Our first steps into the unknown

Well, we are off to a start. Whether it's a good start or not remains to be seen! I imagine our path to be like the one shown in the picture below: it will be a winding path, the end is nowhere in sight, and it is truly beautiful.

This is my first EVER blog entry. At this point I have no idea how many people, or who, will ever read this. I'm just hoping someone will!

So, where are we at right now? Several weeks ago I purchased the Sudbury Valley School Startup Kit. Wow, that was long overdue! I'd been dreaming and wishing to start an unschooling school for about 6 months before buying that kit, and had got absolutely nothing done in that time (except for telling a few people that I was going to start a school - not exactly productive!). Well, the kit arrival changed all of that "rudderless-ness" in a hurry! The first book I chose to read is titled "Starting a Sudbury School" by Daniel Greenberg, and it pretty much describes all the steps to take, in a general fashion (but detailed enough to be REALLY helpful!).

Using that fabulous book, our school startup team is currently working on the following:

1) Finding a site. This is more complicated than it ought to be, in my opinion. There are very specific and very strict building codes for schools. Basically, only a building that has housed crowds of children can be used as a school. Any other building will have to be remodeled in a major way. Initially we are looking to rent as this will make for a quicker startup. But my dream is to have 8-10 acres of land, a greenhouse, vegetable garden, fruit trees, animals, a gazebo, and some type of water (sound, river, stream, or pond). Maybe even a natural swimming pool. Yes, I'm dreaming big; I want a wonderful location with plenty of access to nature for our future students. But for now...looking for a rental site.

2) Establishing Freedom School as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. I know very little about this, so it's in the hands of a very capable team member. I'm not even sure if this is the best option or not. But that's what we're going to try out first.

3) Contacting other Sudbury model schools. We're going to start with Clearwater School in Bothel, WA, then move on possibly to others in neighboring states. Basically, we want information on getting accreditation from OSPI, plus ANY other bonus information that would help us. The other schools' founders will definitely know more than we do!!

4) Building a website. That's what I'm working on! We plan to promote Freedom School on multiple social media platforms, so having a website will be helpful.

On that note, back to the actual website....