Join the BirdHouse
The World's Most Wholesome Homeschool Co-op Run by Families
What is a BirdHouse?
BirdHouse is a wholesome homeschool co-op for K-6 children run by you, the parents!
We make it easy for parents to successfully run a home-school co-op whilst picking up the best learning and teaching practices.
Rather than prescribing a set of static curriculum, we create customizable homeschooling templates with suggested activities and "just-in-time" bite-size teaching tips taken from the world's cutting-edge educational research.
BirdHouse is a brand new model of homeschooling co-op born out of the partnership between parents and researchers from the University of Cambridge, England and Harvard University.
A Session of BirdHouse
Each BirdHouse session has 6 routines with flexible designs for the uniqueness of each child and homeschool community.
Nest Gathering
Children and parents engage in dialogue on topics things that are meaningful to them using a dialogic approach developed by the University of Cambridge. Children talk together to develop more cohesive, evidence-based, and logical arguments and ultimately become better thinkers!
Bird Explore
Bird Explore is an inquiry-based activity that is usually led by parents but requires children to do the intellectual heavy lifting and collaborate. In each season, we will explore a different topic. For example, in the last season, we explored the topic of Science and Magic.
Bird Coo
Bird Coo is a chance for children to center and to stay in touch with themselves. We encourage parents to explore various exercises with children, such as meditation, going for a short walk, or simply sitting under a tree and listening.
Bird Feed
Children work together to prepare lunch guided by parents. We believe that it is important for children to establish a healthy relationship with food and understand what they are eating and where they come from. Children develop deep gratitude for nature, animals, plants, and people.
Bird Play
Bird Play is made of structured play and unstructured play (free play). Structured play is thoughtfully crafted for educational goals, and unstructured play gives children the freedom to explore the world with their own agency. Both types of play are fundamental for children to flourish physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially.
Flap Wings
Flap Wings is designed for self-directed activity. We find children's schedule is often too crowded, and they rarely have what they call "free time". We believe that it is important for children to have time for themselves and have the agency to decide how they want to make use of their time.
Why Collaborative Learning Matters?
Homeschooled children do not always have opportunities to learn in group settings - and parents can change that.
Research shows that children learn to think in the context of relationships and interactions. In other words, social interactions are fundamental for children to learn to think.
Opportunities to interact and work with peers are also critical for children’s social-emotional development and interpersonal skills, such as leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, and collective problem-solving.
Put simply, collaborative learning is crucial for both conceptual and socioemotional learning.
Our Ethos
BirdHouse represents the safety of a nest where young birds can perch, flap their wings, feel the wind, and leap into something new under their parents wing. Parents gently nudge their young fledglings out into the world as they grow to explore new horizons.
Easy Steps to Run a BirdHouse Co-op
Step 1 - Invite families
Invite another 2-4 homeschool families in your community to host a BirdHouse together. In our experience, 5-7 children per BirdHouse work best! However, you can have a larger or smaller BirdHouse depending on the size of your home and what you think works best for your community of homeschoolers!
Step 2 - Co-purchase the BirdHouse Kit for the Season
As a group, share the cost of a BirdHouse Seasonal Kit for 6 weeks of learning, growth, and fun!
Step 3 - Share responsibilities
One BirdHouse Season consists of 6 sessions (or six weeks). Share the responsibility of hosting BirdHouse (once/week) with other families, for example, you can take turns to lead a session and rotate the location, or you can each take lead in 1-2 routines.
Step 4 - Prepare for a session
Go through preparation checklist to familiarize yourself with the activities and make sure you have everything ready for the day.
Step 5 - Host a session
Follow the instructions on the activity card in the BirdHouse Kit to facilitate a session. Enjoy and have fun learning together!
What children say
BirdHouse is an awesome opportunity to get together, have fun, and learn. Everyone should do a BirdHouse. Everyone is going to love it.
I love BirdHouse because our friends come over and it's like doing school but at home.
During BirdHouse we get to do science! We get to do research. We get to learn about being a good person.
At BirdHouse, we do fun things. We do science, the most wonderful and playful thing.
Join the Waiting List
After overwhelmingly successful pilots, we are ready to launch the first season of BirdHouse to the world this summer.
Sign up to the BirdHouse Newsletter to stay tuned!
