How we started our homeschool co-op

I am no expert, but I can write from experience and try and piece together some insight on how our co-op came to life, how I found families & why it became one of the best things I have done to become so confident & passionate about leading a life with no school!

To start - you don’t need dozens of families! Sometimes three or four committed families is enough to build something beautiful.

So hopefully I can answer as many common questions I get from sharing my journey to help you start & inspire you to finding a village to do the same. If I don’t, I may have more to come in a part 2 ;)

Alright, I’m going to be fair here and say right off the bat that having the community business I do with running a ‘farm school’ has brought many families into my lives (like literally people book to come to my house) and this has opened up so many wonderful opportunities that maybe the average family wouldn’t receive in their day to day lives… but, in all fairness - my beautiful co-op that I do in my personal life, actually wasn’t founded with anyone that attended Little Farmers at the time! I wasn’t even running LF when I met the mum I started this with!

This was a collaborated conversation I had with a friend I had met only 3 years ago! We had met at another local playgroup, with our little ankle biters at the time and got chatting. This playgroup ran weekly, at a local farm, where we became acquainted enough to stay in touch/follow each other on socials etc. (So I am evidence that those playgroups you see being promoted around your town does work!!)

But it’s about making the most of them while you are there. No matter what age your child is - connect with the parents! Use this opportunity to make friends for yourself, not just for your child. If you are homeschooling or plan to - every connection you make and how you make them will become a huge part in shaping your child socially in the future.. so be the example!

This lovely human reached out to me years later with the idea of collaborating a day of the week together to meet-up. With the intention of raising our children together in a nurturing, wholesome, ‘in the wild’ space with other likeminded families who want the same & knowing from the get-go that we both had no interest in the school system. (Formally known as a ‘co-op’)

Side note - ‘likeminded’.. you might be hearing that word a lot, it may not resonate with everyone but in the space of community & choosing who you raise your child alongside, it really is important. I don’t mean every single detail needs to be the same as others; differences are healthy & what makes you - you!

HOWEVER, how others parent, how they hold themselves and their children in the world, how they speak to their children, even their views on the world (more-so if they are loud ones), what activities and passions they enjoy, what they allow into their lives & even behaviour’s etc. should play a part in who you make effort with. It sounds ‘clicky’, and guess what - it kind of is!! But not in a bad way!

You have the right to choose, the families out there that have built their community for themselves have a right to align with it. That’s just one of the greatest positives we get for choosing to not attend the school system - picking the fellow influences for our children! Embrace that! The last thing you want is to spend 4 or 5 years building a foundation for your family and instilling the values and ethics you hold dear, to have it questioned or your little walking sponges take home attributes you didnt shape.

So thats where we started! A message in my DMs from the lovely friend I made, from a playgroup I attended, to now - 2 years later - 8 families in total - 13 children - and creating memories on Fridays that will literally last a lifetime, with families I genuinely love to bits & kids I ADORE.

After that intial DM, we had 2 mutual families we knew from being local that aligned. We werent governed by ages of the kids per-se.. we do keep them within the years surrounding our own, but we have also found that various ages is healthy! The kids have such a beautiful dynamic with eachother, the older kids have soft moments with the young ones and the younger ones really benefit from being supported and surrounded by those they can look up to.

After we had the first 4 families in, we held an intimate dinner with just the mums & set the scene for whats to come. This part is relative and must be completely designed to fit your individual needs. But I cant stress this enough - everything was equal (and has been the whole time) we have used our voices, we have held space for each family to contribute and every one has an important role in shaping what we created. Fairness, equality, our individual needs, wants and dont wants have been heard and accounted for.

I have heard actual horror stories of people that have attended a co-op and swear they never will again, and I can see why their experience can fall short. If you join something where people dont view you as an equal member in prepping or giving you a say in what you experience then thats not a ‘village’.

If you created one with the intention of involving and expecting a level of energy returned by the families you invited and you didnt receive it, and felt like you were holding up the entire group and you were always the organiser/provider.. then thats not a ‘village’.

Which brings me to my next point, dont be afraid to create documents!

No, its not a professional program nor a business, but, its such an important part of what you may do for years! You are potentially dealing with families youve not personally met but recommended by a family that has already joined… have a document that represents your vision. We personally, (thankyou to my very organised friend) literally have a Mission Statement, a Values and Ethics statement and even a time stamped example of the daily rhythm. As much as our day is child-led, its also structured slightly to have flow, repetition and space for the ‘educational’ aspect of the day & other bits & pieces personal to us. (These documents were built and agreed on at the dinner and has input from all and is changable as dynamics and things have risen over time)

Children can thrive in slight structure, especially (for us) were wanting not just a ‘lets hang out on Fridays’ but a ‘lets introduce new things, new passions, new crafts, new knowledge & new experiences to our Fridays’ so having a soft rythym that works as an alternative to the standard school day is something I recommend if you want the same. We use a “how are you” song that every one (including the children) sing to each-other to check in beforehand, we use a “come together” type song that gradually brings our wandering & adventuring little souls back to the space and we explain the intention of the day and guide every one equally through the plan so everyones on board and contributing.

