Participating in a co-operative homeschool group is not for everyone, but it supplies a great opportunity for those who are free to take on its challenges. Building Liberty Classical Academy (LCA) from a few strangers to a group of 17 families meeting for a weekly Academy Day has been a challenge, but also a great joy. Yes, we've been invited to leave our original park, and we've had people leave — abruptly or fading away — because they were easily overwhelmed or perpetually late. At the same time, our kids clamor for what some call "Monday school" and others just call "fun"…including physics and Latin. Our lives have been enriched in both friendships and academics. May our experiences encourage others to take on the challenges and discover the opportunities of co-operating in home education!

Three years ago I discovered The Well-Trained Mind (WTM) and began applying its principles to what I was already using with my children. I found one lady from the WTM site who lived near me and was already meeting with two friends for art and PE. A friend came along with me to meet these near-strangers and we ended up meeting weekly for the rest of that year — Year 1. We soon wanted more — more classes, more people, more opportunities for (dare I say it?) socializing. Some of the ladies had already experienced an "academy day" through another, much larger, group nearby and comparison helped us decide what we did and didn't want. We began planning a specifically classical day: brainstorming, inventorying skills, researching other groups. One state association offered suggestions for starting a support group and we adapted from that. We developed paperwork to protect ourselves (medical and liability releases) and define ourselves (code of conduct, mission/faith statement).

With any homeschool group, clear up-front definition is crucial to not just "keeping the peace" but to promoting harmony. After all we were not just sharing field trips or occasional picnics; we would be together weekly through the whole school year. We chose Mondays because, well, because that was the worst day of the week for most of us. We decided to make our classical focus explicit and included it in our name: Liberty Classical Academy, named after Liberty Park where we first met. Finally, we aimed to minimize expenses. Instead of charging, each teacher would bear the expenses for her classes, knowing that other teachers would do the same. This was easier because we were meeting for free, at a public park, and because every mom was teaching at least one class, usually two.

Our Year 2 classes included PE and art for all, history, and science (elementary) or composition (middle/high school). We broke down the art by age group and the history by topic (ancients and early U.S.). Keeping our preschoolers happily learning was particularly important to all of us, as you may imagine. Their science class was actually so much fun the older kids wanted to join! Each mom wrote a syllabus for her classes, supplying structure and letting her hand off to a newcomer or alternate if her kids were sick. We expected to include only families the board members knew, via word-of-mouth, but picked a day in early August to show off class materials, sign kids up, and all meet each other. (In Year 3 we called this "Enrollment Day" and set appointments so each family could get all the paperwork done at once.)

We were set, we thought. I posted a note about my excitement on the WTM board. Suddenly we had five more families interested, a total of 13! More families meant more students, but also more help. We rearranged classes to keep things participatory — not a drop-off or play program — making sure every mom had teaching responsibilities. New families fit fairly smoothly into the preschool and art teaching slots, at first with one of the original five members as "backup." In Year 2 we learned logistics like printing a schedule for each table, starting an email loop, and what kind of lunches were easiest. We also met a code enforcement officer (35 kids in a park on a school day are a bit conspicuous), and found families would come and go but we needed to offer grace to all — and insist on timeliness. We learned to bring extra toilet paper and that even in California there are days you want to be inside! (Oh joy! One of our members' churches offered us free emergency-only use of their building.) By January we were already creating a wish list of classes for next year and word-of-mouth advertising for next year — even to the WTM loop. At our end-of-year potluck (when the dads finally got to meet each other and the kids showed off their projects) we could hardly wait for next year to begin. Many kids were moaning about missing each other for even a week during the summer. They thought the board members' families were lucky because we kept meeting through the summer to schedule classes (only 30 revisions or so) and make sure syllabi were done.

