Q:

A:

$30 per family (per membership year, lasting from June 1 through May 31). Dues are payable upon joining and collected every June after that. A family joining in May pays $10 for a membership for the month and then $30 in June for the new membership year (lasting from June 1 through May 31).

Q:

A:

Once you join SLHN, you may attend our Park Days, holiday parties, and other general group events and activities. You have the option to participate in our co-op classes. Please see below for more details on how to participate. 

Q:

A:

Yes, you are welcome to join. You are also welcome to join if your children are doing dual enrollment where they are engaged in another school district for some classes or services.

Q:

A:

Yes, you can join and typically will meet other children who are doing the same.

Q:

A:

Yes. SLHN offers benevolent discounts for families having financial difficulties. If you are in this situation, please contact us at [email protected].

Q:

A:

From SLHN By-Laws Article VI, Section 3 "Each participating family must offer one free class. The minimum requirement is that the class must be at least 90 minutes of total class time (ex: one 90-minute class, or two 45-minute classes, etc.) and be offered to five children in addition to the children of the family offering the class. The free class may have a materials/supplies fee but otherwise must be free. This is the minimum requirement to participate in the Co-op. Members may offer longer classes or meet on multiple days or have a larger class size. Once this minimum requirement for the Co-op is met participants are welcome to offer more free classes or offer a class for a fee."

Classes, field trips, parties, hangouts, hikes, virtual events all count as a class offering. 

If you are new and this is your first semester, you are not required to offer a class. You may participate for a trial semester, but you will not receive priority enrollment. New and prospective members are encouraged to email Emilee at [email protected] with any questions about classes, co-op participation, etc.

Q:

A:

The $30 membership fee includes co-op classes, if you choose to participate. Some classes that you take may have a supply fee or other cost, which would be described in the class description.

Q:

A:

Our co-op includes all ages of children. We have had classes for pre-school age children on up through high school and while younger children may not have their own classes, they are sometimes welcome to be present with their parent unless a classroom teacher requests otherwise due to room capacity or safety.

Q:

A:

We include and accept all families in the Metro St. Louis area, including St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and the surrounding area.

Q:

A:

Our co-op is centered on the interest of the children enrolled as well as the volunteering of parents to teach, host, or organize events. We have recently offered diverse academic based classes, field trips, drama performances, attending local fine arts performances such as the Rep; Opera Theater St. Louis; Powell Hall, hikes and other outdoor learning, film festivals, and our twice monthly park days open to the entire group as well as many other activities that interest us throughout the year.

Q:

A:

We are an inclusive group and not affiliated with a religion. All families engaged with our group need to follow our Code of Conduct, which you can read more about at this link.

Q:

A:

Our co-op is designed to adjust to the needs of each current group of children and parents or designated homeschooling adult. Thus, each semester the homeschooling adult selects the type of class, date, and frequency based on the material.  Within this structure, we often have age/skill based groups that meet regularly such as weekly. As a group, we do offer a dedicated 3-4 hour afternoon of multi age classes twice monthly on Fridays that we host at a local space so that we can offer multiple classrooms in one location. The parents who are interested in their children taking classes there offer age and subject or topic based classes (some are diverse and have children of many ages involved). In addition, parents/teachers in our group host a variety of classes throughout the calendar that may meet once or multiple times.

Q:

A:

Within our website, we offer a Forum where any member of the group can post information or questions and others can respond directly to that thread, which makes it easy for all members to find needed information in an organized manner.  Each class in our catalog has the opportunity to use a similar forum that is visible only to the parents and children that are enrolled in that class making communication easier as everyone can find the important information without it getting overlooked in an email inbox.  These individual class pages also offer a means to post and organize needed weblinks, assignments, and announcements from the teacher.  Our Board of Directors also emails the entire group when information pertains to all or most members. This same group has an email account so that members and people outside the group can reach them easily. We also use the website itself to post announcements throughout the year to remind families of upcoming all-group events such as registration for classes. Finally, we do host a Facebook group that is open only for members, but is an optional service as the Board of Directors posts information in more than one place to ensure all families have access to the group-wide information.

Q:

A:

All members are allowed to post to the Forum. It is the primary means of communication for any information that is for the entire group (not just pertaining to a specific class and its enrolled students).