Its beautifully imagined & followed through, but still very much real versions of ourselves. We connect as a giant family & respect eachother so much that we each feel safe and comfortable to co-parent together. This is another important factor, amongst a bunch of people - you should never feel like you arent supported or seen. You want your village to be seeing you, listening to your current lives & taking note on how best to support you. My families jump in to help with each child as if they’re their own even without being asked, the nurturing goes beyond their own & creates the best space for our children to be comfortably themselves, no judgement, no overstepping & no shame!

Which is why I suggest you take your time. We have the process we do for all of these factors. I see those in my inbox asking to join etc, but it just doesnt work like that, but for good reason! I personally never did understand why these kind of things arent a ‘free for all’ before I had mine - but now it makes so much sense! Every part of it has been discussed equally and been such a slow process on building! If its as important to you to want it to succeed, then its worth the time to expand! Youll have more luck in it lasting too and hopefully have the families to remain growing together for many years to come :)

Back to the planning - our dinner before each term is focused.

We run ours via the 10 week terms, with a few weeks gap in between for prep & planning. Our days are distrubuted between the families so that everyone takes turns in supplying, guiding and paving the plan of the day. From the dinner we walk away with knowing what to expect each week. Its shared as a calender to our Whatsapp group, we know whos running it, what were doin, what we need to bring & its blissfully stress free.

We all lead really busy lives so every week we just discuss where and if we need anyone to help. As much as we have our own week to organise - we also chip in where we can to help the family bring it to life. Resources and such are equal and we all have things to bring to the table and the care to offer it & that helps save money too as someone might own what you need ?!

To make it slightly easier to come up with ideas - we have used an umbrella ‘theme’ or ‘topic’ for the term.. for example: last term was History, this term was Spring. These topics shape our days in whatever way each family views the word! We had “Spring” as in literally its Spring so lets harvest spring vegetables & make lunch with it on the farm, we also had it’s “Spring” lets celebrate it by having a Beltane inspired festival in the bush… to the word “Spring!” like jump/spring as one of our families is active and set a whole day around sport and exercise at a running track where the kids did a form of little athletics with doing a relay and such (CUTE!)

Again, this is all relative and shouldn’t be followed to a T - you do what will work for you! Use the passions and knowledge of each parent (or child) you have to guide what you do! Someone really good at cooking?? Awesome! Get them to run a cooking class at a local BBQ area.. someone else run a pilates class or does yoga weekly? Great, host a yoga class with cards that guide the children in a bush clearing, add whatever other resources you have to make it fun! Add as many elements to your session as you can that really tells the story of what you are doing/sharing! Ive personally learnt so much from attending others, I love getting insight into other people and what they are good at. I love joining in with Isla & expanding our minds together, one of the best parts of keeping her out of school :)

The last thing il touch on is where to host… the first term we ran we spent going to a new place every single week. We utilised what we all loved about the area we live in by visiting everyones favourite place on the Peninsula for the whole 10 weeks. We realised upon doing so that a new place each time for our curious and explorative little humans was quite distracting! And as much as we loooove that, and that deserves space within our lives, for our co-op design of educational content that isnt just about the physical world around us - we now have like 6 or 7 places on rotation. Each space brings a different element to eachother (beach, bush, rockpools, farm, forest, hills, shelter, power, cooking facilities) and we choose the ones according to what will positively bring the idea of the week to life!

We have options according to weather, we have facilities at most, some take walking to so we trek together from the carpark and others dont… highly recommend working together in building your places! Some co-ops also just choose one space for all, if that works for you go for it :) I personally love changing it up and the children get something a little different each time!

But whatever works.

Anyways, ive rambled on long enough for Part 1. This was just my personal experience in creating our co-op. Each family after the initial 4 that started the first term was invited, either known and loved by all or represented by a family, all had a vocal ‘yes’ from every one, and all waited for a new term to start. We sent them the documents and made sure each family knew the level of contribution that will be asked of them and slotted in naturally when the time came and I dont regret a thing for organising it this way :)

Il touch on some more in a part 2 if I find a question I had yet to answer. And look out for my instagram reel in which I have pinned to the top of my reels tab, this post was designed for you to comment on your location and age of children to hopefully help bring some of you together. As an advocate for this lifestyle on my socials for the past few years I can see how big the community really is!! Theres been no easy way to bring them all together but il see what I can do! I would love for others to experience what I have by bringing my ideas to life with others - we really are stronger in numbers as some would say ;)