We will be starting Y2 this summer/fall. Would love to be in a co-op but I do not think anyone in my area does TOG. So how about a virtual co-op. Have no idea how to do one but would be interested in trying.

Hi Andrea,

I am interested in a virtual coop for Y2. We probably would not start until 3rd wk in August. I have 14ds, 12dd (13 in Sept), 8ds (9 in Sept), 7 ds, 4ds (5 in Oct), and 2.5ds. My oldest will be doing Rhetoric, daughter still in D, and the youngers will be LG with a little UG sometimes for the 9ds.

I also have no clue really how to do one, but I know we would probably really benefit from being involved in a co-op. We've been in co-ops before, just not TOG (this was our first year). I'm especially interested in a discussion time for my two olders. They would really benefit from interaction with other toggers.

Getting excited about Y2!
Marcie

We might also be interested in joining a virtual coop for year2. It will be our second time through yr2. We have been involved this year with a local coop, but it was mostly younger kids and we were pretty focused on crafts...and before the year was halfway over we had added in three families that were not doing TOG...it has been rather unsatisfactory.

Next fall, we will have (one graduated who wants to do yr2 again), 1R, 2D, 2U, 1L...and babies.

Let me know if you decide to do it, when you're going to start, etc... camsshel @ gmail . com

Michelle in OK

For anyone who is in an area where other Tog friends are hard to come by... I can’t recommend a virtual co-op enough!

Why? You share the load.... 2nd the accountability is irreplaceable.... and the discussions with the kids and making friends with the parents is a great joy!

Either way you co-op live or virtual... is a plus. Just make sure you have like minded goals for your kids and expectations are always discussed.... good fences make for good neighbors.....

We have 5 families in our virtual co-op we just ended year 2... and we have possibly picked up 2 new families for year 3 next year.... and again, I cant recommend it enough.

If you can find a friend or 2 and get together I would jump on it. Many hands make forlight work.... and its good fellowship.

Lisa~

Could you pls explain how a virtual coop is done. I have never participated in a coop live or virtual but I can at least imagine what a live experience is like. I can't even begin to have a vision for a virtual one.
TIA

Hi,

I may be interested in a virtual coop for year 2 as well. I will have boy 15 rhetoric, girl 13 dialectic, and girl 6 LG next fall. I wonder if the TOG Loose Threads forum would have some insight on a virtual coop. Last year at about this time, Dody Kettler did a conference talking about how they did virtual coops. It was very helpful, but I didn't end up participating in one. I would be willing to share what I know.I would be very interested in chatting with interested folks. Maybe we could talk online with IM or yahoo voice or something. That is how the moms and kids do the coop. My email address is PattyBaranski@hotmail.com. Thank you, Patty

Looks like we have 4 families interested for a Y2 Virtual Co-op. We need to settle on a start date as people hold different school year schedules. Also anyone have any experience in a virtual co-op?

I may be interested in a virtual co-op for redesign year 2. We meandered our way through the first unit of year two this spring... dragging our heals so we can catch the redesign.. I have 2 boys..11 (12 in Aug) and 9 (10 in Nov). I'm historically challenged so the thought of leading discussions makes me a bit nervous.. but as long as I have time to prepare.. I should be ok. Love history, just never learned much of it as a child myself, so I'm playing catch up. The other issue is timing. We like to start school up in July, which may not match up with other families. I may be willing to "re-do" unit one if that helps in the scheduling. The other option would to get on track this year, and pick up a virtual co-op for year 3 next year. When do ya'll plan to get started? I've never done a virtual co-op, so I need to learn more about it before signing onto it officially. ~Sarah B in SC

I would be interested in joining a virtual Yr 2 co-op, but I would like to know what is involved before committing. I have 11dd (12 in July) and 10ds (11 in Sept) we vary between UG and D depending on the literature assignments.

This will be our second time around TOG. We jumped in to Yr 2, units 3&4 when we first began our TOG adventure. It will be fun to see what they remember from 4 yrs ago as LG students.

Hi! Congratulations on your decision to begin a virtual co-op! They are a wonderful alternative. A wonderful lady named Des and I began our first co-op for year 2 last year and it was great! Our last week was last Thursday.

