This year my children are enrolled in a homeschool co-op called Excalibur. If you have read my previous post, you will know that after overbooking our school year and re-organizing to accomodate what the children wanted to keep, both of my children chose to keep Excalibur. I have been so favorably impressed with our experience there, I wanted to share it with you.
The co-op meets for three hours one morning a week. The children can sign up for an instrument (piano or violin) or art class for the first hour. Everyone takes Physics for the second hour and Spanish for the third hour.
The first thing that stands out to me about Excalibur is that the children have all been treated very respectfully with a minimum of adult coerced activities. Asking questions is encouraged by word as well as action and children seem able to participate at varying levels of interest and attention span. All ages meet together except for the preschool crowd, which meets in another area.
Parents attend with their children and no mention of punishments or rewards has been made in my hearing. (Alfie Kohn would be so proud!)
Interestingly, after the first six weeks children organically began to bring items of interest apart from any adult suggestion or plan, to share with each other. For example, a child brought her baton and began to show other children how she uses it and letting them practice with hers. A boy talked with my daughter about her knitting. He crochets, so they agreed to bring their supplies and teach show each other their skills. They ended up with a small group of children sitting together swapping handiwork know-how with promises to bring supplies again next time. I suspect that this will continue till someone gets bored and suggests some new thing that might be shared.
It is true that the music, art, physics, and Spanish classes are traditional-style classes - to a degree, but they are led by people with a high interest in the area they lead and a desire to pass off what they know to others. I don't believe any of the instructors have "degrees" in what they are teaching, only an interest and love of the material.
Children sit in chairs, at tables, or on the floor to take things in with varying degrees of note-taking or just sitting listening or day dreaming.
The instructors haven't seemed anxious about keeping order or making the children behave in any sort of regimented way. So the children are free to take in what interests them. I have not observed an atmosphere of fear or much anxiety - with the possible exception of the younger children trying to write down things quickly that became hard for them. Parents on hand were quick to point out that they weren't "recquired" to write it all down and many alternative suggestions were made as to how they could proceed.
* The desired words were run off on a list that could be cut out and pasted.
* The words were written on the board for all to see and spell.
* A parent or another child wrote the words for them.
* The child doesn't write the words or worry about writing the words.
All of the children found a solution here and have not seemed concerned or anxious regarding this since.
The physics instructor often has the children act out being molecules or conducting experiments in a sort of "en masse" way that is brave on her part and brilliant for the children.
I have noted that some parents (even myself) have been occasionally concerned about bringing things to order or keeping everyone moving along uniformally. But somehow, they have, to date, pulled back and let things progress naturally, much to their credit, in my estimation.
The Spanish instructor invites questions and requests for new words. She isn't put off by odd requests (My seven year old asked her how you say, "old decrepit gerbil" in Spanish.) She has the easy demeanor hallmark of this group.
The children in this group appear at ease and comfortable. I believe this group has great potential and varied possibilities so long as the parents involved are able to resist their instinct to control and pre-plan to any greater extent and let the children remain comfortable and engaged on so many varying levels.
My children have certainly enjoyed this group. They comment that the children there are very nice and easy to be with and that they feel comfortable with the instructors and the kinds of things they do there.
