Home away from home

Home away from home
Co-ops give an added dimension to homeschool

By Melanie M. Sidwell
The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — When the new kid in the neighborhood asked the Matthews boys where they went to school, they replied: “Downstairs.”

Josh, 10, and Zach, 8, have always been homeschooled, a style of education sometimes misconstrued as socially inept or curriculum-intense.

Their mother, Carrie, and other parents of homeschooled children are turning to co-operatives, or co-ops, to change those misconceptions.

“(My sons) are not huddled at home with the door shut,” Carrie Matthews said. “This provides a varied way of teaching to expose them to just more than studying at home.”