THE REAL DEAL
The real deal is a homeschool cooperative that is solely run by parent volunteers. This means you get the group of parents and kids together and then seeing how many you have, you divide them up into age groups (size maybe based on the number of classrooms available) and then you start to reach out to parents in those classes and decide who will be lead teaching and/or share teaching responsibilities. Some parents rotate teaching but in their own styles. You must always have at least two adults in each class for accountability reasons. This is how THE LEARNING TRAIN is set up. Most times we use a FREE online curriculum for science and art so that parents can easily access this info. You will need at least one director to coordinate the classes, schedules, and negotiate the terms of the facility use. Having a co-director is always good. We have two directors, one for Upper School and another for Elementary School. This helps a big deal when you’re cooperative grows into a large group. Dividing up the responsibilities (lunch cleanup, playground supervision, etc.) is always good to avoid burnout.

Recap:
Sign people up.
Divide up groups.
Decide on teachers.
Always have two adults to a class.
Use online curriculum.
Have a Director or two.

THE DROP & GO
This kind of co-op basically outsources teachers to host classes and parents can just drop off their kids and go. Of course you must ensure emergency forms are in place and the parent is able to be reached in the event of an emergency. Most times this co-op is fee based for each teacher.

At THE LEARNING TRAIN we outsource music lessons at a bargain price! So we have great deals for parents who want their children to take violin or guitar lessons for just $5-10 a lesson.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION