We meet on Tuesdays, at First United Methodist Church in downtown Elgin, IL for our indoor co-op. In addition to the co-op days, we host other events that may fall on different days of the week. Please check out our Events page to see whether we are having a co-op day, field trip, or outdoor meet-up. On co-op days we meet at the First United Methodist Church (FUMC) in Elgin from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

For Spring 2024, Gold Membership, which includes both 12 weeks of indoor co-op and access to all silver level activities, is $175/family for the semester plus a $10 per child supply fee.

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Silver Membership is $20 per family. This includes outdoor meet-ups and field trips. This cost only covers insurance -- although many of our activities are free, some may have an additional fee.

No refunds can be given due to members withdrawing. If the church has to shut down due to state guidelines, we will refund the remaining rent portion of our registration fee.

Parents are expected to share in the responsibilities of running the co-op. At a minimum we need every parent to keep an eye on the activities and help clean up.

We also encourage parents to support learning in any way they can. Whether that’s playing games with the kids, helping them organize a party, club, or activity, mentoring, or teaching a skill -- we want to foster life-long learning in everyone!

Note: FVFL is an all-volunteer co-op, not a child care provider. Parents/guardians are responsible for their own children at all times.

At least one child must be 7 or older to join FVFL. When at FUMC, children 6 and under require parental supervision at all times due to the church’s youth protection policies.

It means that we are very inspired by self-directed learning as well as the democratic and community building principles of Sudbury schools.

We want to give our kids as much freedom as possible to pursue their interests but we also need parents on hand to make sure everyone is self-monitoring, and cleaning up work areas. We do our best to balance the church building rules with the freedom to move about and learn as the kids see fit.

None!

FVFL is not at all like traditional homeschool co-ops and we like it that way! We encourage the kids to explore their own interests and plan their own projects. When meeting at FUMC, we have "class rooms" set-up to facilitate various activities such as an arts & crafts room (stocked with supplies), a game room (with a selection of games), a LEGO room/library, a dress-up room with a small stage and various other multipurpose rooms. That being said, we do encourage kids and parents to plan workshops to share their unique talents and skills.  Sometimes younger students need help figuring out what they want to do.

Past workshops include designing T-shirts, NERF wars, paper airplane classes, soap making, book-binding, party planning, writer's club, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Beyblade tournaments, D&D campaigns, and more. Of course the kids also spent a lot of time painting, sculpting, sewing, game playing, dressing up, robot building, programming, and even did some reading and writing! The activities that the students engage in changes from year to year, semester to semester and week to week.  Your students can bring in items to facilitate projects or activities.  The students also have a supply budget and can request the purchase of items that we do not have.

We currently have no official policy on electronics. Our hope is that kids will use electronics to enhance their play and learning (which so far has been the case). Our electronics policy will most likely continue to evolve based on our members' needs and preferences.

Note: The church does have a reliable WiFi connection.

Please click join us to start the process!

There you will find a link to our Pre-admissions Form. Fill that out and a member will contact you shortly to arrange a visit or a meet-and-greet.

FVFL is not first come/first served and admission is not guaranteed. Our biggest priority is to maintain a good balance of children of different ages. Our second priority is to accept families who already support self-directed learning. Taking the time to learn about that is a plus but not required!