small actions, big ideas



Our family is committed to living and learning in our community - this is one of the reasons I have difficultly defining ourselves as "homeschoolers," I struggle with both "home" and "school."
Not going to school is a positive choice for deeper human relationships, richer learning possibilities and a belief that "we have what we need when we use what we have" - from the book "No More Throwaway People" by Edgar Kahn (Timebank USA founder).  

I like building community - it just seems that where ever there is community, there is possibility.
I have been interested in intentional community and co-housing arrangements for a long time. I was twenty-one when I was in my first co-housing group! During all of those years in between I haven't once lived in an intentional community and now at 43 I see things a little differently; now I see that whatever community I find myself in is an opportunity to be intentional and open-hearted about living together well.




So, it dawned on me a while back that I need to do exactly that with other non-schooling families with similar values and learning lifestyles.
Just get on and help build a vibrant community for our children, ourselves and for those who are to come.
So I've been working on a few small things.

One of them is a Open Space event on Saturday 8th September, 9am-1pm. 
Open Space is a self-organising event that is fuelled by the participant's ideas and passions and it will gather around these questions:

'How do we support each other in our self-directed learning/unschooling/natural learning lifestyles?  
How do we create a rich community built upon our shared trust and respect for our children and their chosen learning pathways? 
What are some exciting collaborations we could share? 
What are some actions that could move us towards our vision?"


If you're in the neighbourhood and any of these questions resonate with you come along and be part of the conversation. Just drop me an email me and I'll send you some extra details.
Yesterday, after having been holed up in front of the fire most of the week, we decided to do a little community activism and play a bit of piano in public while we were at it.
We pinned some posters up around the place with energising ideas on them - my favourites are "shift paradigm" and "unleash creativity." 
Certainly better than reading advertising.

4 comments:

  1. it’s wonderful that you’re taking the initiative to begin building community. i hope you find some like minds!

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  2. Thanks Lori, I really appreciate you adding to the conversation.

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  3. Lori shared your blog with me. This is very inspiring! Good luck with it! I'm going to check back and see how it went.

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  4. Just discovered your blog and am looking forward to watching your journey. We unschool/homeschool whatever.....we lived in intentional community for 3 years and now live with our kids unintentionally doing much but still building community around us. Our experience in intentional community was life changing to say the least and although we are no longer living in the community we still have strong links and our experience made things a whole lot clearer to us about what type of community we are looking for.

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