What we did before anything else was come up with a few basic guidelines. These are so important. The thing that concerned us most was people dropping mid unit. This would leave weeks open and we would then have to scramble to fill them and it didn’t sound enjoyable…. So the first guideline was a year commitment…. But realized that wasn’t realistic, so we had a firm unit by unit commitment. This was probably the one thing we encouraged people to really think about…. Because we meant it… they have to complete their weeks in the unit before they drop….. if that couldn’t be made, then we asked them not to join…. However that didn’t happen… Everyone made the commitment….

We also planned each unit 5 weeks before the next one started. Planning consisted of dividing the weeks up evenly and then us choosing those weeks. Also with classic we had more than one book to choose from in dialect lit, so the books were chosen too.

We would stay online after co-op (parents) and talk about what ever we needed too and then we were done for the week. We had our co-op on Thursdays; next year it will be Friday. We start at 12:00 Pacific time. Other virtual co-ops begin on Wednesdays for history and Friday for Literature. It’s really what ever you want. For us getting it all done in one day was the way to go. Both dialect and Rhetoric levels are done the same day just different times.

We only had 5 or 6 families through the entire year, sometimes we were 8…. But mostly 5 or 6…. So we combined History for dialect and Rhetoric and they had literature at their level.

We began our own yahoo group. 1 for us, 1 for the kids. The kids were for assignments. We would email them what was expected for each class. The parents were for discussion, schedules ect… and keeping in touch….

We used yahoos instant voice messaging so we could talk and hear. This was great. What a wonderful tool!

Make it anything you want. You should have a cap on how many kids in each group…. 10 is a good cap. We had 3 at the end of the year for dialect and it was ok…. Just went fast. Same with Rhetoric literature, they had 4. I wouldn’t go below that….. but again, its your co-op….

Decide how you want your class to go. How will you approach your lesson each week? Stick with Saps? Add your own questions and discussion points? We did both. We only stuck to history and literature…. We felt church history could bring about a division so we did everything else on our own. Make sure the kids have time to get your assignment so the know what to do and have time to get it done. Towards the end, we pretty much stuck to the guide for all discussions and adlibbed the rest.


Well this is just off the cuff.... I hope it helps... Im happy for you... The accountability is wonderful. Especially for year 2!

Will you be using redesign or classic?

Lisa~

Thanks Lisa for the great advice! We will be using Redesigned.

I'm not sure how many families have expressed interest at this point, but we might need to think about making a firm plan so that people can make a commitment or decide that the group is not for their family.

I liked Lisa's suggestions and think the unit-by-unit commitment might work well. I would prefer not to start until that 3rd week in August, mainly because that is what Marcia recommends in order to be confident that you're not having to wait on any info that hasn't gone up on the Loom or Evaluations, etc. But I would be willing to consider other possible start times if the majority feel that starting earlier or later would be better.

I don't know how one goes about getting instant voice messaging, so we'd need info about that as well. I do have a cool new Mac that lets me talk live with video feed and all - but I'm sure that only works if others have a Mac or a PC that is similarly equipped. I'm still a little clueless on some of the technology.

I'm excited about the possibility of being a part of a virtual coop. My oldest two will especially benefit from a group discussion.

We returned yesterday from NCHE where we were able to say hello to Marcia and Scott and express to them our grateful appreciation for all they have done to make TOG what it is. They are quick to give all the glory to God. It's such a privilege to homeschool right now with so many great people out there contributing wonderful resources for all of us who want to teach our children well.

Looking forward to the coop plans moving forward.

Hey, we were at the conference too. Did you have a TOG badge on your name tag? Anyway, I agree with starting to make a committment. Unit-by-unit sounds good. We school year round, take a month off for June then start back up in July. This year we are travelling in July so we can do light school days w/o TOG. I would really like to get started a little earlier, even August 6th would be great if others can work it out. I am really only interested in co-oping for my R ds14 and D dd12 children at this point.

The easiest way to start MIGHT be to start a closed Yahoogroup. Then you could really get organized. Your leader might want to join our co-op leaders' forum (email custserve@tapestryofgrace.com and ask Juli for permission to the restricted forum) and also contact Dody Kettler ( rfkettler@gmail.com) for advice.

HTH!

Soooo.....anyone volunteering to be a leader??

Or maybe two co-leaders?

Yes, I had my TOG badges on (one red since we're still finishing up Y1 and one gold for next year) and I only saw ONE other person with a badge. That was Elizabeth in NC (are you there, Elizabeth?). My husband and kids were wearing them too. Maybe we should have gone with the giant sized badges. I thought I was going to see lots of toggers.

I think Aug. 6 would be OK since they seem to be on a great schedule for Y2 so far.