Vision, Educational Philosophy, and Values

Our Vision:

We believe we are all born with an innate desire to learn through exploring our world. Our vision is to build a community of families in which we all learn and play together joyfully.

Our Educational Philosophy:

Our co-op is intentionally designed to facilitate mixed-age interaction. All members of a family (newborn through adult) are welcome to attend. We don’t follow any prescribed curriculum. Rather, all learning and activities are member-initiated and facilitated. For example, if a someone requests a class about identifying trees, then an informal botany class might crop up. Likewise, if there’s no internal expertise and there is enough interest in a topic, parents and/or students may seek outside resources to cover that topic.

Our co-op is founded on certain values and cultural ideas that we model within the community and therefore encourage in all our members.

Our Values (in no particular order):

  • Love of Learning: to cultivate a sense of wonder and instill a passion for discovery and exploration
  • Collaboration: to interact and cooperate with those across mixed ages and abilities
  • Empathy: to show kindness and compassion toward all living things
  • Diversity: to embrace diversity in people and ideas
  • Nurturing: to create an environment in which our families can thrive
  • Integrity: to establish an open and ethical culture
  • Self Motivation: to encourage independence, accountability, and responsibility via self-directed learning
  • Grit/Perseverance: to maintain determination and passion in the face of obstacles, adversity, and failure
  • Innovation: to foster new ideas and out-of-the-box thinking
  • Service: to give back to others