What is Wild Seeds ALC?
Wild Seeds is an agile learning community that gives young people an entirely unique learning experience. Wild Seeds is a part-time program for young people ages 5-13 interested in unschooling in a community. Our program supports young people in building stronger relationships with themselves, others, and the wider world, while meeting them where they are at today. Providing the space, time, tools, and resources, we support young people as they let their curiosities and passions lead the way to deep learning and action around topics and issues that matter to them.
We trust that learning happens best when young people are empowered to explore, experiment, play, question, and interact with the real world, while being immersed in, responsible to, and supported by their community.
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We understand that young people ages 11+ have different needs when it comes to supporting them in growing leadership skills, delving more deeply into interests and passions, accessing play and creativity, connecting with their broader community, and growing deeper community building skills. Starting in the Fall 2024, young people in this age group will have additional opportunities to participate in a weekly Flying Squad opportunity on Mondays (getting out and using the whole city as our classroom), as well as a weekly Library Day on Wednesdays to work on individual and group projects and interest areas.
Families in our program are encouraged to participate. We treasure relationship building and opportunities to dialogue about unschooling, deschooling, and our core values. We envision, in our intergenerational partnerships with one another, an ongoing co-creation of our community and our culture.
Our
Beliefs about learning
We believe everyone in our community is a teacher, a learner, a creator, a visionary, a problem solver, a risk taker with valuable points of view and experiences to share. We are in partnership with the young people in our lives. We deeply trust and care for young people. There are endless possibilities for personal and communal growth and learning when we lean into the idea that all perspectives have the capacity to transform.
We believe young people are already living full lives today. They don’t need to spend their time preparing for some distant, unknown future. There is so much learning and growing to do right now in our present circumstances, within our current relationships, with our current strengths, passions, and interests.
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We use tools and practices from the agile learning model of unschooling, which roots itself in the following:
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Learning: Learning is natural. It’s happening all the time.
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Self- Direction: People learn best by making their own decisions. Children are people.
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Experience: People learn more from their culture and environment than from the content they are taught. The medium is the message.
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Success: Accomplishment is achieved through cycles of intention, creation, reflection, and sharing.
Wild Seeds DAILY Rhythm
The 2024-25 unschool year will begins on Monday, September 9, 2024 and runs through Friday, June 13, 2025. Wild Seeds ALC will operate Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9am-3pm, with optional aftercare available until 6pm. For the 24-25 year, in addition to full MWF enrollment, we are offering 1 or 2 day enrollment on Mondays and Wednesdays.
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The daily rhythm will typically look like:
9-9:30AM Drop Off
9:30-9:45AM Morning Meeting
9:45-10:15AM Small Group Meeting
10:15-2:15PM Offerings and Self-Directed Pursuits*
2:15PM Community Clean Up
2:30-3PM Small Group Meeting
3PM Pick Up
3-6PM Aftercare
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*Young people ages 11+ will go on a weekly Flying Squad on Mondays, have a special Library Day on Wednesdays, and will remain in the TDP building on Fridays to participate in community offerings and self-directed pursuits, share their learning more broadly, and lead offerings for the whole community.
Rhythm Descriptions
Lunch/Snack: young people eat, drink, and take care of bodily needs anytime they need to
Morning Meeting: Our whole unschool community gathers to share the offerings of the day/week, hear community announcements, make awarenesses and work through Check in/Change up, and share space together.
AM Small Group: In our designated small groups, young people explore various topics and questions connected to our core values, community building, and identity. We also set intentions for the kind of people we want to be and the actions we plan to take throughout the day.
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Offerings/Self-Directed Pursuits: Young people get to choose which facilitated offerings (activities, experiences, creations, trips, etc.) they participate in and which they do not. Young people are able to spend their entire days pursuing their own interests and explorations.
PM Small Group: In our age-mixed small groups, we practice reflecting on the day and expressing gratitude. We reflect on our experiences of the day using a variety of tools and activities.
Community Clean Up: We work alongside young people to care for our environment-- whether we are in our building space or out in the natural world. Working in our small groups to clean up our materials and pick up trash, we aim to leave the space cleaner than we found it.
Admissions + Tuition
Learn more about our enrollment process and tuition here.
