Welcome to Living Education Collective
A relational education community for home-educating families in Ventura County.
We believe education should be relational.
Living Education Collective is a grassroots movement of intentional families that believe there is a better way to educate. We deeply respect the personhood of each individual and believe that a human being is profoundly more than an empty container to be filled with facts or a machine in need of parts. We do not believe in the mechanization of mankind, but rather in the born personhood of each individual as a creation of the Living God.
We seek to equip and strengthen our local community by offering educational retreats, courses, gatherings and book clubs in addition to our 1-day student program.
Key Points
We follow the educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason.
Students are dropped off, taught by paid educators and assisted by parent volunteers.
We are a diverse, ecumenical community united in our love for Jesus, our unwillingness to remove God from education and our high emphasis on virtue and moral character.
Our program runs on Wednesdays for 30 weeks each academic year. Every 7th week we practice the art of sabbath as a community.
We currently accept students in Year 0 (age 5 by Sept 30) through High School.
Classes are kept intentionally small with a max of 12 students per class.
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Students must be age 5 by September 30th in order to enter Year 0 at LEC.
In a Charlotte Mason education, formal schooling does not begin until age 6. We believe Year 0 should be a relationship heavy, ‘quiet growing time.’
During Year 0 at LEC, your child will focus on learning through their senses, developing a love for rich literature and growing in healthy, respectful habits.
Our Year 0 class offers additional adult support and intentional experiential learning.
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We agree with Charlotte Mason that children are born persons.
Children are not empty vessels to be filled. They are capable of dealing with real ideas and real knowledge. We believe children should be put in contact with great and noble ideas through literature, music, art, poetry and the like.
Charlotte Mason believed a child should develop a deep intimacy with a wide range of subjects. We refer to this as laying a rich feast. If you can imagine each item presented for the feast as a topic or idea, you will begin to see the idea of a wide and varied education. The children should come into contact with many different topics and ideas.
Lessons are kept short so as to train focused attention and excellent execution in each subject. There is variation in the day’s activities in an effort to avoid over-stressing the brain on any one task. All subjects are taught through the use of living books. We do not use textbooks, worksheets or the like.
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The Upper Years include all of the beauty and principles of the Primary Years, but with an added focus on character development, spiritual formation, autonomy, leadership and inter-generational relationships.
Click to learn more about the Charlotte Mason method and which subjects are covered at Living Education Collective.
“Thought breeds thought; children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.”
— Charlotte Mason
