Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be unschooling with other unschoolers? Do you wish to experience learning with fun, freedom and friendship? Homeschooling can be quite lonely without a regular group of friends to do activities with, like playing in the park, or going to the movies, or doing baking and selling them at charity sales……These are some of the reasons we get together 4-5 times a week for the past 3 years.  We are inviting you to experience it all with us!

We, at CLiC, are inviting homeschoolers/unschoolers to join us in our weekly activities – playing at the park, tree-climbing, cooking and baking, music, stories and activities, math and science projects, gardening, etc……the fun is endless!

When we first introduced the concept of co-operative learning 3 years ago, we were struggling to put our ideas into reality. After several trials and errors, and a change of venue – from a shop-lot to a double-storey house – we are now comfortably settled into our lovely home and a regular routine 🙂 The children just can’t get enough of learning at CLiC!

There are 4 full-time unschooling families at CLiC now and 2 part-time families.  Several other families join from time to time, especially our outdoor activities.

Everyone volunteers to do something with the children, be it cooking, baking, teaching, gardening, sports or story-telling.

We welcome you as unschoolers or homschoolers  to join our team! Parents, including teenagers, volunteer to teach or lead in various activities.

Understanding CLiC  (Community Learning Initiative Center)

A FAQ

1. Is it a homeschooling center?

We are NOT a homeschooling center where children are placed here for tuition. We are a center for unschoolers who want friendship, fun-learning and freedom in learning. Parents stay with their children to be co-learners and participants.

2. Is there a curriculum that you follow here?

The curriculum we follow is one that is based on Love!  The love for learning, the love for friendship and the love for others 🙂 Children learn from parents, peers and play! Learning is alive with hands-on activities and living skills.  Here is our weekly schedule:

Tue: Sports (basketball, badminton, ice-skating, etc) & Science

Wed: Math & CSI (Creative Self-expression & Innovation)

Thu: Gardening & Chinese

Fri: Park Outing

We also organize and participate in events for homeschoolers: Dr Seuss’ festival, Art & Craft fair, Science fair, concerts, sports day, etc…

3. What do children learn here?

They learn to interact with one another, they learn responsibility through co-operative learning, they learn living skills such as cooking, cleaning and gardening, baking, selling and self-evaluating. They learn to live a healthier life through healthy eating and exercising. Reading and writing skills are done individually as well as in a group setting. Most of all, they learn about themselves and how to bring out their inner talents! How? Through a community-inspired living and learning.

Often times, families struggle with certain issues on their own and find it tough to identify and solve them. In a community-learning environment, these can be identified and resolved quite easily through group acceptance, acknowledgment and empowerment. Children who have eating issues will find communal mealtimes helpful in encouraging them to explore different kinds of foods and to be more accepting of them. We chose to prepare only non-meat dishes here to respect the vegetarians and the different beliefs and religions among us.

4. Do you pay fees?

We contribute an amount monthly to cover the costs of rental and other expenses. Families give donations from time to time. Full-timers practise the art of sharing resources and other needful things. Parents teach for free and in the case of individual classes like piano lessons, the children pay a nominal fee, part of which is put back into the community fund.

Why are we doing this? Because we believe that together we can create the right environment for personal growth and bringing out children’s true potentials. What we cannot find, we will create! Such as creating platforms for budding artists, bakers, singers, as well as sportspersons. We can make a difference for our children by adopting a new mindset: All things are possible with a possible mind!

We want to develop children who can think and act out of the box, and who are capable of creating their their own future paths. This way, their destinies are in their own hands! We also want to practise the act of sharing and caring in our daily lives, with love and inclusiveness – something that are increasingly missing in our society today.

There is so much imbalance, inequality and disparity in our society. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: Do we want to be a part of this dysfunctional system, or do we want to create an alternative way of living and learning that can make a positive change in our children’s lives? It is not in changing the system that we can get a better education for our children. It is in changing ourselves that we make a real change for them!

5. How do we join CLiC?

Just get in touch with us and give it a try. Understand and practise our philosophy.

Be willing to try out something so different yet so natural. Be brave enough to be unconventional.

Simple as that!

We also accept short-term stays for those who want to learn how we do community-schooling, and start one in your neighborhood. We have had quite a number of visitors from different states as well as from abroad, coming here to learn from us! What an honor indeed!

Our intent is not to get more students, but to inspire more parents to be proactive in their children’s education. Getting involved, spending time with them, listening to what they have to say, helping them to express themselves, guiding them through the webs of life……these are the responsibilities of parents. Having a supportive community to journey along with makes it more meaningful. For these reasons, we invite families to come learn with us. You may be inspired enough to start one yourself!

Contact: Wai Leng at beyond.schooling@gmail.com  to understand more and to make necessary arrangements