Our Homelearning Community House

It is becoming clear to me that community (not what kids are learning or doing or how many wonderful classes they are going to) is one of the most important things for homeschooling and life in general.

This summer, my friend, neighbour and fellow homeschooling mom, Tamara, got very excited about Sudbury Valley School & The Little New School. She loved the idea of renting a house together with ten other families and having our own House School.

I wondered what we could do on a smaller scale with the few families that live near and the houses we had – since running a program would be expensive and time consuming. Then Tamara exclaimed,“Your house is Sudbury Valley School!” She was kinda joking but I really liked the idea. We talked about it with our other homeschooling friend and neighbour, Rosalind, and she was thrilled! It turns out she came to homeschooling through reading about Sudbury Valley School.

We talked about it and decided to give it try, using my house and Rosalind’s down the street.

I have a huge heated garage that we would like to set up as a workshop, pottery and painting room. We have a great yard and tree house that needs some improvements. Rosalind has a great big room in her basement and a wonderful backyard and garden. Rosalind was trained as a scientist and Tamara as an artist, and they both have a lot of wonderful knowledge and passion to share with the kids.

We moved our weekly drop-in from Strathcona to a room in hospice in a beautiful park a few blocks from our house and renamed our group Burrardview Co-op. We also have this space for three hours on Tuesdays. I have a background in theatre and am really enjoying working on Romeo and Juliet with the kids.

At first we thought it would take a lot of planning and that we would have to have a lot of rules and guidelines – but so far things have fallen into space spontaneously and effortlessly. It is becoming impossible to separate Cassius’ and Paris’ learning from that of Tamara and Rosalind’s kids. They come over to our house most days Monday to Friday and seem to be in a constant creative state. Rosalind, Tamara & I are all amazed about how much easier our days are and how happy our kids are. We are doing hardly any structured activities and we’ve never been so busy.

For example, Last Monday we went over to Rosalind’s house and washed a whole bunch of fleece and lay it out to dry in the sun in her back yard. (I had a meeting and I was able to leave my kids there for a few hours knowing they were happy and safe, and not a burden on Tamara and Rosalind, since all the kids are so busy entertaining each other.) The kids would help us and ask questions when they felt like it and then run off and play.