Big Minds Unschool

In our "Raining Cats and Dogs" class on our Pleasanton campus this week, we took a deep dive into the world of hairless cats! We discovered some surprising facts, like that the first hairless cat was born in 1966 in Canada! One of our students created the digital piece during class, and then took this new knowledge right on over to the art room and created the watercolor!

Join us for our next Community Meet Up! This is a time for 2e families from all over the Bay Area to join together and make important community connections. You don't have to be an official BMU family to join! We enjoy conversation, informal games, and fun over some snacks in the great outdoors.
Register via the link in our bio!
We hope to see you there :)

Would you like to learn more about our Pleasanton Campus?

Join us for an Open House on Saturday, September 7th from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Please register via the Link in our Bio!

Join us for our next Community Meet Up! This is a time for 2e families from all over the Bay Area to join together and make important community connections. You don't have to be an official BMU family to join! We enjoy conversation, informal games, and fun over some snacks in the great outdoors.
Register via the link in our Bio!
We hope to see you there :)

Welcome back Big Minds Unschool students! We are so excited to see you today!

Struggling with Pathological Demand Avoidance with your child? Our model was built to support the PDA profile! If you need support and resources, we highly recommend checking out the Pathological Demand Avoidance North America website. They have so many resources that we have used with our faculty to help you support and come alongside your child in their journey.

Many parents want to know what is the SEL (Social Emotional Learning) curriculum that we build our work with our students on. We utilize CPS strategies every day with our students! Our faculty have been fully trained in these strategies and how to utilize them to support all of our students!

We are so excited to see our Faculty for Development Week! This year, we focus on deep dives into Collaborative and Proactive Solutions and Pathological Demand Avoidance. The works of Dr. Ross Greene and the resources from PDA North America are invaluable to our work with our students!

Strengths-based learning has been the key to Big Minds since day one! The 2024 Stanford Neurodiversity Summit's focus this year is “Putting Strengths-Based Approaches in Action.”
What a great opportunity for the 2e community and the world to learn more about why this is the heart of our model!

https://med.stanford.edu/neurodiversity/SNS24.html

Our first day of school this year is Monday, August 19th! That means there is still time to begin the enrollment process for your child at our Pleasanton and Online campuses!

Explore our website and find out how we meet the needs of Twice Exceptional learners in a self-directed and unique way!
Link in Bio!

*Our Pinole campus currently has a waitlist*

Today is the LAST day for our Online Silent Auction fundraiser! Make sure to get in those bids for unique community-created art pieces, an autographed Gravity Falls poster, wine from Lucid Winery, a design consult from Shepherd Sterling, and much more! Don't miss out and get those bidding battles going!
Link in our Bio!

There are just 2 days left in our Online Silent Auction fundraiser! Make sure to get in those bids for unique community-created art pieces, an autographed Gravity Falls poster, wine from Lucid Winery, a design consult from Shepherd Sterling, and much more!
Link in our Bio!

There are just 3 days left in our Online Silent Auction fundraiser! Make sure to get in those bids for unique community-created art pieces, an autographed Gravity Falls poster, wine from Lucid Winery, a design consult from Shepherd Sterling, and much more!
Link in our Bio!

There are just 4 days left in our Online Silent Auction fundraiser! Make sure to get in those bids for unique community-created art pieces, an autographed Gravity Falls poster, wine from Lucid Winery, a design consult from Shepherd Sterling, and much more!
Link in our Bio!

There are just 5 days left in our Online Silent Auction fundraiser! Make sure to get in those bids for unique community-created art pieces, an autographed Gravity Falls poster, wine from Lucid Winery, a design consult from Shepherd Sterling, and much more!
Link in our Bio!

Happy first day of summer!

We love supporting the 2e and disabled community. This is our first year opening summer camp up to the 2e and disabled community at large, not just our own students! It can be SO hard for families to find fun activities that are neurodivergent affirming during the summer. Help us to be able to continue to do the good work we do!

Link in Bio for tax-deductible ways you can support!

💙

Pleasanton Summer Campers! We are SO excited to see you today!!!!

Tomorrow our in-person Summer Camp starts! Are you in panic mode as maybe what you had planned for your 2e child didn't work out this summer? Check out Young Scholars Academy's online options for this summer.

Use this code to save 15%: YSABIGMINDS15

Interested in becoming one of our 2024-2025 Community Partners? Check out the options via the Link in our Bio!

BE Builders is officially a 2024-2025 Community Partner with Big Minds Unschool! We are so thankful for their support and partnership.
Check them out for any home remodeling needs!

www.bebuilders.net

Summit Center is officially a Community Partner with Big Minds Unschool! We are so thankful for their support and partnership.

Summit Center has been a huge source of support and their neurodivergent affirming care and support are truly one of a kind.

They offer the following services to families:
Educational and Achievement Testing
Neuroeducational and Neuropsychological Evaluations
Child, Parent, and Family Counseling/ Psychotherapy and Consultation
Educational Therapy
Educational Consulting
Parent Education
Parent Discussion Groups and Adult Discussion Groups

Their support is invaluable and we are so thankful for them!

We are so thankful for one of our wonderful 2024-2025 BMU Community Partners, Amy Clark!

Amy is a former BMO parent and has dedicated her life to supporting 2e learners and families. Here is a little bit about Amy!

Her primary focus is providing "A guide by your side" offering for parents on the journey of understanding different models of parenting and educating their complex multi-exceptional kiddos. She believes that learning differences don't just surface in the classroom! She enjoys creating a sense of connection, problem-solving, and a strength-based perspective of these beautiful children that we have. By sharing our lived experience as well as her research/study in the space, Amy provides a unique perspective for parents in times of uncertainty.

In addition, Amy provides education support for families needing new learning options or transitioning into different schools. She also maintains a small number of 1:1 mentoring for 2e individuals (teen/young adult) that focuses on supporting their interests as we build self-awareness, and self-advocacy skills, as they ultimately discover their unique paths to flourishing. These relationships tend to be long-term so she is always careful before bringing on new clients in this way to ensure that she can be there reliably.

All of her work is virtual and she works around the globe!

Welcome to the summer BMU Community!
Grab a good book, get comfy, and REST!
We are very excited to see some of you at Summer Camp!

Graduates, we are so proud of each of you. We hope you live your life as the most authentic you possible!

Please help us to be able to continue to support 2e students in the Bay Area and across the country! Our grads are some of the most amazing humans you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. Help us reach even more amazing individuals!
Link in Bio!

When our students wrap up their time with us, we let them choose how they want to celebrate and say goodbye. This has been everything from thrift shopping with favorite faculty, hiking, laser tag, and a personal feast from all of their favorite restaurants. Celebrations of hard work and commitment don't have to be one size fits all!!

It's the last week of school and the last week with our 8th-grade grads!
We sure are going to miss each of you, but we are SO excited to see the big things you are about to do! Thanks for sharing your gifts with our community!