Homeschooling Groups and Co-Op Project: Making a Yearbook

A yearbook makes for a great keepsake for a homeschooling cooperative or support group, especially for one with families that have spent year after year together- watching each other's children grow up, going on field trips, taking classes, working on group projects or just meeting every week at the park for a picnic lunch and playdate. It used to be that there were two options for a yearbook. The first was going to a publishing company that prints yearbooks, but that often would not work out for smaller groups, since most companies require minimum purchases of 50 or more books, and charge upwards of $50 per book for special orders. The other option was someone sitting down and putting all the pages together by hand, or more recently by computer, which could take one person a number of hours, with the resulting book being photocopied pages that were either poor in quality, or very expensive if the group wanted good quality color copies.

With the advance of technology, as desktop publishing options to the average person have become more widespread at lower costs, just about any group can have a yearbook chock full of quality color photos for a very reasonable price. Book makers that enable you to upload and design your own scrapbook pages, coffee table books or memory albums are great options for homeschool groups to create their own, custom-designed, color photo, bound yearbooks, for as little as $12 to $30 per book. In addition, many of these companies offer discounts if you're printing several copies of the same book.

In order to get your group started on a yearbook project, collect everyone's favorite digital photos of some of your events, recalling the place, dates and activities whenever possible. If you like, you can make it more like a traditional school yearbook by having an section with photos of each individual child, listing their name and age, as well as group photos for co-op classes. Sections featuring children's artwork, writing, photography, or photos of their projects can also be included.

Decide if your group wants their book to be a full size (approximately 8X11 inches or larger) book, or a mini books (usually 4X6 or 5X7 inches, approximately). Also decide if your group wants a simple, soft cover bound book, or something as fancy as a leather binding with your group's name and the year embossed on it. As soon as you figure out what type of product you are interested in, it will be easier to find a publisher and get price estimates.

Find a publishing company you want to work with by doing some online research. Most will have free software for you to download with easy step-by-step instructions for preparing digital files and designing your pages. After you've created all your pages, labeled all your photos and previewed your book, you upload it on the software. The company will tell you the cost, shipping charges and applicable taxes and any discounts that may apply. Divide this final cost by how many books are being ordered and you have the amount you will collect from each person per book. After payment is made, your books will be shipped to you for distribution.

Your group will enjoy this book, and the children will have mementos of their homeschooling adventures, and all the friends they made along the way, for years to come.