Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part series chronicling the experiences of Madison County homeschooled students.



As the number of homeschoolers have grown, so has the options available in Madison County for collaboration and partnership between families.

BRANCH, one of several homeschool cooperatives, has been operating for about 14 years, said Laura Kilgore, who was coordinator for the group for eight years.

The group started in Richmond at St. Thomas Lutheran Church before moving to Berea at the Berea Baptist Church for about eight years.

BRANCH, which has about 20 member families, now is back in Richmond at First Alliance Church where four groups — 5- to 7-year-olds, 8- to 10-year-olds, 11- to 13-year-olds and 14- year-olds and older — meet on Mondays to enhance their learning.

Each age group participates in two hour-long activities for about six weeks before a new rotation of activities is introduced.

At the end of the two hours of structured class, the students have an hour where they eat lunch and do pick-up games of dodgeball and basketball.

“Right now, we have some of them doing Lego robotics,” Kilgore said. “We have a group doing photography. We have a group doing ecology that are painting some rain barrels. One group is doing earth sciences.”

“I like it because it encourages us all to work together, and we get together on a weekly basis,” she said about the co-op. “We’re always trading ideas and exchanging what works and what doesn’t work. It’s just a real support system, not only for the kids, but also for the adults.”

BRANCH also allows the kids to feel like they are not the only homeschoolers out there, Kilgore said.

“Some of the kids, where they go to church or whatever else they do, they don’t know a lot of homeschoolers,” she said. “The kids really enjoy getting together. “

In its third year, about 12 families in the Red Cedar Learning Cooperative meet twice weekly at the Berea Friends Meeting building.

“I think what distinguishes it is that it’s a learner-led model,” said Jodie Leidecker, whose two daughters attend the co-op. “There’s no grades or tests. It’s intrinsically motivated by each child’s interests in learning.”

The group recently conducted a Beatles-themed Valentine’s Day fundraiser party where the kids operated the own booths.

“On the one hand, it’s just a party,” Leidecker said. “On the other hand, the kids are going to make crafts or sell things. They give 10 percent of their commission to the co-op, so they’re going to have to do quite a bit of math.”

Along with giving the students an opportunity for socialization, Red Cedar has allowed them to learn about backyard first aid with natural medicine, filming a documentary about the Blue Grass Army Depot and organizing a creative writing magazine.

An Eastern Kentucky University professor also recently taught history of the Civil War to the kids through war board games, said Brian Bertucci, a former teacher whose son, Mark, attends the co-op.

“We come together as a co-op to support each other and fill in the gaps,” he said. “One family might be really strong in science. One might be very musically inclined. We share all of our strengths and talents with everyone so that it becomes a community.”

“One of the things I like about co-op is that the parents and family are dead center in the educational process,” Bertucci said. “When I was teaching, I was very aware that half of my students weren’t even telling mom and dad what was going on. This is definitely a very family-centric concept where the family becomes the dominant institution of the child’s life. You have an opportunity to be there as a parent to see more of their milestones and successes and failures. If Mark was in a school, some other adult would be seeing those things.”

The increase of homeschooled families also has led the Madison 4-H to start their own Homeschool Club, which has been meeting monthly at the Madison County Extension Office since September 2006.

Anywhere from 10 to 20 children attend the 1 p.m. meetings the last Wednesday of the month to participate in hands-on activities.

“We had a lot of requests from homeschool families to have a club like this that met during the day and was opened to all age groups,” said Lisa Adams, county extension agent for 4-H Youth Development. “The problems homeschool families face with our traditional programs is they are for ages 9 and up or 5 to 8. So, the little or big sisters and brothers couldn’t come.”

“It gives them an opportunity to interact with other homeschool families,” she said. “Most of them have the same reason for homeschooling.”

In Kentucky, 4-H also provides a Homeschool Camping Program, which is scheduled April 17-19 at the West Kentucky 4-H Camp in Dawson Springs.

The camp provides opportunities for families to participate in learning about the environment together through activities, including hiking, bird watching, pond and water studies, canoeing, archery and social dances.

“It’s a statewide 4-H trend,” Adams said about the emphasis on homeschool. “These programs really have started in the last 12 to 24 months.”

To help older homeschooled student, Kellie Silver of Richmond also recently organized a middle and high school homeschool support group.

The groups have about 24 students combined so far, she said.

“That age group is really hard to find other kids,” Silver said. “So, I just thought it would be really neat.”

“Right now, Madison County, on the homeschool level, is lacking that high school (organization) so we can actually put together a chemistry class, an algebra class or one of those high-level classes where we have a professor come in to teach that specific subject,” she said. “The co-ops right now are pretty much geared for kindergarten through seventh- and eighth-grade.”

In its second year, the Madison Christian Homeschool Co-op and its about 60 students meet Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at Red House Baptist Church.

“We have enrichment classes — art, P.E., prerobotics, music, karate,” said Melinda Lawrence, who helped start the co-op with several other mothers. “We try to offer classes that homeschoolers don’t often get to do at home.”

Lawrence also runs Madison Christian Homeschool Academy, an umbrella program for homeschoolers that helps with record keeping, report cards and transcripts and diplomas for graduating seniors.

Out of 39 local homeschool students given the Stanford Achievement Test last year through the academy, 85 percent tested above the 50th percentile, which is the national average.

Of those tested, 44 percent scored at the 80th percentile or above, while 82 percent tested above their grade level.

Madison Christian Homeschool Co-op is growing rapidly, said Amanda Dube, another organizer of the group.

“Just in last few weeks, we’ve added a new family every week,” she said. “We show up and there’s a new family.”

“We’re trying to unite the homeschoolers in the area,” Dube said during a Valentine’s Day party at Galaxy Bowling and Entertainment Center for all homeschool students. “It’s starting to happen. In the past, it was this group doing their thing, and that group doing their thing. There were a lot of individuals not knowing that any group existed. Hopefully, that is changing.”