{"id":4292,"date":"2005-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4292"},"modified":"2017-07-11T12:42:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T19:42:53","slug":"co-ops-keep-costs-low-but-youll-have-to-work-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4292","title":{"rendered":"Co-ops keep costs low, but you’ll have to work for it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. Air National Guard photo by SMSgt. David H. Lipp\/Released, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

“There’s nothing like the parent co-ops to really educate parents and to support parents,” said Diane Gonzalez, assistant director of San Marcos Parent-Child Workshop<\/a>, one of four cooperative preschools<\/a> on the South Coast.<\/p>\n

All four parent-child workshop programs — Lou Grant<\/a>, Starr King<\/a>, the Oaks<\/a> and San Marcos — are part of Santa Barbara City College’s continuing education program. Each serves as a parent education program with a preschool program for 2- to-5 year-olds as a laboratory.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great environment,” said Gonzalez, who was also a parent at Starr King. “I really found it such a supportive environment and so important to my parenting. … It’s what got me into child care and working with children, but also with parents, I found it such an incredibly supportive experience, and I don’t think I would have been the parent I was if I hadn’t been to co-ops.”<\/p>\n

Costs are low — ranging from about $25 to $125 a month, depending on the school and how many days a week a child attends — but parental participation requirements are high. Parents must participate in the workshops at least one day a week and attend a weekly evening class in child growth and development and parenting skills.<\/p>\n

“It’s not the kind of program that meets everybody’s needs,” said Bea Hamlin<\/a>, director of the San Marcos Parent-Child Workshop, and a former co-op parent.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think any school exists that 100 percent meets everybody’s needs. No matter how much you like it; it just doesn’t work that way.”<\/p>\n

But for the families that can make it work, co-ops provide great parent education, as well as the foundation for many lifelong friendships.<\/p>\n

“We’re really a family here,” said Gonzalez. “We work together and then we fund raise and we eat together.<\/p>\n

“It really does become a very close-knit group of people, more than you’re going to find at a regular school.”<\/p>\n

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on March 30, 2005.<\/a><\/h6>\n

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