The Imagination Village

We started our new homeschool co-op last Friday with some good friends from Treehouse (which was our co-op from last year). It's a brand new group and we're all excited about putting together unique learning opportunities for our kids. There's about 30 children in the group so far, and we meet at the Sager Arts Center in Siloam Springs - a great old building with tons of character and plenty of space.

Both Brennan and Rich are taking a Nature Study class, Rich is taking Art and Periods in History (this week was the Renaissance), and Brennan is taking Movement and Music, and a class that teaches rhyming through games and activities. The boys had a blast and got to hang out with friends all day, learn new things, and help start a community from the ground up.

If you're not familiar with the concepts of a co-op, it's simply a group of homeschool families that meet regularly (in our case, once a week) to offer a group learning setting for the kids. The great benefit of a co-op is that parents teach the classes, which means the kids tend to learn things that are outside of their own parent's ability to teach. For instance, the boy's nature class is taught by two parents with a strong background in botany and biology - something I know very little about. Conversely, I'm teaching a class for the older kids that demonstrates the effects of political and economic change on the music and entertainment industry (talk about a specialty class!). It's fun to start this adventure with friends and see where it takes us.