KITE'S NEST DAYTIME PROGRAM

Kite's Nest's Daytime Program provides a rigorous, creative, project-based, and wide-ranging curriculum for students ages 8 - 14, four days a week, from 9:30am - 3:00pm. Students may register for individual courses (a la carte), or students may enroll in the Full Week Program and receive additional support making specific connections to homeschooling requirements and teacher-advisorship during the semester. Over the course of the year, daytime courses cover themes in social studies, history, writing, literacy, foreign language, math, engineering, geology, ecology, and community service. The year is organized into two semesters: Fall Semester (September - December), and Winter/Spring Semester (February - June). Please contact us with any questions! We love getting to learn about families and students in advance and are happy to talk on the phone or meet in person. 

Full-year Program Details:

4 days/week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 9:30am - 3:00pm
Ages 8 - 14.

Dates:

Fall 2017 Semester: September 18 - December 17 (13 weeks)
Winter/Spring 2018 Semester: January 29 - June 3 (15 weeks)
Stay tuned: We'll be hosting a meet-up and Q&A for families interested in homeschooling in August. 

Pricing:

Each program has a per-course fee if you are registering for individual courses. Our Full Week Program tuition includes all four daytime courses. The four-day a week program will enable students and families to use Kite's Nest as a substantial social and academic support to their homeschooling endeavors. Sliding-scale tuition assistance is available for families who qualify. Payment plans are available to all. Contact us for an application.
Year-long Full Week Program tuition: $7,000
Fall semester Full Week Program tuition: $3,150
Winter/Spring semester Full Week Program semester tuition: $4,000
Students may register for individual classes. Fees for each class listed below.

Fall 2017 classes, at a glance:

Winter/Spring 2018 classes, at a glance: 

(Schedule TBD)

• Biomimicry & Baby Dragons. An exploration of biology and natural systems to design sustainable solutions for the future.
• Math for Explorers. Math as a language for understanding the natural world.
• Last Picture Show. What can we learn about American society, and ourselves, from film?
• Myth! Discovering and interpreting mythologies from around the world.
• Mobile Classroom: Service in Action. Getting out of the classroom and into the community.

Class Descriptions: Fall 2017

GIVE ME SHELTER

Histories, cultures, and practices of shelter-building.

Mondays, 9:30am - 3pm.
September 18 - October 30: 6 classes. No class will be held on Monday, October 9.
Class fee: $415 | Sliding-scale tuition is available for families who qualify. Payment plans are available to all.

In this class we’ll design and build shelters, thinking about location, natural materials, design, use, and the meaning and purpose of buildings. We’ll gain inspiration and technique for our constructions through research: we’ll learn from different shelter-building practices and cultures around the globe, and from some of the experts, architects, engineers and artists in our community. We’ll look at the animals around us and at the homes they build, learning from animal architecture and construction, from ant holes and termite mounds to beaver dams and spider webs. We’ll think about what kinds of constructions make the most sense for our own local ecologies and contexts, learn to think about structural strength, and develop the tools and skills to bring our own designs to life. And we’ll think about the meaning of shelter in our own lives: creating spaces for safety, for refuge and sanctuary, for hiding and for gathering.

CHECKMATE! ANALOG GAME DESIGN

What does it take to design our own games? Exploring the mechanics, logic, and strategy of play.

Mondays, 9:30am - 3pm.
November 6 - December 11: 6 classes.
Class fee: $415 | Sliding-scale tuition is available for families who qualify. Payment plans are available to all.

This class is an introduction to game design, weaving together math and probability, user-centered design, strategy and play. We’ll use our love of games to dive into the complex world of game design, asking: How do our favorite games work? What does it take to design our own games? Can games help us to understand the real-life systems around us? Can we use play for political resistance and building power? Analog or tabletop games -- like board, dice, and card games, parlor games, street games, and roleplaying games -- are a good place to start in the study of game design, because their systems and design are exposed, not hidden in code. Together we’ll dive into the world of analog game mechanics, learning about logic, rules, narrative development, player experience, algorithms, randomness, luck and strategy. Students will then design their own game prototypes, to share with the community in our first-ever Kite’s Nest game fair!

SCI FI NOTEBOOK

A book club and creative writing workshop to re-imagine the world.

