by Bea Peterson
Fridays are quiet now at the Community Alliance Church in Hoosick Falls. For most of the school year, however, Fridays from 9:30 am until 12:30 pm are very busy. That is when 100 youngsters, their Moms and some Dads, from Berlin, Petersburgh, Hoosick, Hoosick Falls and Arlington and Manchester, VT gather at the Church for Christian based Home School Cooperative Classes. The youngsters, from 29 families, range in age from toddlers to 18.
“The classes we do together are harder to do at home alone,” said Co-op Director Diane Phippen. This past year she taught a class called “Oops My Manners Are Showing.” Using skits, puppets and games the students in grades two through six learned skills in meeting new friends, answering the telephone, good table manners, minding parents and teachers and much more. Her husband, Chuck, taught a “Raingutter Rigatta” course for students from the fifth to twelfth grade. They received an overview of sailing principles and terminology and everyone made his or her own watercraft to race at season’s end.
The couple has plenty of experience home schooling. All 12 of their children have been or are being home schooled. “Some of them are college grads now,” said Diane. Others are still quite young. “We have enjoyed our kids and watching them learn,” she said. “We didn’t want to miss out on that.”
Other Mothers expressed the pleasures of home schooling which allows them to spend more time with their children and be their primary influence. Vermont and New York provide the parents with basic guidelines for subjects and curriculum. Otherwise they
are on their own. The Co-op offers the youngsters an opportunity to interact with other students of varying ages in the same class. Some of the subjects offered in the Spring session for a minimal fee included Photography, Intermediate Guitar, Cooking, Children’s Jazz, Basic First Aid, Tennis, Gym, Choir, Beginner’s Crochet and Fiber Art Fun where students learned about weaving, felted soap, felted alpacas, rope making, spinning/dyeing and more. For the little guys Legoland offered an opportunity to create something related to a different topic each week.
Every Friday session began with the group gathering together for the first 15 minutes. Then the students separated and attended three 50-minute classes the remainder of the time. In good weather some classes were outdoors. The Co-op was a busy place and will be again in the fall. Lots of fun, lots of work, lots of learning.