specialty classes?

[pearl2]

I had an idea from talking to another homeschooling mama to hold specialty classes at the local library for middle and high school students in the areas of literature and writing. She said she has taught some really fun classes that ran anywhere from 6-18 weeks on Shakespeare, creative writing, and American literature. Students would pay her $10 per class for one hour, and she met once a week. She had no more than 6 in a class.

I would LOVE to teach classes like this, and have a lot to offer students. Are programs like this common in your area? If so, what types of components are you as parents looking for in classes like these?

[lach]

They're pretty common here, and I used to run art classes for elementary aged kids that were like that. The complicated part is finding a space and getting publicity. It was probably more complicated for art, as we needed someplace we could make a mess! I ran them out of my house. A library sounds like a great idea: I know my library has meeting rooms that groups can reserve.

You might want to check with the library and see if using the room for a commercial purpose (you would be making money) is allowed. At my library I've only heard of meetings for volunteer groups being held. And I really don't know if it would be a problem: it just popped into my head that they might have set rules that are intended to prevent other things, but which your plan might fall into.

For publicity, I posted on Craigslist. I don't know if I'd recommend that. It worked fine, and I did get a few families from that, but I also didn't really know about homeschooling message boards and Yahoo groups... and that seems a much easier and safer way to go. You really only need a core initial group of kids and then for the classes to be good: word of mouth is your absolute best publicity. And you don't have to bend over backwards to make every kid happy all of the time: there will always be a kid who just isn't interested but his parents are making him go, or one whose personality clashes with yours. That's life. But, overall, if the kids and parents are happy with your classes they'll spread the word. Homeschooling parents are, in my experience, really eager to share information about resources that they like.

Good luck! I think it sounds like a great plan.