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Our group meets at local churches and other local venues in the areas of Cibolo, Schertz, Selma, Universal City, Live Oak, Converse and  NE San Antonio depending on the event being planned and which part of the SHINE group is meeting.  Specific event locations are available to SHINE members on the calendar listings.

Q:

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Our group generally has about 200 adults and 300 children involved each year. The numbers can vary slightly as we begin our fiscal year in June, but we generally reach our max by the fall if not sooner.

We serve families with children who are 15mths to 12th grade. To join, a family must  have at least one child who is Kindergarten age or older. Kindergarten age means doing  Kindergarten curriculum and who will turn 5 on or before September 1st of the current year. Each age group/grade level generally has at least 10-25 students. Many have more than that. It can vary from year to year depending on the make up of the families in the group at the time.

We have families with only one child and families with 10 children. All are welcome!

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In order to participate in the SHINE co-op classes, you must first become a member of the SHINE group. Becoming a member gives you many other benefits and support in addition to the co-op classes. Once you are a member of the SHINE group, you can participate in any of the planned activities, groups, events and co-op as they are offered.

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Joining the SHINE group allows you to take part in all the activities, events and groups that are offered to the member families. You are not required to participate in the co-op classes when you join SHINE. Co-op classes are just one of the activities we offer during the year for our member families.

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As explained in our Policies and Procedures (Terms of Service), our families have several requirements to follow in order to maintain membership in the SHINE group.

The main requirements are:

1) Attendance at group events--you must maintain "active" participation by attending at least one event a month, for 7 out of the 12 months of our fiscal year. Our fiscal year is June-May. This allows plenty of "off" months if you are gone for vacation or other reasons and can't make it to any events.

2) In order to track attendance, you must respond to the monthly poll that is posted so we can "count" you as actively participating or not. Reminders are sent when you reach 3 months of either no response to the polls or 3 months of not attending any events. Communication is very important so we can know our families better and be able to help out if there are extenuating circumstances preventing your family from participating.

3) Service to the group--at least one adult member of each family must provide service to the group at least once during the fiscal year. Service includes being a director or coordinator for the group, leading various activities like field trips, etc., helping at events (pre-arranged before the event), and other opportunities throughout the year.  Teaching, assisting or helping at co-op does not count for service to the group. Co-op requirements are separate from this requirement.

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No, our group doesn't offer organized sports events. We do share opportunities in the community available to homeschoolers with our group as we become aware of them. We often have PE type classes as a part of our co-op classes, but not actual sports teams.

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Parent Support Events are activities/workshops/meetings that are designed for the parents in the group. Some are open to both moms and dads and some will be for just either mom or dad. These events are for adults only unless it is specified in the event information. Nursing babies are able to come with mom as needed but no childcare is provided for these events.

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Only parents of Preteens who are still 9 years old are required to attend Preteen or Teen activities with their children. Students ages 10 and up who are signed up for a PreTeen or Teen event can be dropped off. All activities will have a sufficient number of adults present to supervise and parents are welcome to fill those positions to help with activities/events as requested by the event leaders. 

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No. SHINE Teen events are open only to active SHINE member teens who are currently homeschooling.  The only exception is the Spring Ball in which all outside guests must agree to the SHINE dress code and policies in order to attend. 

Q:

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Once a student graduates from high school, they are considered an adult. Our group offers services and support to families who are actively homeschooling their children in K-12th grade. So students who have graduated are considered adults and the guidelines we have set up for non-member adults applies to our alumni/graduated students.

Our guidelines state that in order to be a member of the SHINE group as an adult, you must have at least one student in Kindergarten or above. Therefore, an alumni student is not considered an active member of SHINE and will be treated as any other non-member adult regarding what activities they may participate in with their family at SHINE.

Events/activities a non-member adult may attend when invited:

1) SHINE Showcase (held once in the Fall and once in the Winter at the end of the co-op semesters)

2) Performances or events in public locations like the park, Peter Piper Pizza, etc. (This does NOT include field trips which have their own guidelines and are only for SHINE members.)

3) Special events by invitation (such as the Yearbook signing in the summer)

4) Graduation

5) Teaching or assisting at co-op classes (after a screening and approval process)

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Although we are a Christian homeschool group and most of our members are Christians, we are open to families of various beliefs joining our group if they can meet our membership process requirements. Approval of all SHINE families is contingent on a family meeting all membership requirements which includes the agreement to respect and abide by all SHINE policies including the Statement of Faith. We hope that all our members will be encouraging and accepting of one another.