Offerings

While at Ad Astra ALC, learners are able to join in multiple offerings and events throughout their day including:

- Classes
- Discussion Groups
- Clubs
- Free Play
- Field Trips
- Professional-Led Workshops
- Watching Videos
- Playing a Board or Video Game
- Projects
- Outdoor Games
- Student-Led Presentations
- Parent-Led Presentations

Each day includes a variety of offerings for the learners to choose to participate in. Offerings can be Ad Astra facilitator-led, learner-led or an outside expert can be hired to lead a topic. An offering can happen one time, every week or multiple times during a week.

During the Set the Day meeting, learners and facilitators bring topic ideas to the group to gauge interest, discuss how to make it happen and when to schedule it. Learners are encouraged to research resources that can assist them in learning more about it. Those resources might include a fellow learner or facilitator, a website or YouTube video, a book or possibly planning a field trip. This entire process is geared towards meeting the learner’s needs.

How offerings are created

homeschool art classes — Finger Knitting / Crocheting
During a field trip to the Science Center, some of the kids were exposed to finger knitting at the Hive. Their continued interest was expressed at the next Set the Day meeting. A facilitator volunteered to guide a knitting class for a few weeks, supplies were procured, videos were watched and the interested parties learned more about knitting! Then some of the learners taught themselves how to crochet. Purses, hats, scarves, and squishy best friends have been made.

homeschool coding classes — Unity

Many of our learners are interested in coding and developing computer games. One way to do this is through Unity which is a platform used to create video games.
One learner found a Unity tutorial on YouTube and wanted to share it with the group. We set up a time, everyone gathered and we worked through the tutorial together. People with more experience were able to assist others. We are looking forward to continuing learning about Unity in the future!

reading and writing classes for homeschoolers — Book Saloon

During a Set the Day meeting someone had the idea of a Book Salon where we could share our favorite books and tell everyone about what we are currently reading. Salon sounded a bit fancy and the name then evolved to Book Saloon!
During each meeting, one of the kids records everyone’s book recommendations and reviews online, in our Slack workspace, for reference. So many books have been shared this way!

Daily Flow

Our morning begins with Spawn. If you’ve ever played Minecraft, you’ll know what Spawn is! During the morning meeting we gather to set the day, touch base and play a connection game. Sometimes the meetings are led by adult facilitators and sometimes by the learners themselves. Setting the day involves discussions about what we already have planned for the day and discussions about what we want to add or schedule. Some people have an idea and need others to collaborate with. Some kids might have individual work or an online class later in the day. All of these offerings and opportunities are scheduled on the Offering Board for everyone to see and participate in!

After we create our schedule, we give each person a chance to outline their intentions for the day. Then we get started! Offerings last until lunch time at 12:00. We schedule a specific lunch time so that those who want to can eat together. Not everyone will eat right at noon though. After lunch, we continue with offerings until it is time to clean up and hold our end of the day meeting. At this final meeting we share reflections on the day, discuss plans for the future and play another connection game.

Once a week we hold a Change Up meeting. This is a time for the community to come together and discuss opportunities available to the community and to address any issues that group members might be experiencing. If an issue is brought to the group we discuss it, brainstorm solutions and then choose a solution that the group can agree to try for a week. We circle back around and discuss the same issue and its solution at the next change up meeting. If things are going well, great! If not, the group can choose a new solution to try for the next week.