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 non-profit organizations.
Vision for the Future
In the future I would love for a handful of pods to meet throughout Anchorage at 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 want 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 be formed.
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 with 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 apart 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 might help individual families make a tiny library to share in their neighborhood or maybe you know all things about whales and would share your knowledge on several field trips to Beluga Point. We could also pull our financial resources to visit locations and pay experts in a field of study.
an ease of scheduling. We can reverse how we sign up for classes by forming a pod of eight around a topic a 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 project that builds skills in team building, creativity, planning, and implementation.
using community resources already in place helps to lower the cost of participation and helps support our local community. Meeting at each other's homes, in local nature spaces, and non-profit spaces such as The Workshop, Remade, Makers Space, the Library, etc.
