Behere outdoor enrichment is here!

The HOME STRETCH.

We’re going beyond birdhouse painting at Behere, but how dang cute is this kid’s face!? wink.

This morning I rolled out of bed blanketed in two kids, stepped out of the tiny airstream we call home (for today), onto the dirt, and glanced at my phone to see a text come in from our tiny house builder, sharing that she’s at the DMV and has our plates ready for pick up! If you would have asked me ten years ago if I’d be excited about DMV plates on my primary residence, I would have thought you were joking (as images of Chris Farley in a van down by the river flash through my head.) But here I am, so excited that we’re on the HOME STRETCH (pun intended) and getting so close to finishing our custom, tiny home. I couldn’t be more excited to sleep in it! This build has become like one big improv art project as we use the materials we have in creative ways and pick up 2nd hand materials all around town. One thing is for sure, this house, like our family, has a very unique development story. If you come visit us, get ready for the house tour to take 3 hours even though it’s only 375 sq feet. I can just hear the you now. “Omg, they took 30 minutes before we even got inside explaining how they salvaged the exterior siding materials!” This is your advanced warning that we WILL be long-winded.

If you don’t know our back story, we’re a family of 5 who sold our home 3 years ago, quit the suburban and corporate world in an effort to pursue a more entrepreneurial life connected to nature and simple living.

Birthing the Village Pt.1

The path has been anything but simple, but we’ve remained steadfast in our family’s mission to embrace a less-hurried life, be together more and use our God-given gifts. I am so extremely proud of our family for enduring and pushing through these times, not just for the grit and resilience we’ve gained, but for our ability to find joy in the journey. Yes, our end goal is BIG, the dream we’re working towards perhaps grandiose, but we’re taking it on step-by-step.

The vision for Behere has crystallized so much this past year, and we’re thrilled with our recent progress. We’ve finally got an actual business launched, with products to offer. We have 5 teachers onboarded to help enrich kids ages 2-12, starting in October. While we don’t have our land and co-working solution built out yet, we know fully well that learning doesn’t require 4 walls, or even a sexy designed open-air shipping container or boho yurt. Here in the Conejo Valley, we’re blessed with amazing public trails, parks, gardens, picnic tables with overhangs, and most importantly, AMAZING WEATHER (minus this past week of weather hotter than Satan’s armpit).

So we’re taking to the trails and gardens at Conejo Botanical Gardens to launch our pilot program for kids, starting October 4th. Drop off programs run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 9am-12pm, and each day will focus on either reading, art, and math, and we will weave in emotional intelligence teachings as well. The workshops are best suited for kids age 5-9, but we can take kiddos ages 2-4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we have an assistant teacher that day focusing on Social-Emotional teachings that can support the littles not yet ready for academic instruction. We may be adding a more focused, separate pre-school offering soon.

Two Friday’s a month, we will have “Free Family Fridays” led by our Behere Naturalist, Karin O’Brien, retired Montessori teacher, as a value-added service to our members and their guests. On these select Friday, Karin will teach us all about plants, animals and the outdoors via guided hikes, family yoga, etc.

And once a quarter, we will invite our members to an amazing community dinner designed and catered by our partner, School of Lunch. If you haven’t experienced Hilary Boynton’s food through School of Lunch, you’re in for a salivating treat that your body will thank you for!

One word for Hilary = EMPOWERED. Local food, ancestral diet, REAL FOOD cooking leaves you feeling empowered to take ownership over your health! The future of education and work will thrive when we prioritize our health and the best way to do that is using food as medicine!

You can read about our amazing workshops and Guides (our name for teachers) on our website, here. We are so incredibly fortunate to have these Guides. Their credentials, experience and overall character is top notch. Your kids will love them.

We’ve selected our first offerings based on how best to prepare your children for the future of work! The future of education needs to better prepare the leaders of tomorrow to be great storytellers, writers, strong with numbers, and possess the ability to manage conflict and see many possibilities through tough situations. Emotional, Physical and mental health is a huge priority before academia in our value system. These workshops will help develop all of those skills, all while teaching your kids some of the fundamentals in a hands-on, wild way!

This woman! Tanya makes me a better mom and home educator every time I talk to her. Her patience and conscious way of living and BE-ing is next level.

Courtney is a light! She beams positivity and joy. When we talk, we could talk for hours about nature, life, fun ways to approach education. She will have your kids enjoying the magic of stories and building a desire to read and write.

I met Tiffanie through an outdoor home-school co-op and my-oh-my she has the sweetest kids. Her kindness is obviously contagious. This humble woman never even told me she was like a legit Math teacher. Come to find, she is an incredible wild math and science teacher for other private programs and she has cleared her Thursdays to teach for Behere!

Laura, WOW. That’s what you say after one meeting with her. Her work pioneering her Art program, ConnectedKind is getting global recognition and together, we share the goal to help young minds never lose their genius. Her approach to art isn’t just about pretty images and pictures, it’s truly helping young brains foster entrepreneurial thinking by seeing MANY solutions. We’re all here for that!

Not pictured yet, Karin O’brien! A seasoned outdoor educator, preschool teacher, naturalist and yoga instructor who will be Guiding our Free Family Friday sessions! If it’s related to kids and outdoor learning, Karin has done it!

Matthew and I will not personally be teaching any workshops at this time, we will continue to use our brand and marketing gifts to work and grow the business, while we let our talented Guides enrich your children, and ours. If you want to get to know us, the founders more, we’re always available for chats at drop-off, pick up and during our “Free Family Friday” get-togethers. It is our goal to work on a co-working solution for working parents to be able to stay close by and get some work done, or read a book. When that offering is ready, our early members will get first dibs on a spot.

I am also hosting a “Wild and Free Family” book club starting September 22nd that will flip-flop host locations between Westlake and Camarillo, 2x a month for a total of 6 available sessions. We will repeat the same topics 2x a month, so there are 3 sessions in Westlake, 3 in Camarillo, each covering the same content. But if you want to double up and get in more community time, you can come to all 6.

Email me at Brooke@behere.re to RSVP.

A word on our program pricing…. some say we’re underpriced, some say we’re over. We’re getting a lot of mixed feedback. But compared to a lot of enrichment, homeschool drop-off programs or private school alternatives, we’re VERY competitive. The way our numbers shake out, we’re basically a non-profit. But for this beta stage of our launch, we want to be affordable.

Pricing is all subject to change as we grow, learn, and develop our offerings and listen to YOU, our members. If you want to take part in our programs, but don’t have the budget at this time, please reach out so we can keep you on our list for scholarships when we’re in a position to offer financial aid.

So now is the time! Head on over to our page and REGISTER TODAY to save 10% on early bird pricing. We also offer an affiliate program if you want to make an additional 7% commission on any referrals you send our way.

We’re aiming for approximately 15+ committed students by October so everyone can gain from a more rich, and diverse “student body.” So don’t walk, RUN to the Behere site to register today.

We can’t wait to learn outdoors with you and do even bigger things in 2023.

Cheers!
-Brooke

Brooke Lawler is the CoFounder of Behere - where the future of education meets the future of work.