In Year 3, we focused on classical-style classes that we couldn't or didn't want to teach at home. Art is drawing and painting this year (last year was art history), including artisan crafts for the older kids. We dropped PE, having decided to focus on academics. Instead of history (hard to match what families were doing at home), our elementary kids' hands-on cartography is taught by a mom with a degree in geography (we'll have to split that class in January). Science for all ages includes lots of experiments, practice with writeups, and vocabulary homework for older kids. This year we're offering latin and spanish (taught by native speakers). We kept composition (each session begins with sentence diagramming!) and added speech for older kids. The first year we photocopied, but this year books had to be purchased for some classes. We may have to charge to rent a rainy-day facility, but are still looking for alternatives. There was definite turnover from last year, but a core of 10 families stayed and 7 new families have joined. Our location "turned over" too, as the original city asked us to leave…and the new park is better.

This year every class officially has a syllabus and a primary teacher, alternate teacher, and helper, that's 3 classes per mom, although those with toddlers participate in only two classes each. We built in three-level backup to allow for sudden illness, vacations, discipline issues at the park, and even potty breaks. It also keeps us moms from distracting others. Everyone is committed to being present on time, all day, with chit-chat limited to lunchtime (this works better, we found, when everyone is busy). Most new families came in August and any unhappy folks had left by the end of September. With more academic classes, it's much harder to have people join mid-year, so we expect less fluctuation in membership this year. However, we're already two families over our self-imposed "cap" and have a waiting list as well.

Communication is crucial, and we work at it through monthly board meetings and lunchtime Mom's Meetings. This year we added a "Get Acquainted" potluck to which dads were invited…so they'd have some idea who their families were hanging out with all year! We plan to have a few more group social events — including a science fair — and we share some of our family field trips with each other. Through our members-only email loop and web site we post our syllabi, roster, schedule, homework, field trip invitations, and reminders about supplies for next week. Board members have a separate email loop for discussing group issues. All of this can make it hard to participate if you don't have a computer (only 2 members don't), so we share telephoning tasks to keep everyone informed — our co-op covers three different area codes and two counties. I find it hard to even imagine how we'd cope without email.

Another reason LCA has worked is that it is clearly defined as classical, Christian, and gracefully flexible. We don't ask about church or doctrine but do tell folks up front that we begin with Bible reading, prayer, and pledge of allegiance. (Our group includes Protestants and Catholics of many backgrounds.) We let members decide which legal approach to use, independents and charter-schoolers participate equally; charter school folks may use allotted state monies for curriculum that benefits the group, too. Each teacher chooses the materials for her co-op class and may assign and mark up homework for older kids but does not "grade," and each family uses individual curriculum and methods at home. (I ended up buying my third different Latin book to maintain consistency with what LCA was doing.)

As we counted up after enrollment day we found ourselves a very diverse group, not just ethnically (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Latino from all over, Slavic, and then some) but skills and personality-wise, too. Some moms are back in college, some barely finished high school, yet others are former career moms with degrees and even teaching credentials. We have hands-on project moms and no-mess-at-my-house moms, ones who love words and others who never met a book they liked until homeschooling, the compulsively early and the barely on time. We have first-time homeschoolers and those who've been doing it for years, the scrimpers and the curriculum spenders, charter-schoolers and independent homeschoolers. Some have kids in public schools and at educate others at home, while others' children have never experienced a formal classroom. The key, I think, is that each mom is teaching at least one thing she loves in a way she loves to teach — and that, along with the friendships, makes her want to stay. Many of us are having a blast — and sometimes feeling the stretch — of teaching things we might not have taken on at home.

Liberty Classical Academy is a rich mingling of skills, ideas, personalities, and potentials — all still being developed by the new challenges each year brings to us. Yes there are days it's hard to get up and go, when we feel ill prepared or kids have bad attitudes, but Academy Day (and all the work behind making it happen) are still very much worth doing. May your co-op experience be equally rich and challenging, for your children and for you moms as well!

Just for fun, here's a table that tells you what we've used this year. Your co-op will almost certainly be different — classes, materials, skills, methods — but it's always nice to compare. Grade levels are approximate and overlap, giving each mom the freedom to place her kids where they best fit or where she finds the best match with what her family is doing at home.