Tuesdays, 9:30am - 3pm.
September 19 - December 12: 13 classes.
Class fee: $880 | Sliding-scale tuition is available for families who qualify. Payment plans are available to all.

In this class, we’ll engage with science fiction, fantasy, visionary, utopian and dystopian literature to imagine alternative futures, battle our fears, and examine the questions we have about human nature, changing technologies, and politics. One part Book Club and one part Creative Writing Workshop, we’ll read the work of inspiring visionary authors, and develop our own writing skills. In our weekly book club students will learn to read like writers, searching for clues about craft, composition, style and form. We’ll think about how authors create feelings, characters, and plots, connect fictional worlds to the real world, and tell engaging stories. We’ll ask: how do these authors imagine the future, and how does their writing shine light on the world as it is today? In our weekly creative writing workshop we’ll spend time writing, sharing our ideas, workshopping each other’s writing, and revising our work. Our weekly writing prompts might include scenarios of time travel, alternate dimensions, shape-shifting and metamorphosis, gender roles, telepathy, mind control, galactic government, utopias, anarchy, and nanotechnology. We’ll use our writing to think about the concepts of good and evil, human and animal, past and future, and possibility/impossibility. We’ll use the fantastical to exercise our imaginations, and to critique and look beyond the world we know. This class will be a space for exciting, challenging, rich, philosophical, literacy-building conversations, connections, and expression.

TALKING EARTH: ECOLOGY, WATERSHEDS + METAMORPHIC FOLDS

Geological investigations, ecological experiments, and in-the-field research.

Thursdays, 9:30am - 3pm.
September 21 - December 14: 12 classes. No class will be held on Thursday, November 23rd.
Class fee: $825 | Sliding-scale tuition is available for families who qualify. Payment plans are available to all.

In this outdoor ecology class, we'll explore our environment through the lenses of scientists and naturalists. We’ll discover the deep geological history of the Hudson Valley, and head out to see different geological formations. To investigate the world around us we'll learn about watersheds, discover our ecological addresses, and make a 3D model of our own watershed in Hudson. We’ll conduct an elevation study in the Catskills, learning to take data as we hike. We'll use the scientific method to design and carry out their own experiments, and learn to use computer programming to create ecological models. While we're outside we'll also gain skills in wild edible identification and foraging, mushroom hunting, sustainable harvest ethics, and bioremediation. And we'll see how writers and artists have been inspired by the nature around us, from the painters of the Hudson River school to contemporary artists working in the Hudson Valley. With the tools and methods of geologists and ecologists, we'll ask questions not only about the ecosystems around us, but also about ourselves, like: Are we part of or separate from nature?

LANGUAGE & RESILIENCE

Exploring different languages through field trips and community-building.

Fridays, 9:30am - 3pm.
 September 22 - December 15: 12 classes. No class will be held on Friday, November 24th.
Class fee: $825 | Sliding-scale tuition is available for families who qualify. Payment plans are available to all.

How do we build community with our neighbors when we don’t speak the same language? How can we use our privilege as English-speaking citizens to support our non-English speaking neighbors? How does cross-cultural exchange create deeper empathy and more resilient communities? Why does language shape our identities and the way we perceive the world?  Learning a second language isn’t just good for your brain, it’s good for democracy. We live in narrow-minded times, in which insularity and nationalism are pervasive in public discourse. One way to take political action is to devote time to learning new languages. In this class, instead of diving into a single language, each week we’ll learn about a language spoken in our area. With an emphasis on community-building, students will be introduced to different languages around social activities and field trips, like: participating in group sports, taking home-cooking lessons, working together on a community project, assisting with translation services, and participating in cultural celebrations. Through these trips and activities, students will be introduced to some of the cultures, communities, grammars, struggles, and resilience of Spanish, Bengali, Arabic, Creole, French, sign language, and others. Together we’ll consider questions about technology and translation, verbal and nonverbal communication, and language and political activism, in our community and beyond.

INTERESTED? HERE'S WHAT TO DO:

Our programs fill up very quickly, so please get in touch right away to enroll. 

If your child has already participated in a Kite's Nest class, please email hello@kitesnest.org or call 518-945-8445 to enroll.

If your child is new to Kite's Nest:

1. Fill out this form, email hello@kitesnest.org, or call 518-945-8445
2.  We'll contact you shortly with registration forms, and answer any questions you may have.

Sliding-scale tuition assistance is available for families who qualify. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.