A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Last week over on Instagram, I was asked what appeared to be an innocent question:

“Would you ever discuss homeschool co-ops and their requirements for membership?”

I launched that discussion with a series of six posts. Hundreds of lengthy, personal comments followed. Blew me away.

Apparently there’s a lot of emotional charge around this topic. It felt good to see people heal their own pain and reach out to help each other get a new vision of what a co-op could be!

You should be able to read the posts if you’re not yet on Instagram, but you’ll need to create an account to comment. Otherwise, click the links below to the web pages for the posts (you might need to scroll up to see them).

The conversation was rich, cathartic, insightful, and ultimately creative and helpful! If you are trying to navigate the land of homeschool co-oping, I also offer you three ideas to try to help you be successful.

Homeschool Co-ops

• The Origins of the Homeschooling Movement: Part One
• The Origins of the Homeschooling Movement: Part Two
• Problems with the Co-Op Model
• Idea #1: Kind Exclusivity
• Idea #2: Broad Inclusivity
• Idea #3: Keep It Small

Wishing you success, camaraderie, and joy in your homeschool co-ops this year!

Plan a “Take Your Struggling Child to Lunch” day. You may have to schedule it for the weekend when the non-homeschooling parent can run herd on the other little rascals.

In any case: identify the child that worries you.

Examples of worry:

• isn’t reading yet but “should” be
• likes Minecraft “too” much
• takes a “really long time” to finish (a math page, breakfast, tie shoes, brushing teeth, handwriting one sentence…)
• seems sad
• has “no” obvious passion
• “hates” (fill in the blank—math, writing, history, a brother or sister, sports, life)

The idea is this: what you see as struggle may be your misunderstanding—you may have the “struggle” right but have missed the interpretation.

Take your child to lunch without agenda. Ask open-ended questions like:

• “What do you love about Minecraft?”
• “What’s hard about ____?”

Sprinkle in broad happy questions:

• “If you could design tomorrow, what would we all be doing?”
• “What’s one thing I could eliminate from your life right now to make it easier, better, more peaceful, happier?”

You’ll think of others. This lunch is not a “fixer-upper” with loads of suggestions. It’s a moment of connection where your child knows you admire and trust your child.

Keep going til you spark that admiration in yourself (that’s when lunch is finished).

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!