East Charlotte · since 2013
A self‑directed school for families who take an active hand in their kids’ education.
Kindergarten through 12th grade · about 80 kids
What we are
A North Carolina private school on Monroe Road.
Parents are their kids’ primary educators.
We lead with that because of who tends to find us: families who already call themselves homeschoolers or unschoolers, and families who don’t use those words but do believe they’re the ones most responsible for their children’s education.
What we offer is everything that’s hard to put together on your own: skilled facilitators who know each kid, a full week of offerings to choose from, field trips and days out in parks and woods, a campus made for kids, a coworking space for parents, and a community of families doing this together.
ALC Mosaic is an independent school registered with the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education, and a participating school for the Opportunity Scholarship and ESA+ programs. We serve kids from kindergarten through 12th grade. New students can join through age 14; after that, our high school program is open to students who’ve been with us at least a full year, with exceptions considered case by case.
Four groups, one campus. Friends of all ages.
Rootsthe youngest. Based in the play yard, with indoor classroom space: open play, field trips, forest days.
Saplingswhen kids start to think ahead and try offerings in the schoolhouse. Also based in the play yard, with field trips and park days.
Canopythe middle years, based in the schoolhouse. Kids make their own schedules, commit to offerings, develop projects, and grow closer to their peers.
Acornsthe teens, also in the schoolhouse. Personal interest projects, writing workshops, civics, test prep when they want it.What kids practice here
Self-direction isn’t a privilege we grant. It’s a skill kids practice every day.
With adults nearby who know how to support it.
On a given day, a kid here might decide how to spend the morning and live with how it turns out. They might join an offering someone else proposed, or propose their own. They’ll help take care of a shared space. They’ll ask for help, and teach someone else something they know. When a disagreement comes up, they’ll work through it directly, with support.
In the younger years, the point is range. Try a lot of things, notice what holds your attention, and learn that you can get good at something you chose.
As kids get older, range turns into depth: band, writing workshops, higher-level math, a personal project carried for months. Their questions about the wider world get bigger too. Older kids study how society works and why it treats some people unfairly, including racism, ableism and other kinds of oppression, and talk those questions through together in Connection Circle and in their offerings. We want them to see their own education as part of building a more just world.
Over time, all of it adds up to the skills that last: speaking up clearly, following through, working with people who aren’t like you, and knowing where your attention goes. Underneath those is the one we care about most: knowing you can learn whatever you need to, and that your life is yours to shape.
We document what we see in each kid’s portfolio, in their own words and ours, so you can follow their learning as it happens instead of waiting on a report card.
A day here
Most days, roughly.
Every block is a choice. The only thing everyone does is clean up.
Schoolhouse offerings run Monday through Thursday. On Thursdays the youngest head out for forest days and field trips, and Fridays are Park Day, or ALC Wilds, our sports group for kids 10 and up.
The whole day, in detail
Arrive. Take a few minutes to decide what the day is for.
Morning circle. Each group gathers. Review the day’s offerings, or find a few people and a game.
Offering blocks. Several to choose from, built from what kids asked for. Or the play yard.
Lunch. Eat any time, but this is when everyone remembers to.
Afternoon. More offerings, free play outside, quiet indoor activities, open art.
Community care. Everyone, big and small, cleans something up.
Snack. Delicious and healthy snacks, communing in the play yard, preparing for pickup by 3:30.
And on a longer rhythm
The things that come round every week, or every session.
- Connection Circle
- Each group, every week: games, hard conversations, and the questions kids bring.
- Personal interest projects
- Coding, cooking, writing, art, an instrument: time and resources for the thing you actually want to get good at.
- Forest days
- Thursdays, for the youngest: hiking, woods play, nature journals, insects, and mess, at parks around Charlotte.
- Specialty weeks
- A week off the usual schedule: campfire cooking, grocery runs for the shared pantry, trips.
- Field trips
- The science museum, the aviation museum, a climbing gym, the laundromat, and once, Japan.
- Band, and the News Team
- A school band that works together all year, and a weekly video the kids film and edit themselves.
From this year’s record
What learning looks like, even when nobody assigned it.
What we believe about learning
Underneath all of it is trust: in kids, in each other, in you.
- Learning is natural. It’s happening all the time, whether or not anyone planned it.
- People learn best by making their own decisions. Kids are people.
- What surrounds you teaches more than what you’re told. The culture a kid lives in every day shapes them more than any lesson.
- Growth happens in cycles. Set an intention, try something, reflect on it, share it, and go around again.
Agile Learning Centers share these few core beliefs; everything else can vary from one community to the next.
Hear it from the founders
What makes this place different, in under two minutes.
“Children and youths’ autonomy is really primary.”
Lacy“What we really offer is partnership with the children, partnership with their families.”
Nancy“We start with children as full human beings, with interests and gifts that need to be discovered and cultivated.”
Tomis
Who this is for
We’re a small community, and fit matters more here than at most schools.
We’re looking for families who…
- are active in their kids’ education, or want to grow into that
- want their kids practicing real decisions, personal responsibility, and responsibility to a group
- want to help build a more equitable society, starting with respect for one another here, and see conflict as a chance to learn together
- will pitch in: lead an offering, share a skill, drive on a trip, help care for the campus, or carry an interest forward at home
Families say
From the families here now.
“After one year at ALC Mosaic, I am incredibly grateful that we found this community for our daughter.”
Natalia Cabrera Parent“On our first tour of ALC Mosaic I remember thinking, I’m so grateful a place like this exists!”
Kendra Carter Parent“My grandson is in his second year at ALC, and he absolutely loves it.”
Jennifer Steiger Grandparent
Who’s here
A community that looks like Charlotte.
We make intentional decisions so that this community reflects Charlotte: families of every income, race, and background, and every shape a family takes. Kids who spend their days alongside people whose lives look different from their own learn things that can’t be taught any other way, and so do their parents.
Tuition runs on a sliding scale based on household size and income. We ask every family to apply for North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship, and most of our families use it or an ESA+ award. What a family pays should come down to whether this is the right place for them, not what they earn.
Come see it on a school day.
The fastest way to understand this place is to stand in it. We ask all interested families to carefully digest our online admissions packet before signing up for a tour.
