To start a discussion.
I haven't entirely thought out the ramifications of these proposals, so I'm just throwing them out to faciliate discussion.
I know we just redid the age groups this year, but I was entertaining another model for the future.
There seems that there will continue a core group of kids that ramain in CLAP, in addition to the new students entering every semester to see if they fit.
In a traditional institutional school the classes and teachers change while the other students in a child's class generally remain the same, at least in grades 1-6 (longer if your in honors classes). While I'd rather not model what we do on other institutional schools, I do think their model is good at creating strong friendships and groups with the same basic core knowlege. What I'd like to discuss, for at least the younger grades, is that we create a system that would allow the core group of kids to continue their classes together.
Six-year proposed projected growth plan, which incorporates keeping
kids in the same core group as they progress through the system, while
adding a new group of 4-5 year olds every year.
5 groups | 6 groups | 7 groups | 7 groups | 8 groups | 9 groups | 9 groups |
Fall 2005 | Fall 2006 | Fall 2007 | Fall 2008 | Fall 2009 | Fall 2010 | Fall 2011 |
4-5 | ||||||
4-5 | 5-6 | |||||
4-5 | 5-6 | 6-7 | ||||
4-5 | 5-6 | 6-7 | 7-8 | |||
4-5 | 5-6 | 6-7 | 7-8 | 8-9 | ||
4-5 | 5-6 | 6-7 | 7-8 | 8-9 | 9-10 | |
4-5 | 5-6 | 6-7 | 7-8 | 8-9 | 9-10 | 10-11 |
5-6 | 6-7 | 7-8 | 8-9 | 9-10 | 10-11 | 11-12 |
7-9 | 8-10 | 9-11 | 10-12 | 11-13 | 12-14 | 13-up |
10-12 | 11-13 | 12-13 | 13-up | 13-up or 14-up | 14-up | |
13-up | 13 up | 13 up |
I used what I know about the current growth of CLAP and the general homeschooling population to come up with this plan. Future patterns though might dictate a need for a change in plans.
Pros of the above suggestion:
Cons for the above suggestion:
1. I have seen co-ops come and go. It is a generalization, but those who purposefully chose to remain small seemed to last the longest. I assume this is because they didn’t burn out the volunteers who made them work!
Current plan: Every year (possibly every semester) younger kids are entering the class and older kids are aging out of the class. The black lines represent the movement of kids from one class to the next.
Pros of current plan:
1. Keeps the co-op small.
Cons of staying with current plan:
Compromise A below will allow us to keep CLAP at 5 groups, while
allowing most the kids currently in the 7-and-older groups to stay
together for the next 5 years; while the two younger-age groups are changing
as often as the current plan has them change.
5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups |
Fall 2005 | Fall 2006 | Fall 2007 | Fall 2008 | Fall 2009 | Fall 2010 | Fall 2011 |
4-5 | ||||||
4-5 | ||||||
4-5 | 6-7 | |||||
4-5 | 6-7 | |||||
4-5 | 6-7 | 8-10 | ||||
4-5 | 6-7 | 8-10 | ||||
4-5 | 6-7 | 7-9 | 10-12 | |||
5-6 | 6-7 | 7-9 | 8-10 | 11-13 | 13-up | |
7-9 | 8-10 | 9-11 | 10-12 | 11-13 | 13 up | |
10-12 | 11-13 | 12 up | 13-up | 14-up | ||
13-up | 13 up |
Can also be shown like this: Compromise A showing years 2 - 8.
Compromise B offers every child the ability to stay with thier
core group, and the co-op still remains small. This is accomplished
by concentrating on the current students, by only adding new kids
into existing groups, and only creating entirely new groups about
every three years.
5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups | 5 groups |
Fall 2005 | Fall 2006 | Fall 2007 | Fall 2008 | Fall 2009 | Fall 2010 | Fall 2011 |
8-9 new | ||||||
6-7 new | 7-8 | 8-9 | 9-10 | |||
4-5 | 5-6 | 6-7 | 7-8 | 8-9 | 9-10 | 10-11 |
5-6 | 6-7 | 7-8 | 8-9 | 9-10 | 10-11 | 11-12 |
7-9 | 8-10 | 9-11 | 10-12 | 11-13 | 12-14 | 13-up |
10-12 | 11-13 | 12-13 | 13-up | 13-up or 14-up | 14-up | |
13-up | 13 up | 13 up |
Which can also be expressed this way: