Choose your subject matter wisely. Every co-op has its own distinct personality, and what class might work well for one co-op might garner no interest in the very next county over. For example, a co-op made up largely of unschoolers, with the large majority of children under the age of 10, may not take much of an interest in a course on trigonometry, but a co-op with a lot of college-bound teens preparing for SATs and ACTs would probably receive such a course well, especially if it lacked other math teachers.
Contact the co-op and see what types of classes are already being offered to try and determine best what would fit their group. Some questions to consider are: What are the age ranges of co-op children, and what is the majority age group? What types of classes are most represented? What subjects are not represented enough? What subjects are the most popular? Have they offered any subjects that there was little or no interest in? What subjects might most interest this particular group? Is this co-op academically, artistically, technologically or physically oriented? Is this co-op made of up largely unschoolers, classical homeschoolers or is it eclectic?
Narrow it down. Unlike a school in which children will be coming every day for a 45-minute period for months, you will probably only have your students approximately an hour or two each week for a few weeks. If your co-op runs classes for 10 sessions and classes meet for an hour once per week, it means you only have 10 teaching hours for the entire subject. Instead of teaching something broad, such as American History or Biology, you should pin point your topic to something that can be more thoroughly covered in 10 weeks, such as WWII History: Life on the Home Front, or Animal Biology: Insects and Arachnids.
Make an outline for your course. Start with a list of the main topics you want to cover within your subject. Each of these topics will be an aim for a specific session. For example, if teaching the subject WWII History: Life on the Home Front, some things you would want to cover are rationing, morale, the role of women and children, scrap drives, air raid drills and Roosevelt’s fireside chats. Some of these, such as scrap drives, might be covered in a single session, while others, such as the role of women and children, might need to span several sessions through the course, either consecutively or sporadically. When ordering your sessions, make sure it follows a natural progression, moving from the basic to the more advanced information.
Make a section in the outline for each session. At the top of each section, write the date the session will be taught and the aim for that session. Under the aim, you might want to include specific learning goals for the day, or what specifically you want children to walk away with after this class. Into each session’s section, jot down your resources, materials needed and the activities you plan to do for that session.
Accommodate for different students. Remember that homeschooling classes are often different than public school classes. You usually have a heterogenous group, ranging in ages, ability and learning styles, and you’ll want to accommodate these differences. Further, homeschooled children don’t lack in independent work. Most families who join co-ops are seeking opportunities for their children to work actively within a group dynamic and be engaged by various activities that can’t be gotten at home out of a book or from a website. With this in mind, individual seat work should be kept to a minimum
Create a module or weekly hand-outs for students to take home. These can include homework, optional extension activities or resources for further study. Homeschooling parents are very involved in their children’s education, and it is likely that they will not only want to be able to record what their child has learned in each session (which may be required by your state laws), but may want to explore and supplement the topic further at home.