BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — "Coronavirus has changed everything for most of us as you know," Melanie Hoffman said.
That includes the Blount Home Education Association where Melanie Hoffman is President of the Board of Directors.
BHEA is a homeschool cooperative of parents coming together for support, encouragement, enrichment and the extras beyond learning at home.
"I think it's important for children to have an opportunity to participate in music and theater and art and any kind of outdoor activities that they might not be able to have with another group of children if they were home by themselves with just their parents," she said. "There is no isolation in home schooling. Through cooperatives such as BHEA we're able to come together and enjoy experiences."
Those experiences are different now.
Pre-covid, teens would meet for parties and dances and just hanging out. Homeschool students gathered to work on a yearbook and 4-H programs. They performed service projects in-person, like this one at Second Harvest Food Bank. Parents lead field trips and volunteered to teach sessions like sports and music.
Good thing homeschooling is flexible.
"The beauty of home schooling is you can do so many things already there. The parent is the primary teacher," she said.
The coronavirus convinced the coop to come up with creative ways to support homeschool families safely.
"For example, our curriculum fair which is normally held inside of a church building, we had it outside in a parking lot out of people's trunk. More like a trunk or treat. And then we also were going to have our regular graduation outside with masks and social distancing which is a change from an indoor activity to an outdoor activity," she said.
Enrichment sessions went online and shifted to small groups.
Before the pandemic, theater students put on elaborate musicals. Now the productions are plays performed on Zoom.
Coronavirus service projects include making masks and feeding the community in a free drive through.
Large group activities are canceled.
"We're doing small groups in home with are instructor parent driven. They will set the safety guidelines for those. They will decide what size the session should be. We're trying to keep it very small. And they'll be able to meet with one another person to person if they feel comfortable with different mitigation, they wear masks or social distance or whatever," she said. "We're encouraging a lot of outdoor activity and for groups to come together outdoors as much as possible and to be safe as much as possible."
Hundreds of families in the BHEA coop are already adopting these new protocols.
"The best advice I could give is for each family - whether in the school system, public or private or home school family -- to do what's best for their own children and to consider their family first before anything else."