Big Pods - The Present and Future
Present Day Pod
Currently, four families have been meeting since August of 2023. Members range from 6 years old to 45. Together, we have participated in a variety of activities, including field trips, world country presentations, social meet-ups, and currently a volunteer project in collaboration with the Anchorage Solid Waste Service and other local nonprofit organizations.
Vision for the Future
In the future, I would love for a handful of pods to meet throughout Anchorage during any given week, formed around a collective interest that runs for an agreed-upon amount of time (such as six weeks to several months). Families would join as many pods as they wanted and would be encouraged, when new interests were formed, to start new pods throughout the year.
Example
There might be a board game pod that meets every other week at The Workshop, or a pod that wants to study geography and hires a guest teacher to take them on field trips within a two-hour drive of Anchorage. Maybe a pod forms that wants to learn to cross-country skate or take art lessons. The idea is to follow interests, both the adults and children, and to learn together, thus building a structure for relationships to form.
A meet-up of all members would occur once a month or so to go on field trips or participate in group events and activities. This could look like going to the ropes course in Seward, participating in a family camping trip, or going berry picking as a large group. Adults would take turns organizing and leading these activities.
Benefits
I believe there are a ton of benefits to meeting in pods and developing this type of program for learning and relationship building. They include:
A sense of belonging. Kids and adults thrive when they know they are part of and included in something bigger than themselves.
Tweens/teens developing supportive relationships with other adults and older peers. In return, they can be mentors for younger children.
Pooled resources. Adults and children have the opportunity to share their knowledge with others. Maybe you are a wiz at carpentry and could help individual families make a tiny library to share in their neighborhood, or perhaps you know all things about whales and could share your knowledge on several field trips to Beluga Point. We could also pool our financial resources to visit locations and pay experts in a field of study.
Ease of scheduling. We can reverse how we sign up for classes by forming a pod of eight around a topic of study and then hiring a teacher that fits the pod's schedule, instead of the other way around.
Using Seedling School as a foundational platform allows members to collaborate and do cool things in and around the community. I envision teens/tweens leading youth-centered initiatives, running youth projects that build skills in team building, creativity, planning, and implementation.
Using community resources already in place helps to lower the cost of participation and supports our local community. Meeting at each other's homes, in local nature spaces, and nonprofit spaces such as The Workshop, Remade, Makers Space, the Library, etc.
