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has anyone ever tried, considered , can comment on the use of HOD curriculums for a church school, rather than a single family homeschool???

I've certainly considered it! I wanted to bring in a couple extra school age kids to babysit (or "big kid sit" as my DS says) to make a small income, and fold them into our HOD studies. But, I ultimately wanted to grow it to something more. I've thought about it often and hope to see it come to fruition at some point. Though, my children may be grown by then! Seriously, if we were going to stay put somewhere for a good length of time, I"d try to get something going...but DH is done with his RN degree finally, working on his BSN degree, then plans to enter the military as an officer...meaning we'll be moving often. So, my dreams will wait unless he changes his mind about the military. I think it's a great idea though!

Our small church is planning to expand the Sunday School and we have talked a little about a church school. I am trying to research about this. I wasn't sure if the HOD part of it would just be a matter of buying materials or if there are other things (legal, etc.) involved. I am going to assume that that is the case. The building, name, and rules, etc. would all be by church, or building codes, etc.

I have used ACE in the past, and I know a lot of Christian schools use this curriculum. It is very easy to incorporate, but I would much rather use a program like HOD. I'm just not sure what all it would entail by the time we would have to group and match ages, skills, etc. I guess it would be a little more difficult to try to put it all together and maybe have separate teachers to manage the teacher directed parts........

just thinking out loud.

Tamara, I've thought about doing a homeschool hybrid and I think you should pray about that if it's on your heart! We are in the military and what I have noticed is that ANYTHING is possible, even (and sometimes especially) in the military. Remember that Christ shows up in true form in the middle of impossible circumstances!!!

Excellent idea. The curriculum part would be done.

Of course, it makes me wonder if there's any intricacy that should be considered if this is a school that uses HOD materials. Licensing, etc...? Looks like "livin" has already mentioned that!

In Arkansas, it could be run as a "co-op" type ordeal. The kids registered as homeschoolers and then they meet for classes, which happen to be 4-5 days per week. You could do most of the work at "school" and have them do some of the indepdent work at home...or not. Some of the read alouds could be done at home if you wanted. As I considered it, I knew I'd have to have a "one room school" type set up, and place children based on the placement chart so you have similarly abled children together, not same-grade children. I even went so far as to think about schedules....like having all classes doing math at the same time so kids can get into math groups based on placement, even if it's not with their main class.
As a start-up, when there's just a few kids, it may be simpler to use the guides with extensions to cover more levels in one group.
I had an entire notebook full of ideas for this...wish I could find it. I actually planned out the schedule to see if it would be possible to manage many, many levels all at once with schedules that would mesh for certain subjects (like math) with the fewest teachers possible (since who knows how many would be willing to help at first!) It is certainly possible!!