Our Goals
1. CONNECT with other like-minded parents with similar philosophies.
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2. CREATE a community of families dedicated to achieving a world-class education at home.
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3. BUILD memories and friendships that last a lifetime!
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Read More About Us & Our Philosophy below.
If you think your family is a good fit, email us: michaela@skipschoolandlearn.com and we'll connect!
About Us
Hi Parents,
I'm Michaela and I'm passionate about education! I graduated UC San Diego in Neuroscience and got my Masters in Education from Harvard. I have taught in underserved inner-city schools and a top 5 private school in the nation. I've seen a lot and I can tell you, we can do better! I'm fascinated with learning processes and how to create a richer learning environment than even the best private schools at home.
Currently living in the Los Altos/Cupertino area, we're looking for like-minded people to form a life-long unschooling community for our family.
Our Philosophy
"Why are you not sending your kids to school?"
It's a question that gets asked over and over... We're not making this choice blindly; we've given this decision endless consideration. Here are the principles that have informed our decision:
01: Cramming Is Not Learning
We believe that traditional education has become focused on the cramming of information into the short-term memory to be regurgitated onto an exam only to be forgotten shortly thereafter.
02: Forced Learning Is Drugery
We believe traditional education is a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to go deeper into subjects a student is passionate about and forces drudgery in subjects a student dislikes.
03: Foster A Love for Learning
We believe that this kind of forced learning stifles and frustrates children’s curiosity, natural love for learning, and potential.
04: Follow Passions
We believe the highest form of education is tailored to and by the student and allows students to follow their learning passions deeply and go shallow in subjects they have no passion for.
05: Learning Can Be Fast AND Impactful
We believe that there is an enormous amount of downtime in school and that learning at home can take a fraction of the time it takes at traditional school.
06: Home/Unschool = Top Tier Education
We firmly believe that ‘school’ at home can be the very pinnacle of child education quality and experience, above even the very best public and private schools.
07: Master the Golden Rule
We believe in school absent explicit religious training but full of opportunities to practice the “golden rule” values.
08: Self-Directed Learning
We believe that as much or more learning happens from child self-directed learning as happens from direct teacher instruction and encourage it.
09: Learning How to Learn
We believe that students learning ‘how-to-learn’ gives them confidence to pursue their curiosity and passions deeply.
10: Overcome Fears
We believe that in order for learners to develop and build resilience and confidence they must overcome the fear of doing things, learning obstacles, challenges, and natural failures as part of their learning practice.
11: Many Learning Paths
We believe that there are a multitude of learning paths after secondary schooling such as college, internships, apprenticeships, certifications, entrepreneurship, and others.
12: Find & Develop Your Passion
We believe traditional school kids have an underdeveloped sense of knowing what they are interested in/passionate about and what to do about that interest/passion.
13: Learn to Concentrate
We believe that developing the concentration and focus to practice skills creates a mind that is disciplined with the ability to go deep on pointed interests.
14: Foster Curiosity
We believe that practicing the development of skills while fostering curiosity prepares children for a lifetime of learning adventures.
15: Own Your Education
We believe in students taking ownership of their learning process which ultimately fosters curiosity and the love of learning.
16: Everything is Interconnected
We believe in an interdisciplinary approach to learning that utilizes many skills like reading, writing, and math on projects that encourage curiosity, discovery, and pushing through challenges.
How we're (un)schooling
We believe that the traditional school system falls short for students in terms of their intellectual, emotional, and human development. For this reason, we've decided to pursue homeschooling/unschooling model that gives us the most freedom and latitude to create the richest possible learning environment for our kids.
As a family, we've developed a framework for how we unschool that are the pillars of how we want our children to learn.