Birds of a feather
creating a co-op together

The Nest is a Christian cooperative community of homeschooling families, where we prioritize family involvement, literature-based learning, STEM education, and include children with mixed abilities – all while steering clear of publicly funded programs.

The Nest is for you if...

You are looking for a community that meets on Mondays
You are a Christian family
You are interested in Charlotte Mason, Unit Studies and STEM learning
You want to be involved in teaching your children and others in our community
You do not homeschool with government influence
You have a child/children between the ages of 0 and 12 years old.

Monday is our FUN day!

When in person, The Nest meets every Monday from 9:30am – 1pm (but sometimes we run later because we are having too much fun!

We might even have some afternoon optional extras this coming year for morning attendees!

We meet on the north side of Longmont, CO at a great church with amazing facilities.

Our sister co-op, a Wilderness Immersion Program, meets on Wednesdays from 9:30 – 12 and 12:30 – 3pm about 10 minutes south of our Monday location!

The Nest is a Christian Based Co-Op

What does this mean?

While we are a Christian community and teach from a Christian perspective, ideologies within the Christian community are varied. We are a group that cares for Christians without telling you how to be a Christian. Because of this, we do not have a formal prayer or worship time.

What does this look like?

Teachers are encouraged to pray before they teach. We only teach creation-based science. And, most importantly, uphold Christian thoughts, views, values.

Every person who receives an invitation to apply will be given a Statement of Faith to sign if they wish to join the co-op.

You do not need to believe everything in the Statement of Faith yourself, but we do require that you respect and follow our guidelines within the co-op.

The Nest is a Unit Study based Co-op

What is a Unit Study?

A unit study is a single topic being covered using multiple learning modalities and across a variety of subjects to engage all the learners in a classroom.

What does this look like?

Perhaps the group is reading a book about Egypt. You can cover timelines by detailing out all of the Pharaohs. You can look at geography by studying maps and globes. You can do math by measuring the pyramids and making your own out of Legos. The kids could write a sentence in a journal for Literature. And you could work your way through a video or book on King Tut. You can play Egyptian games, set up items in a sand table, etc.

Who selects the Unit Study?

Each year we pick a series of living books, announced at the beginning of the year. We cover each book for 5 weeks, then on week 6 we go to a related field trip. Let’s say we pick a farm book. For our Geese this might be a simple farm animal game in one class, collages using materials on animal pictures in art and weighing animals in STEM. For our Hawks this could be discussing gardening/farming, science with chicken eggs, etc. Everyone reads the same books, then teachers pick which class to teach in the unit.

But how do I do it?!

We have a Dropbox full of lesson plans, dedicated Pinterest boards to each book, and we have veteran mamas ready to help you along the way!

What is STEM/STEAM?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The A in STEAM adds in Art!

What might this look like?

At the start of every Co-Op day the children are welcome to do STEM/STEAM based centers in our group room. These tables have a variety of activities and change over the course of the month.

Some of our favorite STEM/STEAM tables in the past were:

listening to classical music on headphones and coloring
dramatic play area themed like a post office!
sensory tables including corn bins and toys in ice
magnetic slime!

Also, we have a break out STEM class during our small group lesson times. This might include a cool video, an experiment, math games, etc. all related to the book unit we are in.

Parent Led Co-Op

We are a co-op, so that means all parents work together cooperatively to help us run each week!

During the second week of every month a post goes up in our private Facebook group for job sign-ups. And every month 95% of our attending parents have a job.

Yes! There is THAT MUCH to do every month to keep us running!

At the beginning of the year the veteran parents teach the classes. This gives new parents time to go observe the different teaching styles and see how the classes run. But by October even the new parents begin to get their feet wet!

We also need people to run our STEAM tables, tear down the group room at the end of the day, sweep floors, check bathrooms, monitor the outdoor “run zone” and more.

But don’t let this scare you off – we are here to help you ease into the flow and join with us in the crazy excitement of The Nest.

We have clipboards at the sign in table that detail exactly what each job entails and time markers. And we are all there to help point people in the right direction.

Parent Taught & Personally Funded

The goal of The Nest is to support families who have chosen to homeschool separate from the public school system. We are a community that supports parent funded and parent led homeschooling and we reserve spots in our group for these families.

Because of varying beliefs, support systems and laws in place, families that participate in Public School Funded Enrichment classes, Online Public Schooling or Funded curriculum cannot join The Nest at this time.

This includes APEX, Summit, Leap, Options and My Tech High.

What are the Age Ranges?

We often get asked about what ages we serve at The Nest.

Our initial class, 4 years ago, is the oldest class in our co-op, our “Hawks”. This is roughly equivalent to 8-13 year olds.

Because we are a social-emotional co-op, and not strictly academic, we base class placements on age first, then maturity level.

Our youngest class is our “Geese” – 3 years old by the beginning of the fall term.

But don’t worry – the younger ones aren’t left out! Any child younger than two has a sensory and gross motor based activity group while the older ones are in their class time. We call them our “Hatchlings”.

And they are included in all of the large group activities!

Does The Nest sound like a great fit for your family?

Great News! Our Nest is almost full! At this time we are looking for families who have children between the ages of 10-12 (and their siblings).

Do you have a child between 10 and 12 and want to join The Nest? Apply Here

If you do not have children between those ages, but still want to be a part of The Nest, feel free to fill out this application and you will automatically be placed on the waitlist.

Tara RoehlFounder of 'The Nest'

Tara is a homeschool graduate (Kindergarten-Graduation), homeschooling mom, homeschool advocate and Speech-Language Pathologist.

Tara started The Nest in 2015 in her living room with a few local parents and mail order co-op curriculum. Soon we grew to taking over two floors of her house! Since then we moved into our current facilities and Tara began designing the curriculum herself.

Tara started The Nest to have a community for families – she saw too many parents feeling lonely on this homeschool journey when depending on drop off programs. By being a parent run co-op, the entire family finds community within our nest!

Her amazing husband, Oliver, helps every week at The Nest and her two kids attend every week.

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