Homeschool/Unschool Programs
Outdoor science and agriculture education programming for ages 6–11. Our 2023-24 program series includes four unique semesters: fall, early winter, late winter, and spring.
Our Educational Environment and Philosophy
Cedar Circle Farm and Education Center offers outdoor science and agriculture education programming for Homeschool and Unschool students, ages 6–11. Our Farm is an incredible outdoor classroom with production fields, forested areas, orchards, and riparian areas along the Connecticut River.
The 2023-24 Homeschool/Unschool program series includes four semesters, beginning in the fall and continuing throughout the winter and spring. Alongside our enthusiastic educators, students will share experiences exploring, discovering, and learning new concepts to gain a more profound, scientific, and interdisciplinary understanding of agriculture and ecology.
Our approach utilizes hands-on activities, inquiry-based investigations, games, and experiments. Our core content and focus areas will often be student-inspired with an awareness of the changes in our environment and will often scaffold throughout our semesters. Students are always welcome to attend class when it best meets their needs. Students will be actively engaged, given a sense of wonder and inquiry, and feel a sense of belonging whether attending one class or the entire series.
We build our programs to celebrate individualized learning styles/needs. We are mindful of age-appropriate education and build core content for each class that is interdisciplinary and reflective of Vermont’s adopted Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards practices and others, and New Hampshire’s Nationally-Aligned Model Competencies alongside arts, creative writing, cooking, and exploration. If you wish to reach out to us following a class to learn more about the Standards reached that day, please email sandi@cedarcirclefarm.org.
What We Learn Together
Homeschool and Unschool students at Cedar Circle Farm dig deep into the forms and functions of life and resilience on the farm, from plants and cycles to soil structure and health and the intricate relationships between the farm fields and the land beyond it.
As we investigate the importance and abundance of biodiversity at Cedar Circle, we observe and get to know this space and seek the lessons we can learn from our surroundings through a place-based curriculum and the creation of stories based on our encounters. Through this imaginative and wonder-filled process, we strive to understand better the relationships among living things, including how we fit into our ecosystem. We will think critically about how our farm relies on and impacts its surrounding environment and community and how we intentionally cultivate biodiversity here. We will consider ways to design farming practices to cooperate with or imitate natural systems and investigate various topics such as biomimicry, food systems, our watershed, seed saving, nutrition, medicinal and functional plant uses, pollinator habitats, seasonal cycles, and stewardship.
Together and through a multi-intelligence and multi-disciplinary lens, we will learn about farm ecology and natural phenomena and synthesize our learnings by communicating creatively across different media. We will explore the farm and surrounding cycles through print-making, creative writing, storytelling and skits, natural dyes, and planning a dream garden. Students’ curiosity drives these classes involving garden projects, nature journaling, developing experiments, playing games, and asking questions as we seek answers.
2023-24 Class Schedule
Classes are held from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of every month, October through May.
Fall Semester - Sign Up for one or all classes
- Tuesday, October 3
- Tuesday, October 17
- Tuesday, November 7
- Tuesday, November 21
Early Winter Semester - Sign Up for one or all classes
- Tuesday, December 5
- Tuesday, December 19
- Tuesday, January 2
- Tuesday, January 16
Late Winter Semester - Sign Up for one or all classes
- Tuesday, February 6
- Tuesday, February 20
- Tuesday, March 5
- Tuesday, March 19
Spring Semester - Sign Up for one or all classes
- Tuesday, April 2
- Tuesday, April 16
- Tuesday, May 7
- Tuesday, May 21
Tuition
$35 per class
$135 per semester
$505 for the entire series
We strive to make our education programs accessible to all families. If homeschool tuition is cost-prohibitive or a challenge for your family, please contact us. Sliding scales, payment plans, or financial aid are available.
If you have any questions, please email sandi@cedarcirclefarm.org or call (802) 785-4737.