized that we needed a firmer foundation in Mason's philosophy, so that fall, we studied Volume 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education. We started the co-op in January of 2013. The cottage school experience had been invaluable in terms of learning how to organize roles and responsibilities (teacher and parent), choose subjects, put together a course of study and a schedule, and actually pull it all off. If you haven't yet reviewed the page Beginning a Cottage School, I recommend you do so now, because the points below are based on what we learned in the cottage school experience.
Of Primary Importance
Start small with existing community.
We wanted to keep the group small, not many more than the 36 children we had in the cottage school. We knew that since this was our first time, we would make many mistakes! Therefore we wanted the group to include parents that we already knew from the study group. There would be plenty of time in the future to add to the community.
Provide for the little ones.
We needed to provide childcare for the children under six, but we knew we wanted to set up something meaningful for these children. We did not want this to become a daycare, so we required that a family who wanted to be members of the co-op had to have at least one child 4 or older before registering younger children.
Qualify and train teachers.
Teachers would need to have participated in the study group and would need to commit to leading a class under Mason’s philosophy and using Mason’s methods. Attendance at a CM book study was strongly encouraged (and eventually required). Attendance at a regional or national CM conference was also strongly encouraged.
Commit to living content and practices based in CM's philosophy of education.
Books or other “curriculum” would need to be submitted for review before we began to ensure that they were in line with Mason’s recommendations on living books. And again, we were looking to see how narration would be employed, in what way students would respond to the lesson, and how the subject would further the goal of developing relationships to the material.
Equip parents.
For the first several years, ours was not a drop off co-op. It was formed with the express intention of equipping parents to return to their homes and implement Mason’s ideas with their children. In later years, we began allowing parents to drop off their children if they had children younger than 4 years of age or if they only had high school students. However, at this time we had a robust community with parents who were attending regional and national conferences and continuing to read Mason's volumes.
Begin to move toward the Forms breakdown used in Parents' Union Schools.
In the cottage school, we had a multi-age classroom environment out of necessity (lots of children, not enough teachers). As we grew, we were able to divide our Forms as did the Parents' Union School (from PR Article: The Work and Aims of the Parents' Union School by Miss O'Ferrall). This takes time though and is not something you may be able to do in the first several years. You may have to have one Form 1 class that has 6-8 year olds, even though you may find that the differences in age/capability are challenging.
We wanted to keep the group small, not many more than the 36 children we had in the cottage school. We knew that since this was our first time, we would make many mistakes! Therefore we wanted the group to include parents that we already knew from the study group. There would be plenty of time in the future to add to the community.
Provide for the little ones.
We needed to provide childcare for the children under six, but we knew we wanted to set up something meaningful for these children. We did not want this to become a daycare, so we required that a family who wanted to be members of the co-op had to have at least one child 4 or older before registering younger children.
Qualify and train teachers.
Teachers would need to have participated in the study group and would need to commit to leading a class under Mason’s philosophy and using Mason’s methods. Attendance at a CM book study was strongly encouraged (and eventually required). Attendance at a regional or national CM conference was also strongly encouraged.
Commit to living content and practices based in CM's philosophy of education.
Books or other “curriculum” would need to be submitted for review before we began to ensure that they were in line with Mason’s recommendations on living books. And again, we were looking to see how narration would be employed, in what way students would respond to the lesson, and how the subject would further the goal of developing relationships to the material.
Equip parents.
For the first several years, ours was not a drop off co-op. It was formed with the express intention of equipping parents to return to their homes and implement Mason’s ideas with their children. In later years, we began allowing parents to drop off their children if they had children younger than 4 years of age or if they only had high school students. However, at this time we had a robust community with parents who were attending regional and national conferences and continuing to read Mason's volumes.
Begin to move toward the Forms breakdown used in Parents' Union Schools.
In the cottage school, we had a multi-age classroom environment out of necessity (lots of children, not enough teachers). As we grew, we were able to divide our Forms as did the Parents' Union School (from PR Article: The Work and Aims of the Parents' Union School by Miss O'Ferrall). This takes time though and is not something you may be able to do in the first several years. You may have to have one Form 1 class that has 6-8 year olds, even though you may find that the differences in age/capability are challenging.
|
FORM
Form 1b Form 1a Form 2b Form 2a Form 3 Form 4 Form 5 Form 6 |
AGE
6 7-8 9 10-11 12-13 14 15-16 17 |
APPX GRADE(S)
1 2-3 4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11 12 |
Maintain the idea of short lessons.
We wanted to continue with the idea of short lessons, alternating between academic and enrichment subjects to the extent possible. Later, we began to incorporate at home reading for the older Forms. They would read a passage at home and either prepare a written narration to share with the class, or the class would orally narrate the reading on co-op day.
Focus on relationship and enriching lives.
We wanted to encourage positive relationships between the children and between the children and the parents. We also wanted the co-op to serve an educative function for both child and parent. One of the major reasons for parents to stay at the co-op was to learn how to do things like picture study at home, so that she could continue to teach picture study throughout the year, regardless of whether or not the co-op was meeting. We do not encourage parents to leave certain subjects to co-op day only. Though it may be easy to think that "picture (or composer study or nature) study is covered at co-op, so I don't have to do it at home," this is the thinking we want to avoid. Co-op should exist to equip the parent to lay out the feast for their children even if the co-op should cease to exist.
Click Here for more information on the General Operations of a Cooperative/Community.
We wanted to continue with the idea of short lessons, alternating between academic and enrichment subjects to the extent possible. Later, we began to incorporate at home reading for the older Forms. They would read a passage at home and either prepare a written narration to share with the class, or the class would orally narrate the reading on co-op day.
Focus on relationship and enriching lives.
We wanted to encourage positive relationships between the children and between the children and the parents. We also wanted the co-op to serve an educative function for both child and parent. One of the major reasons for parents to stay at the co-op was to learn how to do things like picture study at home, so that she could continue to teach picture study throughout the year, regardless of whether or not the co-op was meeting. We do not encourage parents to leave certain subjects to co-op day only. Though it may be easy to think that "picture (or composer study or nature) study is covered at co-op, so I don't have to do it at home," this is the thinking we want to avoid. Co-op should exist to equip the parent to lay out the feast for their children even if the co-op should cease to exist.
Click Here for more information on the General Operations of a Cooperative/Community.