Just last summer, Kim and I embarked on a wild journey to create our own program. We had a vision for a different kind of education; an authentic Montessori program that offers more flexibility than any traditional public or private school can. In realizing our vision, we also became business owners and teacher leaders. Our program has no traditional administration. Kim and I are at the helm, in the classroom, and everywhere in between. And the seas have not been altogether calm. We have had plenty of learning curves, many of which were expected. Making the jump from employee to business owner meant a lot of curveballs and a lot of learning. We’ve had to tackle finances, fundraising, communications, advertising, recruitment, curriculum design, and even town building and zoning codes.
But the most recent curveball was something we could not have anticipated: a global pandemic that forced us to temporarily close our doors just as we were building momentum and had signed a lease on a new space in Nags Head. Like so many business owners on the Outer Banks and beyond, this has been a huge blow for us. Both life and business suddenly turned upside down.
When we made the decision to close once Dare County Public Schools announced their closing, I suddenly found myself home with my own two children. I felt the pressure of figuring out how to homeschool them, create a distance learning platform for our students and families, and plan for our business to survive in the long term. I also discovered that one of my closest friends (who lives in NYC) was sick with Covid-19. It all felt so overwhelming, and I found myself sinking into a cave of despair that, for a time, I wasn’t sure how to climb out of.
My impression is that I’m not alone in these feelings. My sense is that many of us have felt as though the rug was pulled out from under us, and we aren’t sure of much, let alone what to do on any given day.
In the midst of the waterfall of feelings and a skyrocketing of my anxiety, I did something that I have not done in years, perhaps ever: I gave myself permission to just be. I chose to sit with the unknown and the uncertainty; to not busy myself figuring out the answers. I retreated to my journaling, binge watching my standby guilty pleasure TV shows, and a lot of time on the beach.
In this time of retreat, it occurred to me that what is happening all around us is just a large scale version of an inherent truth of our lives- we don’t actually have control over anything.
We try in so many ways to tighten our grip around things we can’t hold, no matter how strongly we create an illusion that we can. We do this with our relationships and in our businesses and professional pursuits. We often use busyness to maintain a sense of control, and I struggle with this personally. We try to keep all the balls in the air, all the plates spinning. And then, when it crashes, we frantically try to put it all back in place. But what if it was all wrong to begin with? Perhaps there is a better way to flow with the reality of our lives.
When I have scrolled social media, I have seen so much of how districts, schools, and individual educators are working tirelessly to create distance learning for students who suddenly can’t be at school. They are attempting to recreate school as it was, but now at home. I think this is heroic. And it also hasn’t felt quite right to me.
It’s had me thinking that figuring out how to do school remotely is perhaps the right answer to the wrong question. Maybe the question isn’t how to replicate school at home. Maybe the question should be how do we use this strange and uncertain time to connect with ourselves, our children, and our community in ways that are meaningful and support the unique and common challenges we are all facing.
In the beginning of the shutdown, Kim and I set out to help parents recreate what we do at Outer Banks Montessori Collective. We quickly discovered that a better approach is to support each family in creating their own individual version of a homeschool experience.
We created a shared Google Drive Folder and uploaded files that parents can download, and we did our best to explain the major tenets of Montessori philosophy. We set up a private Facebook page where families can share ideas and inspiration, and we scheduled weekly virtual meetings so that our students can maintain a sense of community.
What’s different about our approach to distance learning is that there is no obligation for anyone to do anything other than what works for them. We have found that each homeschool experience is going to be as different as each family, and we believe this is as it should be.
In my home, we do academic school work on some days and not on others. We go for walks on the beach, cook, watch movies, and we even adopted a new dog. We take it day by day, and I think each day we feel like we get a little closer to a routine that feels good to us.
In this spirit, Kim had the brilliant idea of inviting our students and families to do a time capsule project. She created a series of templates that includes prompts, journaling ideas, interview questions, emotional check-ins, “someday” lists, and so on. Our families work on a few of the time capsule items each week. There are no rules of course. The templates can be used or not, and families can add other items to their time capsule as well.
We believe in times of uncertainty, there is opportunity for all of us to connect in new ways, both to ourselves and our loved ones. Through the difficulties of navigating this uncharted territory, we can learn more about ourselves, our children, and the world we live in. And hopefully our personal and collective visions for a more peaceful world will grow stronger and more resolute.
We are offering our time capsule templates to the community. Please feel free to download them and use them to create a time capsule with your family. If you are able to give a little at this time, we would graciously accept small donations in the $5-10 range. These funds will help us with our overhead costs until we are able to reopen our doors.
Speaking of doors, just before the shutdown we signed a lease on a new space in Nags Head. We are so thrilled to have a permanent home for Outer Banks Montessori Collective- a place where we can settle in and do the work we love. We are looking forward to setting the space up for reopening this fall.
If you are interested in something different for your child’s education, please reach out to us! We are enrolling for the fall and would love to chat with you about all that we can offer you and your family. We have a variety of service options to meet the unique educational needs of your family.
We are also excited about our new online shop (coming very soon)! We are putting together content to include video tutorials, articles, and templates to support you in creating a Montessori homeschool environment. In the coming weeks, we will launch our Montessori homeschooling “starter packs.” We also plan to add individual or subject specific lessons and downloadable templates for language, math, science, and geography learning to our shop in the near future.
We hope you are all well. We look forward to seeing everyone on the other side. <3
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