horry county school options
Guest post written by Jess Alfreds the founder and director of Carolina Kids Co-Op in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Our personal journey to the south
18 months ago, we loaded up our family and our belongs into a truck and headed South. I know that many of you can relate.
With the early days of the COVID pandemic came a rare opportunity for those of us who could now work from home and relocate to greener- and warmer- pastures. Nine million Americans relocated between March 2020 and March 2022. Most of us went South.
My husband and I weren’t sure where we’d end up. We were looking for a beach and less of a hustle-til-you-die mentality than the one we were leaving in the Northeast.
We tried a few places… Savannah, Beaufort, Wilmington, Charleston… and then a house in Horry County popped up on my Realtor.com feed. I went to look at it, knowing for sure that I was wasting my time because this was NOT going to be the house for me…
Other than a short tumultuous stint in private school for Kindergarten, my only child has always been homeschooled. When we began nearly 4 years ago, fewer than 3 percent of American kids were educated at home. Now, as my daughter finished 3rd grade, we are close to 6% nationwide and growing everyday. Today there are more kids being homeschooled than there are in a Catholic school!
not finding what we were looking for
As my family happily settled into our new home in the Palmetto State (yep… THAT house), I knew what kind of homeschool cooperative I hoped to find for my 8 year old daughter.
As homeschoolers, we are not obligated to join a co-op (a group of families who have joined together in community to do some or all their children’s schooling). My daughter is a people person and I wanted to find a community that met her social needs, but I also wanted her to have the “classroom” experience of learning academics communally. And because we now live in paradise, I wanted her outdoors– pretty much all the time.
looking for homeschool options
I thought I would have my choice of outdoor, academic, homeschool cooperatives.
What I found were social groups where homeschoolers hung out and sometimes incorporated art or music, but none of that addressed the foundational academic subjects like math, language arts, history, geography and so on. Never one to shy away from a challenge, I figured if what I was looking for didn’t exist, there were probably other families looking for it too.
Instead of waiting for someone else to build it, I might as well be the one to do it. After all, I had been homeschooling my daughter and a group of about 6 other children since their school went virtual due to COVID. Their parents felt ill-equipped to meet their academic needs especially in math and science. I was already teaching my daughter and they asked if I would open up my home classroom to their children as well. I jumped at the opportunity and soon found out that it was incredibly fulfilling. It turns out, I was also pretty good at it!
carolina kids co-op was born
In April 2022, after living in South Carolina for about 30 days, I floated the idea on a local Facebook page, “Would anyone be interested in an outdoor academic secular homeschool cooperative if I took on the task of putting it together?” The response was overwhelming. Carolina Kids Co-Op was born merely days later and we opened up on day one with around 15 students.
Today, almost one year later we have 105 students ranging in age from 3 to 15 and we are a one-of-a-kind tightknit community. Exactly what I as hoping for.
the educational landscape in horry county
The number of alternative schools, micro-schools, and co-ops have exploded since 2020. For parents with the time, physical ability, and transportation budget, the ball is in your court. Public school is no longer the only affordable option. For families with less mobility and disposable income, there is still work to be done.
There are are, give or take, 50,000 children in Horry County between the ages for 4 and 18. We are in the midst of a great renaissance in education and I hope that it continues until we can offer each one of those students a learning environment and philosophy that works for them.
For the next few weeks I will highlight the myriad of ways children can learn in Horry County. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of the existing options; the ins and outs of education in South Carolina; the public, private, Christian, co-ops, pods, and all the other local offerings; how to create a lesson plan if you decide to educate at home; and lots of other juicy academic topics.
I hope that you’ll keep reading.
