Community Co: A Homeschool Pod

What is Community Co? It is a Montessori-inspired hybrid school for young elementary school aged children. The founder, Chivon Carter, said this, “We're here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 3 hours a day, three days a week. Every day they have enrichment in addition to their learning space, project-based learning. Monday’s is art and literacy. They bring the story to life. [The teacher] tells a story, and then they have some type of art medium that they work with. Tuesdays is Spanish immersion; we have a native Spanish speaker come in and teach Spanish lessons to the entire school. So even our two and three-year olds get access. Then on Wednesday we have movement and mindfulness, so just making the children aware of their body, their inner breath work. So, think yoga for littles.” Community Co is focused on developmental necessities for children and learning how to operate in the world properly. 

The Community Co facility is a relaxing and fun environment for the families. There is a parent lounge, complete with plenty of work spaces and a kitchenette. It is a social area made to accommodate working parents. My personal favorite of all the rooms was the Halo Room, which is a salt therapy room. Salt therapy is great for kids with allergies and overall well-being providing an antimicrobial and anti bacterial environment. When the children are using this space, the parents can also have time to relax and enjoy the benefits of salt therapy. The third room that Chivon brought us to was the Four Year old classroom. It is everything you would want in your child’s classroom—a calm, clean space, plenty of books, and activities for the students. The three year old classroom is very similar, “It's a mirror image of the four-year-old classroom, just more sensory rich—lots of dramatic play in here, lots of sensory activities.” (Chivon Carter) After a tour of the classrooms, we ended up in a movement space. There is a large, wooden playground and plenty of area for the kids to have yoga class. This space is also used for events and parties. Off of that room is the Ninja Room, where kids can get all their wiggles out. At Community Co, movement is prioritized for the children. All throughout the facility there are affirmation wall murals. “This is probably my favorite place in the entire school and it's by the bathrooms. This is our affirmations wall. I put it by the bathrooms because everybody goes to the bathroom all day every day. I wanted the children to really feel affirmed and really just start to own these words for themselves.” -Chivon Carter Community Co is built and designed with the kids and their mental and physical health in mind. 

Community Co has a unique education style. Chivon walked us through a lesson. She said, “Currently, we're working on a fairy tale unit - The Three Little Pigs but with a twist because we're also telling the true story of the Three Little Pigs, which is the wolf’s side. Our guiding question for this unit is how do I learn what to believe? We just want to make sure that the children start understanding that there's a process to everything, and we just want to teach the process. And from there, they'll decide what they learn, how they learn, and what's the belief. For the Three Little Pigs, they get both stories and then they decide whose side they believe through an investigation. At the end of the three weeks, they'll do a presentation. Every Wednesday the parents come here, and they present what they did for the week. Always project based. So, at the end of last week, they told us about the Three Little Pigs. Now they're going through the Wolf’s side of the story. This week we'll hear about the wolf and next week we'll see their presentation.” Children learn best through experience. They are not meant to sit in a desk all day and go through busy work. From what I saw, Community Co does an excellent job utilizing hands on projects to help the children learn how to process information and think critically. 

Not only is it project based learning, but each child is granted an individualized education. Everyone has a different learning style. Community Co has a director of academic enrichment, Miss Tangi. Her job is to analyze the children and create a curriculum plan based off of that child’s strengths and needs. Chivon Carter, the director of the school detailed the process for us, “Because we are hybrids, she sends highly differentiated learning materials home so that the parents know exactly what their child should be working on at that time. It's not just a random curriculum that we're all just trying to figure out if this is gonna work for the child. This way you know it's going to work because it's based on their assessment. And each child is with Miss. Tangi One-on-one for 30 minutes a day.” Community Co has very small classes so they can cater to each child in a safe and supportive environment. 

While the children are learning, parents remain at the facility in a common space. Community Co. provides a co-working space for the parents to enjoy. There’s comfortable chairs, private working rooms, and a kitchenette. It is like a little home away from home. Together, they form a wonderful pod with the same educational mindset for their children. There are also classes and workshops offered for the parents. Professionals come in to help educate the parents on topics such as, Navigating the Holidays, Child Brain Development, and Discipline Without Damage. These classes are in place to help the parents understand their children as much as possible and create a better connection with them. 

Community Co stays true to its name. It’s an amazing hybrid school for families. It’s the community that Chivon Carter wanted for her little girls. She created the school with the children in mind first. Each kid is recognized as an individual learned and the schooling is adapted for them specifically. It’s a strong unit of families with the same goal, educating their children in the best way possible. They have a beautiful thing going on at Community Co.

-Shelby Gwinn