A Day at ALC Mosaic

Monday-Wednesday flow: 

9:15-9:30 Arrival

9:40-10am Morning Meeting

Kids start arriving between 9:15 and 9:30am and are encouraged to take a few minutes to think about their intentions for the day and check in with facilitators if they need support scheduling any activities that involve other people. The day starts with a morning meeting from 9:40-10am where students can sign up for offerings and connect with a small group to play a game or simply orient their day.

10am-10:45 Offering Block 1

10:45-11:30 Offering Block 2

Monday - Wednesday we have two morning offering blocks in the schoolhouse, one from 10-10:45am, and followed by another from 10:50-11:30am. We ask any student desiring to attend those offerings to attend morning circle, and that all students choosing to be in the schoolhouse during that time pick an offering to attend. There are multiple offerings made in each block to choose from, and these offerings are created based on the interests we have heard from the students. Additionally, if a young person comes to us with a clear personal interest pursuit that they need a dedicated space to work on inside, we create space for this in the schoolhouse during this time as well (e.g., a student is in the middle of a book they want to finish, they are working on an art project, puzzle, etc). 

Students who do not want to participate in one of the morning offering blocks can spend their time in the playyard or its adjacent indoor spaces. The playyard in the back of our property will also have regular offerings with a more organic, spontaneous flow. This allows our school to work for kids who enjoy a little more structure and planning as well as kids who desire to flow through their day in the present moment, making decisions about their play and desires as they evolve and emerge. 

11:30-12:30 Encouraged Lunchtime

We hold space for lunch during this time; facilitators will not hold offerings and eat lunch and encourage the young people in the space to do the same. 

People can eat anytime here, and also, we find that many young people need reminders to eat. So having a dedicated time to eat in our day is to support everyone to remember to check in with their body and refuel mid-day.

12:30-2:30ish Afternoon Offerings

Afternoon offering blocks are made, similar to morning offering blocks. However, in rooms without offerings in the schoolhouse, young people can engage in free play (in the morning, anyone not in an offering is asked to stay outside or in playyard indoor space out back). 

We strive to always have the art room open in the afternoon for either an art offering or for open art studio, where students can freely use the materials in the art room for creation. Our experience has shown us that the art room is very important for the kids, and that we typically need an adult in the space supporting the care and use of materials. When we cannot have an adult available to support the art room, we close it for general use.

2:40-3pm Community Care

Lots of people here mean lots of messes as well as general maintenance and upkeep of the spaces! Things get messy. We ask that everyone, big and small, help clean something up during this time. We do our best to work with students to choose a community care job that works for them. Do they like wiping? Organizing? Sweeping? Putting sports balls away? What is a job that they feel capable of doing independently? We help them choose a consistent job they can do each day to support campus care, and support changes in jobs to be made as needed. 

3-3:45 Afternoon Circle / Snack / Play yard time

We will offer a snack at this time in the Play yard area and invite some general reflections of our day. We may ask questions like: 

• What was your favorite thing you did today? 

• Who went to the art room today? What was offered? Did you like it? 

• Are there any offerings you want to see planned in the future? 

• Were there any problems that came up today that you want help with? 

From input given here, we may schedule future offerings based on what the students share — like a time to meet further about a conflict that has come up, a time to discuss planning another offering or trip based on an interest shared, or other times to support the students to govern the space. 

We find most kids want to spend their time playing or in offerings, not governing the school, so we make it light and do our best to encourage those who want to impact the governance of the to have the ability to do so in a way that works for them and the staff. There’s no set way to do this — it takes the adults facilitating in the space making relationships with the kids, listening to them, and looking for opportunities for them to lead to arise and supporting that to happen organically.

Thursdays

On Thursdays students can choose to join a scheduled field trip, come play in the playyard, or caregivers can sign them up for a self-organized cooperative offering in the schoolhouse. 

Field Trips

Field Trip offerings for Thursdays will be announced in advance and caregivers can sign up their children for the trips. Trips are planned based on what we know students might enjoy or based on specific requests from students. Often they help plan the trips. Some favorite trips are: 

• Various museums

• Spray grounds, pools, creek areas (we love water on warm days!)

• Hikes, near and far

• Farm trips

Playyard

Students not signed up for field trip can spend time in the back of our campus using our playyard area. This includes a large outdoor area with a sandbox, tree swings, play structure with climbing wall, slide, and other climbing areas, rabbits, chickens, bikes and trikes, mud kitchens, mini creek area, an indoor playroom, and indoor multi-use area with swings, rolling toys, large building materials. This is a great Thursday option for children who enjoy spontaneous free play all day or consistency in play activities rather than picking a field trip option. 

Self-Organized Offerings

The schoolhouse is available for self-organized offerings on Thursdays. Anyone in the school or cooperative can make an offering for others to sign up for. Some offerings may have a sign up fee. Families who enroll in the private school can access a shared fund if they need support to pay for a self-organized offering. 

These offerings could be from a parent who loves science or art and wants to offer a interesting project. Or a person who wants to hold space for kids to come in the school house and play video games together. The options are endless!

Fridays

Currently, Fridays are Park Days and/or flex days. On Fridays there is always a group park trip offered to any student, hosted by two ALC Mosaic facilitators. Additionally, any adult in the community (or child with the support and supervision of an adult) can host specific offerings on campus, as long as they are scheduled and planned in advance.

Staff

• Nancy Tilton, Director
• Lacy Manship, Facilitator
• Amber Marie, Facilitator
• Anna Marmor, Facilitator
• Rayna Hervis, Facilitator
• Douglas Orr, Facilitator
• Heather Montoya, Administrative Coordinator

Enrollment

See the Tuition Info page to learn more about tuition at ALC Mosaic. 

Read our enrollment overview page to learn about the admissions process.