Heathcote Community’s Homeschool Open Classroom Internship is an immersion experience in alternative education, homeschooling and intentional community living. The intern lives at Heathcote while working with homeschoolers and participating in the life of the community. The commitment length is negotiated, three to eight months, October through May.
Our 2007-08 intern plans to use her experience to create similar programs for homeschoolers, providing her with an income while she stays at home with her toddler. Open Classroom covered her fee to attend the 2008 AERO Conference (Alternative Education Resource Organization) in Troy, New York.
Our little homeschool group is part class, part club. We’ve been compared to freeschools and to unschooling. While we explore themes through play and study, we also work on group skills, such as consensus decision making, conflict resolution and collective responsibility. We use kid versions of tools adult Heathcoters are learning, such as checkins, Zegg Forum and Non-Violent Communication.
We explore every part of Heathcote’s 112 acres, year round. The woods, gardens, stream and pond are classrooms. Themes, such as “Dragons & Fairies,” “Native Americans,” Videography & Puppetry,” etc., come from the kids’ and adult facilitators’ interests, and last as long as the momentum does. We experience themes through play and researching questions, with academics-reading, writing, math, geography, etc.–folded in contextually.
We meet 3 days per week, 4 hours each day, October through May. The position is 30 hours, including time for research and community chores. Compensation is room and board. Visit Heathcote’s internship page for more information and to apply!
