How I started a Preschool Co-op in 2 weeks

STEAM Play Preschool Co-op was thought up as fall was coming and I knew I wanted a fun engaging activity for my my 4 year old to do each week that would expand his horizons, let him meet new friends, get out us of the house during the long Alaskan winters, and force me to do the cute lessons you can find all over Pinterest. Obviously if you know you want to start a Co-op, it's better to give your self more than the last two weeks of the August so you are not spending 12 hours a week while nursing a newborn pulling it together, but it can be done! And so far has been a fun success. There are several benefits to being part of a preschool co-op and several styles too. If you can't find one that fits your family or schedule and are considering starting your own, here is what I did broken down into steps:

1. Decide what style of co-op you'd like to have. Do you want it to be comprehensive, covering all subjects and meeting several times a week? Would once a week or just for field trips suit your schedule better? Maybe just a social group with play activities? I decided I wanted to meet about once a week focusing on Science experiments, Tactile experiences, Engineering challenges, Art and craft projects, and Movement activities so I hijacked the popular acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math and used it as our Play based preschool name. I also liked the connection to the curiosity, critical thinking, and problem solving the acronym had. 
2. Find a low to no cost location. Knowing that we wanted to do table projects and also have room to move and get messy I looked for a space that would accommodate both. Finding one in the free or low cost arena proved challenging so we settled on the local library for table projects and quieter classes and the local recreation center for the louder gym type activities luckily both were free in my area but a few other low cost options were to meet at a restaurant, bookstore, other area's rec centers, local churches, or private schools if your class meets in the evening. Ultimately one of our co-op members had connections with a local church that had a meeting room, kitchen, and gym so we met there instead for free. If the co-op meeting place is not free just divide the cost into the member dues.
3. Advertise. Start with your circle of friends/neighbors, then go to your church group, and any other social groups you are a part of. Encourage members to invite their network as well. I actually only posted it on Facebook but I posted it on my personal page, my church page, a local mommy play group page, a MOPS page, a book club, and an area homeschooling page. Most of the Facebook groups don't mind advertising of this type if it fits in to their target audience and isn't for profit. If there are dues or you are doing it for profit just look into their rules before posting. I find digital flyers with pictures get more attention than just text and giving as many details as you can helps too. I first asked "Is anyone interested in doing a preschool Co-op one day a week focusing on gym and art activities? If so comment below and I'll add you to the group for more details" then created a Facebook group with the about me section describing what the goal of the co-op was and added each new member to the planning meeting event. If you are not huge on Facebook you can also look into calling/texting, announcing it at events like your libraries story time activity, or church. You can also post flyers at your grocery stores, post office, libraries.
4. Set up a planning meeting to work out details. Once I had 8-10 members of the group I asked them to introduce themselves to see who would be actively participating and who was just expressing interest in the group without intent. I got about 5 introductions on that post so I decided it was worth my time to proceed and held a planning meeting one night at the local McDonalds to get feedback on things like: day/time, duration. daily schedule, academic goals, how much participation they were willing to put in, and if they wanted to do dues or donate/ BYO supplies to each class. I had several people RSVP but only one show up. In the future I'll just decide these things on my own and include it in the invitation to the first class when I am initially advertising, as people who are still shy or looking into it are hesitant to speak up about something they are not yet committed to.
5. Get your paperwork ready.
   
   After the details of the co-op were worked out I made an "STEAM Play Preschool Co-op Introduction" page to print off for members at the first meeting, I also made a "About me" page for them to fill out info on themselves and their children and a waiver for them to sign to help discourage pettiness. I don't know how well the waiver would hold up in court but at least I attempted to cover my butt and let them know I'm not interested in drama. Finally I created a sign up sheet for classes, field trips, and parties for the year. If  you'd like to see samples of the set up forms they are here. At this point I also created an outline of our daily schedule that included announcements, circle time, story time, class time and free play.Your flow may look different than that but having a plan about the structure (or lack of) is a great idea before you open the doors for your first class. 
6. Have your first class and make changes.
   
   With my plan in place I created a cute flyer and advertised our first class to the public to pick up any other members before starting the year off. I had another 5 or 6 people join our group from this add and it had a lot more inquiries and attention (which is how I learned about the power of an image with your message on social media.) We planned to meet from 10 am until Noon and so I did a 40 minute lesson on the 5 Senses that was very interactive and illustrative but simply too long for a 3-5 year old attention span. I also learned that it isn't quite developmentally appropriate to be doing days and months at circle time for 3-5 year olds (and not very purposeful if we meet only once a week anyway). After getting feed back from the group we changed our time to end at 11:30 and to only have a 20 minute lesson. After we met the 2nd time we decided to have a little more structured gym time instead of free play at the end of each lesson as well. That's the beauty of a co-op though, you bring in different ideas and can adapt it to your needs as you go. 
7. Get everyone on track. Once everyone was signed up and had their paperwork turned in I created a contact sheet and birthday list. I used their kids interests as I created theme ideas, class types, and goals that they could use when brainstorming their classes (since we left it wide open beyond our STEAM premise). I supplied all of this along with our daily/ yearly schedule, songs for circle time, and planning pages in a spiral bound book for each member. (If you'd like a copy of this book emailed to you send me a message)

After this we were off and running.

Well almost. At our first class half of us got infected with hand, foot and mouth including me and the person set to teach the 2nd week. So we cancelled our 2nd class!... C'este la vie. Since we got going after that though things have gone smooth. It's still a work in progress and I'm still learning as we go but it has definitely been worth the few hours of phone calls, brainstorming and computer work to put it together. Even just for the field trips alone! Almost everywhere I've looked into wants a group of 10 or more to do a field trip, having a co-op opens doors to all kinds of learning opportunities. Also I'm seeing my son make new friends and new connections as he is introduced to different topics each week. AND I'm making new friends which has been a delightful bonus. It is truly fun watching Pinterest preschool come to life!

Next year (or semester) I think I'll also come up with a syllabus of classes or at least a sequence of themes to make it easier on the members planning the classes they are going to teach. Otherwise it is great to see so many moms just pull together and make it work! I'd recommend taking the plunge and putting a group together if there isn't one in your area as a great alternative to traditional preschool. 

***End of the year update***

What worked: 
Taking turns teaching the classes, planning free time to run and play at the end of class so the kids could develop friendships, holiday parties and field trips were a hit, having the moms just cover the cost of their classes or asking us to bring needed materials as it came up. Everything HANDS ON!

What didn't work: 
Having the location dependent on one person's set of keys, leaving classes too open with no sequence of learning/ not having learning goals at the outset, having too many songs/activities to choose from, dividing the class into stations (their little attention spans did much better when they could be taught as a group and stay on one task).

Would I do it again?
Yes. This was a great experience where both my boys and I made friends, they got to try new things, get reinforcement on what we were learning at home, and have a free outing once a week (that I didn't have to plan every time!) It may have just been because we were lucky enough to have moms that jump in and do the work and keep things simple but it is definitely worth another try.