Hi friends and fellow home schoolers! Hope Farm is a small family farm in North Framingham with six and a half acres of play area and woods. We raise goats, sheep, chickens and ducks and our home schoolers work hard and play hard here.
I am Staci, mom to six children and our family has chosen alternative education for at least some of our children since 2011. Everyone comes to home schooling for different reasons. Some of us are against excessive testing and curriculum teaching for standardized testing. Some of us want our children to be able to play more and have more time learning through their movement and time spent outdoors. Some of us have children who learn differently or are neuro-atypical and want to allow our children to learn without the stress of fitting into a certain box. Some of our children have been bullied, or struggle with medical or emotional health challenges. Some of us see systematic racism influences in the classroom and schools failing students of color. For many reasons parents leave the well traversed path and venture into home schooling. We welcome all of you!
We want Hope Farm Co-Op to be a place to support your family's interests, goals and to build a community of friends that inspire and fill in some of the cracks that are hard or less fun to do one on one at home.
Please consider the following proposal for this cooperative.
WHEN AND HOW LONG: The co-op will meet once a week on Thursdays from 9:45am-2:30pm running 12 weeks in the Fall, starting September 8 2016 ending December 8, taking a week off for Thanksgiving. Semester 2 will be 13 weeks starting back up January 26 ending May 18. (With built in breaks/ family time for those with other children in public school. If there are snow days, we will add those on at the end and the co-op may continue a few more weeks through the 1st of June.)
WHO: The study groups will be geared for children ages 6-10. The focus is supporting academic pursuits in a nurturing, fun, hands on way, and the intention is for there to be structured instruction and collaboration in each of the study groups. Early reading and writing skills are very helpful here. If enough families are interested, there are multiple spaces available in the home and a group for younger students is very welcome to form to work in another area for play and to meet the needs of the 3-5 year old set. Please do let me know if you have a child(ren) interested in the main study age range, as well as a younger siblings interested in a group.
WHAT/SCHEDULE:
9:45am: Farm School (please see the
Study Group Curriculum for details of each part of the Co Op day)
10:20: Morning snack and story time. The book used in story time will relate to one of the study groups and will tie into things they are learning.
10:30 Study Group 1
Poetry/Creative Writing/Drama
11:20 Study Group 2
History
(Topics, time periods and projects are still in development)
12:20pm lunch break/play time
1:00pm Study Group 3 Hands On Science
Each week addresses a different topic with instruction and activity/experiment, again, please see
Curriculum Page for details.
2:00pm Free play!
The 6+ acres provide plenty of space to run, play soccer or freeze tag, lie on the hammock, jump on a trampoline, etc. Students will be invited to go into the woods to explore and burn off energy, build fairy houses, jump off of fallen logs. The property abuts a state park so we will occasionally go on a hike/nature walk together.
There is a slope in the backyard for sledding in the winter.
2:30-3:10pm Optional 4th Study group Violin lessons
*Needs four or more students to run this group lesson program. Extra $200 per semester and each child will be required to rent or purchase an instrument, buy materials, about $20. I have been teaching for 18 years and absolutely love introducing children to classical music and empower them with good technique. Students will learn to play violin, learn sight reading music and have the opportunity to play in a recital. At home practice is essential to progress. Please indicate if you are interested in violin lessons for your child.
If you are interested in joining the co-op please please carefully read the
Q & A page at the top and the more details about the
proposed curriculum.
Nothing is set in stone as we are building from the ground up. Please indicate how many children you have, their ages and if you are interested in leading the Science and History groups.
In order for the co-op to plan, purchase supplies and materials we need to know if we have enough families, I am seeking responses from interested folks for the next six weeks. At the end of June we want to be able to move forward or postpone until another time. For interested families, we will likely plan a "open house" day so you can see the property, ask questions.
For all questions and to express interest, please email me staci dot hopkin 24 at gmail dot com
*Please note: depending on how many families sign up and commit to being part of the co-op, a facilities fee may apply to be split among the group. Running the numbers of maintenance we are thinking we need to assume a toilet gets clogged by students or a screen smashed through at least once a semester, We may need to increase the per semester family fee to financially deal with the increased foot traffic and inevitable accidents in the home as well as insurance for hosting school activities. Stay tuned and please be open to flexibility. Our goal is to make this a very affordable option for your family.
