FAQ's - We’re here to help.

No.
UMMATI Homeschool Cooperative is an organized group of families working together to provide an alternative method of education for our children. Our member families are legally recognized as Homeschoolers by the state of Florida. Homeschooling does not necessarily mean one must always educate at home nor that the parents must be the ones who always educate their children. Some of our families do homeschooling under a private school “umbrella” program.
For more details, please visit How to comply with florida's homeschool law

Yes.
Even though as Homeschoolers in Florida, we are not required to adhere to FL State Standards for schools in our operation, curriculum, or approach we use the standards as baseline for our Core Offerings.

As UMMATI is a co-op, we rely on all families to share in the efforts to create an enriching and engaging learning environment for our children. You can find the specifics of expectations here Membership Info

The role of co-op parents at UMMATI is to help children find resources, provide appropriate materials, share knowledge we have acquired over the years, propose and help lead Offerings and activities, ask questions, inspire the kids and then get out of the way!

As UMMATI is a co-op, we do not have paid staff to take responsibility for any family’s children. Each child in attendance must have an adult there taking responsibility for their safety and behavior. However, individual families have made arrangements between themselves to take responsibility for each others kids on certain days to provide some flexibility and free-time for parents. This is accepted as long as each family continues to contribute fairly to the co-op and meets their Member Expectations.

We offer programming for children ages 3-18. Younger siblings are always welcome to come and play. We have found the mixing of ages often enhances the learning process for all.

Many of our families have children of all ages from newborns up to high school age and beyond. We certainly accommodate and welcome children younger than 3 to come and join in on the play, but we do not have Offerings geared towards children under 3. Parents bringing younger children are still responsible to contribute fairly to the co-op and meet Member Expectations.

Yes.
Parent involvement is key aspect of our model. Member parents serve volunteer hours with our cooperative on a rotating basis that cover a variety of tasks including leading short-term courses, serving as class assistants, serving as on-site coordinators, and other administrative tasks as needed. If a parent is working full-time and has an inflexible schedule, we offer a pay-out option so their duties can be covered by another family.

Yes.
Our cooperative strives to support all of our member families during their homeschool journey. Practical support we offer throughout the year includes consulting for families navigating homeschool life, consulting for families choosing curriculum, regular trips/ outings with our cooperative, access to our community network, educational and development workshops, as well as parent social gatherings.

Yes.
UMMATI Homeschool Cooperative is founded by Muslims with many of our courses and activities involving principles and lessons from the religion of Islam. However, any family looking for an alternative approach to education is welcome to apply for our cooperative. Member families who do not share our Islamic faith can

1. choose to have their children excused from faith-based group practices and instruction as needed

or
2. choose to approach any faith-based instruction as an exploration of world religions.

Yes, we recommend administering the MAP test 3 times during the school year. This is a choice that we offer the parents.

Our policy is 'no time-wasting, rote, repetetive tasks with no clear instructional or learning purpose will be assigned'. The key is to make reading, writing, and performing arithmetic a part of everyday family interactions. Our educators will provide developmental guidance to parents on how to do this where needed. We give suggestions to parents on enrichment activities they can do with their kids, but there's no homework log and much less pressure.

If a student is struggling with a particular lesson, we still might provide an enrichment activity for home practice. We always take the academic pulse of each child so a more formal style of homework maybe necessary. It's a case-by-case basis.

An Advanced 6 Year Hifz program is a valuable option offered for those who show the potential to avail it. Hifz requires strong commitment. Depending on the potential shown by the child and the commitment from the Parents, we will encourage the student to do Hifz at a pace where the love and respect for the Book of Allah in the hearts of the students. Students who have completed Qaida can start the Hifz provided they pass the ‘jaiza’ by hifz conveners. Parents will be responsible for the student spending at least an hour every day at home on the quran to memorize the sabaq and revising the manzil.

Irrespective every child will be encouraged to atleast memorize the daily & weekly adhkar part of the Quran along with the last few Juz.

The Quran Hifz Tracker used at Ummati has more details on our Hifz approach

At the moment, we are not offering a Alim-class program, however, we are planning to offer this program in the future. We do have an Islamic Studies class following the an Nasihah series which takes place every day.

UMMATI is a co-op model supported by the efforts of our member families. Each family pays a membership fee per year to join our co-op which covers operational costs and then we have a modest tuition to cover costs of leasing space, resources, and supplies. To learn more, view our Tuition Information.

As we are a cooperative, we have no paid staff to oversee the administration of the program or full-time teachers. Our daily activities are coordinated by our parents. This model requires more effort and participation of our members which delivers a more connected and cohesive community as well as lower tuition costs.

UMMATI Homeschool Cooperative is currently located in Temple Terrace, FL. For the 2022-2023 Homeschool Year the final location is TBD but will be near Seffner, FL.

Each of our age groups has a maximum capacity of 10-12 children.

Applications for the 2022-2023 homeschool year are now available online.