Hello all,

We are gearing up to start our first year with Tapestry, and our first TOG co-op. I have some questions for those of you who've done it before.

1) How critical are a statement of faith and a set of written expectations? We will have a small co-op (maybe only 4-5 families but lots of kids as one family has 8). Do we need these? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

2) What options have you come up with for paying for supplies for hands-on co-op activities? Do you "settle up" each week, or is that impractical? If you charge a fee for the year, how do you know how much to charge?

3) What do you do if a family misses week of school - due to illness, vacations, or whatever? Does the family just skip the week so they can keep up with the group? Do you build in make-up sessions in case you get behind?

4) Does anyone do an every-other-week co-op? All of our families already have a weekly enrichment program, so we don't feel we can meet every week. What possible problems might we encounter meeting only every other week?

Thanks in advance!

Deanna in CO
Mom to Hannah (11) and Rachel (7)

Hi,
I'll try to answer some of your questions.

1) How critical are a statement of faith and a set of written expectations? We will have a small co-op (maybe only 4-5 families but lots of kids as one family has 8). Do we need these? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Our co-op has ranged from 3-8 families and has been going on for 10 years. We have never had a statement of faith but have never felt the need for one. We have all belonged to the same support group and/or ISP together which both have statements of faith so maybe that is why we have never used one for our co-op.

2) What options have you come up with for paying for supplies for hands-on co-op activities? Do you "settle up" each week, or is that impractical? If you charge a fee for the year, how do you know how much to charge?

Every student in our co-op must come with a supply box that includes pens, pencils, markers, colored pencils, scissors, tape, glue, etc. This makes it MUCH easier to do basic activities such as lap books and maps. For more complex activities the moms who are organizing it pay for the materials if the total is less than $10, if more we get reimbursed from each family their share. (If expensive project we ask permission from the families first so as to not be a financial hardship for anyone.)If we are not rotating the hands-on teaching (some years we do, some years we don't) that teacher collects money at the beginning of each unit/semester to help her buy the needed supplies (usually about $20 per year) If you end up over charging, just use the excess for one of your unit celebrations.
We also all chip in and buy a copy card at a local UPS store so any teacher can make copies as needed.

3) What do you do if a family misses week of school - due to illness, vacations, or whatever? Does the family just skip the week so they can keep up with the group? Do you build in make-up sessions in case you get behind?

It is up to that family to stay with the rest of the co-op. They'll either have to completely skip the week or try to do some doubling up the next week within their family to make up for the lost time.

4) Does anyone do an every-other-week co-op? All of our families already have a weekly enrichment program, so we don't feel we can meet every week. What possible problems might we encounter meeting only every other week?

We have always met every week or twice per week. Some subjects we have done every other week. This year we will do hands-on history activities 2x per month and church history 2x per month, alternating. Your co-op needs to do what works for everyone. If you have some families that want more and some less then you could try letting some families alternate or meet every week and some families just stay for morning but not afternoon.
Hope this helped some.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

Gretchen,

Thanks so much for your answer! We have made some decisions but after reading your post I've already emailed our group to bring up a couple of issues. I like the idea of every student bringing a supply box!

We're going to build in a one-week break between each unit so anyone who's lost a week along the line can catch up. Otherwise it's up to individual families to keep up. Kids who aren't prepared don't get to participate in the discussion (they can listen but not talk).

We've also developed a statement of faith we can all live with, something that's limited to the real basics. The primary reason for having one is so that people who join us come in with their eyes open as to where we stand. We won't exclude people, but we want them to know what we believe and the perspective from which we'll be holding discussions.

I really appreciate you taking the time to post.

Thanks again,