Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out

by Carol Topp

Homeschool Co-op: A group of homeschooling parents that voluntarily unite together to educate their children. Come in all shapes and sizes. .Pros and cons of being in a homeschool co-op. .How to start a co-op including running your first planning meeting .Ideas for classes and activities for all ages .Helpful advice on dealing with volunteers, setting policies, managing money and handling conflict.

Genres: Education

166 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2008

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

as this gave lots of information to use and start, join ECT I'm finding that most homeschool groups are very heavily based on religion. every book I've read so far on homeschooling touches heavily on religion and that's fine. but would like to find one where religion is not a heavy factor but the learning is the driving factor.
there was a lot of good take away on this and I'm aware of how to start and be a part of a co-op now if needed.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book imo. It’s solid information on starting your own co-op. Everything was laid out nicely and lends confidence to the reader that starting a co-op is manageable with the right tools.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in starting a homeschool co-op, whether it’s large or small. This book covers both and all in between.

[Deseré Hitzhusen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would like more specifics on ideas & how to plan, schedule, and brainstorm with other parents

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid information for getting started…or even going back over basics.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good overview of starting, running and leading a homeschool co-op. It really solidly covers how to think through what kind of co-op you want to be from the beginning. I love that she emphasized that no co-op can meet everyone's needs, and you must accept that you will just have to say no to some people or ideas. The author put a great emphasis on sharing the burden of leadership and gave a lot of ideas about how to avoid burnout.

The legal steps she lays out are a good start, but I think more emphasis needed to be put on the vast differences in non-profit incorporation laws from state to state. She covers some of the pros and cons of filing Federal 501c, but didn't provide as thorough of a "heads up" on state non-profits. For example, filing as a non profit in California is vastly more complicated than what is touched on in the book.

That said, I definitely would recommend this book. Despite needing a good editor, it delivers what the title promises.

[Lorelei · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good basic how to book for starting a homeschool co-op. There was also a lot of good information that could be used for starting a support group, such as setting up a board, how to handle any money collected, etc., if a group didn't want to immediately jump into doing co-op classes.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive book on starting and running homeschool co-ops