MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — More families in Florida are homeschooling their children. According to the Florida Department of Education, it has increased more than 69% in the 2021-2022 school year since 2017.

Brandy Lemire and other moms don’t want their kids to have a “typical day at school.”

“You don’t get to experience things like this. Most schools you are sitting at a desk,” Lemire said.

Lemire is part of a group of moms in Manatee County that started a year-round homeschool co-op called Unschool Squad. Allee Noordzy, Stephanie Moyers, and Lemire all started the co-op together.

They created the program in March and already have 50 students enrolled.

“With the way public school is today, you have zero control over what your kids are learning. So we created this co-op so we could teach the kids what we felt we wanted them to learn,” Lemire said.

The students went to Menchie’s this month to learn about business and finance. They got to experience firsthand what it would be like to run a business and learned how to write checks and pay the monthly rent.

“How much did you think the rent was? Did you think it was $10,000? $1,600? What did you think?” she asked the students.

However, before taking field trips, the group learns the basics in more formal educational situations.

“If we do excursions and classes and whatnot, they will focus more, they’ll retain it better, and they’ll actually enjoy learning,” she said.

The goal is to give students some freedom.

“Their attention span is really short. So if we can do something with the fidget game or something with counting the blocks, it keeps their hands and their minds engaged,” she said.

This way of learning has been so successful for the families that these moms decided to turn their homeschool co-op into a nonprofit, they claim.

“These are the options we found. You can either become a 501(c)(3) or a 508(c)(1)(a). And so we’re trying to navigate which one is best for us to do,” she said.

They hope to make the school free for families.

“2024, things are crazy expensive. And so I think if we can make it free for families, no family can ever say, like, ‘hey, I can’t go because I can’t afford it,’” she said.

Now the students are gearing up for their next field trip.

They are creating tie-dye scrunchies, bracelets, shirts, and other items to sell at their own market while using their new finance and business skills.

“The stuff we are teaching them is real-life skills that they aren’t teaching in public school,” Lemire said.

These moms aim to make a difference by pushing their students to focus on real-life experiences.

The moms said they plan on becoming a nonprofit by 2025. The class will be completing their finance month during their next class on June 28. The students will be selling their handmade items and learning what it means to own their own business for a day.