We don't do no stinking co-ops

Okay, no offense to those who use, run or love co-ops but lately it seems the lives of some of my dear homeschooling friends have been taken over by co-ops and become frightenly schoolish! Granted, I am the only admitted unschooler in the group...although my nefarious relaxed ways have infiltrated the homes of some of the once tightly scheduled. But lately, all I hear from my kids' friends are "I have to finish my homework", "I have a paper to write" or "I need to stay home and memorize vocabulary words for a test tomorrow." Don't get me wrong I love these people and I think they should pursue whatever course works for their family, but all these classes (8am-2pm for some) do not fit into my idea of homeschooling. It made me sad when one 14 yr old friend of my son's chose to skip an awesome field trip to see historical reenactors at the local botanical garden, because he needed to study his Spanish vocabulary all day...*sigh*.

However, in the name of true disclosure, we do attend one co-op, that is quite different from those I have described, which makes it morethanfine. It it tiny (6 families) and more fun than academic and there really isn't anything in the way of 'homework'--at least not as long as I have any say in the matter!! This year I am doing Reader's Theater with middle school and high schoolers, we are starting with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (abridged) and I am really looking forward to it. In my book, co-ops are for enrichment and fun (you know that 'socialization' thing lol) not to turn homeschooling into a part time version of traditional school. Once again I am the rebel that doesn't follow the trend of my peer group .

And I am sure in the future my sons will enroll at the local community college for some of the academics I don't want to tackle at home...but in the meantime, we don't do no stinkin' co-ops.

Barb