We are thrilled to be one month into our Wild Seeds ALC program! It’s been a joy to reconnect with returning youth from last year and welcome so many new faces into the community. Our program continues to grow and evolve in exciting ways. This year, we are planning fresh learning opportunities, creating new pathways for kids to share the topics they want to explore, utilizing new systems to support learning and space-sharing, and staying agile to meet young people’s needs.
Along with the excitement of a new year, we are also reflecting on the growing pains of this first month. As we’ve brought together a new group of young people, many conflicts and social challenges have surfaced. These issues aren’t surprising to our facilitators—we’ve seen similar challenges arise at the start of previous years at Wild Seeds.
We’re realizing that these challenges are a normal and important part of the beginning of the year in a responsive learning environment. We intentionally keep things open at the start of the year—offerings are somewhat less structured, and we embrace plenty of time for socializing and free play. Social challenges are common during this unstructured time, often revealing dynamics, feelings, and needs that help us understand the skills kids need to develop. This openness also holds us accountable to listening more to the kids and resisting the urge to pre-define their interests or needs. This month, our big focus has been on listening, trying to understand where the kids’ interests lie and what growth areas we need to address as a community.
Here are a few beginning-of-the-year challenges we’ve noticed so far and how we are responding to support growth:
Intentional Community is Hard!
Each year at Wild Seeds, our community is different. Returning kids are at various developmental stages, and their needs and interests are constantly evolving. Meanwhile, we are also welcoming new community members who are still learning our routines and practices. It takes time for new community members to internalize our community safety limits and get used to practicing them. It also takes time to reassess which norms from last year still resonate with this group and what norms or agreements may need to be added or changed.
Beginnings can also create a sense of pressure: pressure to be liked, to figure out who will be a close friend this year, and to protect oneself from judgment. These feelings can lead to mistakes and breaking community agreements. At the same time, kids may make unfair judgments about peers they feel have made mistakes. This combination of pressure and judgment often leads to hard feelings!
How We’re Responding:
We’re playing lots of games in small groups to foster community building and support practicing norms in a fun, adult-mediated environment. This allows kids to practice skills like turn-taking, managing disappointment, and including others within the structure of a game.
We are emphasizing our three core community agreements during full-group and small-group meetings: 1) We care for ourselves, each other, and the environment; 2) We are teachable in moments of conflict and work toward accountability and repair; and 3) We advocate for ourselves and others. These agreements help ground kids in shared values and guide them as they develop into positive community members.
We are showing a lot of grace as kids make mistakes and try new strategies for conflict resolution and repair. Avoiding shame is always a priority, and it feels especially important at the beginning of the year when kids are navigating conflicts in a new setting. This approach helps create a trusting environment where kids feel comfortable discussing challenges and admitting when they’ve done something wrong without fear of punishment.
Making Friends is Hard!
While navigating friendships is a lifelong challenge, it comes with unique obstacles at every age. For some of our younger community members, this is their first year sharing space with so many other kids, including those much older than them. This can feel intimidating and overwhelming for our youngest Wild Seeds who are just learning how to make friends.
Older kids face their own challenges at the beginning of the year, often eager to establish friend groups. This can lead to people feeling left out, even unintentionally. Additionally, friendships and conflicts from outside Wild Seeds often carry over into our space. It can be tough for some community members to find their place among existing relationships.
How We’re Responding:
We hosted our first “check-in/change-up” conversation about inclusion. During these whole-group meetings, we discuss emerging issues in the community and invite kids to propose concrete changes to shift these dynamics.
We are creating consistent opportunities for kids of different ages to connect, such as inviting older kids to read to younger ones during a weekly read-aloud session. We hope this will help our youngest Wild Seeds feel more welcome and comfortable in the community.
Our facilitator team has dedicated much of our weekly meetings to reflecting on conflicts at both a micro and macro level. We work to identify patterns, support individuals' social-emotional skills, and develop plans to encourage community-wide growth.
Understanding What We Want to Learn is Hard!
We are continuously discussing how to design learning offerings that are well-attended, responsive to kids’ energies, and meaningful. While we’ve had some success, the start of the year also involves trial and error. Kids are still figuring out what passions they want to explore in the coming months, and it can be hard for some to express what they want to learn when they don’t know what they don’t know!
Facilitators are also learning about our Wild Seeds’ interests and skills. We’re figuring out which offerings can accommodate all ages and which may require specific prerequisites. We are paying attention to skill levels across ages, noticing which kids are eager to practice writing with adult support and which might need extra supervision using tools like a hot glue gun.
Our pre-teens, who are out of the building two days a week, have been diving into personal research projects. When they return on Fridays, they’re eager to socialize and haven’t attended many offerings. We’re working to support their social bonds while also ensuring they see learning offerings as valuable and have a chance to connect with younger kids.
How We’re Responding:
We are listening closely to kids’ conversations, listening for interests that could inspire learning offerings. For instance, a conversation about poisonous animals led to a popular offering about poisonous frogs and their adaptations.
We are encouraging more youth leadership by inviting kids to share ideas on a “parking lot” whiteboard and following up with one-on-one conversations about their proposed offerings.
We are supporting pre-teens in facilitating offerings for others when they’re in the building, allowing them to share their passions with younger kids and gain leadership experience.
We are designing hands-on projects that can engage different skill levels and interests. For example, in an ongoing creature character design offering, kids can choose to create a comic book or build a costume to represent their character.
As we move forward into the year, we’re excited to continue building a strong and supportive community where all our Wild Seeds can grow, learn, and thrive. While the challenges we’ve faced so far are a natural part of the process, they also present valuable opportunities for deeper connection, collaboration, and understanding. We are committed to creating an environment that adapts to the needs and passions of every young person, and we’re eager to stay responsive all year long.
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