The Founders
Karina Smith and Danny Guarino began creating Jardin Urbain LC when their oldest daughter was six years old and they were searching for a way to continue her learning without school.
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Karina holds an MA in education and has worked for 15 years as an educator, administrator, and manager in Canada and overseas. Danny completed a degree in Culinary Arts after his BSc in Food Science, and worked as a cook in Europe, Australia and here in Montreal.
They are also the directors of Garderie le Jardin Urbain, a daycare they founded in 2013 that advocates kindness and simplicity via small ratios and time spent outdoors in the garden.
Karina and Danny have been unschooling their three daughters since 2019.
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The Staff
The role of the adults at the LC is to guide and support the children in their global development, expose them to innovation, nourish their innate curiosity, orient them towards necessary resources, discuss methodology with them, review their knowledge, and follow their academic and social progress.
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They work in close collaboration with the parents and communicate regularly via our online platform. This mutually beneficial relationship fosters within the children a desire to invest time and energy into their own educational path. They understand that they are well surrounded, and that they have the power to act, take risks, and change things.
The Parents
In a homeschooling or unschooling family, parents are the people responsible for overseeing their children’s education. Their role is to create and put in place a learning project with their children, and to follow their progress carefully in order to ensure a healthy and balanced development according to their family values. Jardin Urbain LC offers activities that can be part of the learning project elaborated by the family.