About us

“Nature Is Our Teacher”

Real life experience – the best way to learn

Animalia Learning Center is an alternative to mainstream/public and other schooling environments. Nature – beautiful, diverse, eternal and magical Nature – is our classroom. Nature is our inner birthright, our unique selves, the source of all life, and each being is a uniqque and different part – and simultaniously interconnected to all the other parts – of the whole. Nature is our relationships with ourselves, to one another, and to everything / every being. We are learner centred: we teach the person, not the subject. More so, we are nature directed. The rest follows, and learning comes from real life experience, and as a remembering…

What is Nature’s Way?

The *book below is a simple show and tell about Natural Law, otherwise known as Nature’s Way, Universal Principles, or in short, Nature Is Our Teacher – ways of being that the natural world we are part of, function. We are nature. Simplicity and embracing our own true and unique natures, is natural. What is controlling and forcing another man made way is not natural and inevitably leads us to environmental, political, psychological and societal chaos on all levels. (See BLOG 9 at bottom of page for more about Natural Law)

*Click on the image below for a children’s book reading on Natural Law.

Who are we?

Animalia Learning Center grew out of the need for an alternative to the mainstream, cookie cutter, same size fits all, industrial age education models still operating as schools. We need change. And clearly reinventing the (buckled) wheel won’t suffice. So, for the last 7 years we have been, and still are, cocreating something completely different, yet completely Natural. We are totally off-grid, independent, and sovereign.

The full time facilitator and co-founder of Animalia Learning Center (aka Organic Mechanic) Niko is a qualified and multi-disciplinary and experienced artist, writer, musician, educator (SACE registered) and naturalist farmer cum wild food forager. A Nature Warrior. For 35 plus years he worked in preschools both private and government, primary schools same, high schools same including correctional services, tertiary, corporate, media, government, etc. Frustrated with these environments’ not being conducive to actual learning – learning as in the freedom to engage with, in body, mind and soul, information and experiences that are novel, stimulating, relevant, inspiring, real life changing, fun, and natural – he co-founded Animalia Learning Center.

What is an Animaliac?

Animaliacs (any one/being participating in Animalia Learning Center’s activities) are a diverse, intimate, select and adventurous group of free thinking individuals whether human, insect, plant, rock, bird, chicken, lizard, duck, fungi, bacteria, viruses, parasites, minerals, air, soil, fire, water, etc. – colourful, eccentric and unique organic humans, all ages (our parents included!) and sizes and abilities – having fun learning and making learning fun. We are part of Nature. We ARE Nature. We are MORE than human – we are microbiota, more inter-being than human being! Our very survival is intricately interconnected to, and directly reliant on, our relationship with Nature, be it our own, each others’, and everything else under the sun – the sun included.

We are a unique and very specifically Human animal, not separate from Nature, but also distinguished by our very higher order functions, capable of conscious and deliberate reason, intention, imagination, and most importantly Morality/Spirituality. We have the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong behaviour – albeit most of have forgotton these ancient wisdom teachings! Us humans can dive deep into our own beings, connect with our true inner nature, align with the Source of Nature i.e. The Creator, and in accordance with the very real indisputable never changing Laws of Creation aka Natural Law/God’s Law/Karma/Universal Law, think, feel and act morally and radically self responsible, and be warriors of Good in this world.

We have the Free Will to Do No Harm yet Stand Our Ground To Protect Ourselves should others act immorally to us. Or we may freely choose contrary to Natural Law. Each choice has consequences, what we sow we reap, either way. Good, or bad. Each, in our own individual and unique way, can action Good from the very heart core of our true natures connected to Source energy, the Creator of creation, the seed of All That Is – Love. Actioned as Care, and expressed as Freedom. With the ensuing Responsibility.

Teaching Methodology

We have space for learners between ages 5 and older, maximum 30 full-time and part-time kids, averaging 5 to 8 kids per facilitator. Our daily dose of freestyle experiential learning has a natural rythm – see Weekly Programme on HOME page.

Experiential learning, positive and happy and self paced learning, back to basics barefoot bare soles and souls, open hearts and the freedom to explore life in all its splendid variety and diversity, naturally, gave birth to Animalia Learning Center in 2017.
Nature is our teacher, and as Einstein said, we don’t teach but instead create and environment that is conducive to learning. We learn to walk our talk by living in harmony with nature as our primary source of health, wealth, playground, classroom, present, past and future home and life sustaining force, our creative source and solice, our everything. And by collaborating with others to cocreate the world we want to see.

Animaliacs are free to choose their areas of learning, academics, projects etc by following their hearts. Our main focus is natural agriculture such as permaculture and food foresting, organic and wild food foraging, and empathic and natural animal husbandry.

Entrepreneurship is a major part of our learning which ranges from motor car mechanics and wild food cullinary skills to building engineering, art and design, environmental stewardship, social and community outreach and action, farming, animal husbandy, self reliance and sustainability, and mentorship, alternative economics, etc.

Online, offline, self directed, registered programmes or independent content, everyone learns to become their own leader and their own servant and to manage their own learning experience as we go.

We learn from and about Nature/life in a non-adversarial environment, encouraging cooperation, and embracing free choice with radical self-responsibility . Also see local YouTube channel with Niko and colleague Peta called Radical Self Responsibility.

We work with our selves, and our learners, children, and each other, teaching Right from Wrong.

We do not mollycoddle or pamper, but with love, care and compassion we encourage resilience, self confidence and self respect – rough play and tough love. Independent thinking, radical self responsibility on all levels, truth telling, heart centred self and fellow relationship. To question authority that’s man made and not Naturally aligned with Creation/God/Nature etc. We have to embody the change we want to see in this world by plugging in to Higher power as in the Source of everything. We have to man up and woman up to stand up for what is Right over Wrong behaviour, Truth and Love based freedom over False and Fear based control. 

Curriculum

Our academic offering is first and foremost Self Directed and life skills based.

Click on this 13 minute YouTube presentation for a short and sweet of most of the content we experientially learn and demonstrate.

And this is a more or less idea of our daily rythm:

In addition to our Self-Directed Learning content, parents and learners are free to choose the online or offline curriculum best suited to the child’s needs, interests and goals such as GED Online (US curriculum), Cambridge (UK), Caps (SA) and others.

We use accredited service providers for online learning curricula if formal academics is your choice, and we advise from experience. GED Online for the US syllabus ages 17 upwards doing matric is the simplist way to go, and Pre-GED for ages 10-16 we recommend. There are also free options like Khan Academy, and others. Chat to us about what’s best for your unique child/ren and their interests. Fees for these outsourced service providers are between the providers and parents. Learners bring their own laptop, tablet or I-pad. Uncapped, superfast internet is included in the energy exchange/donations/contributions mutually agreed to. PLEASE GO TO OUR Contact us PAGE FOR DETAILS ABOUT Donations//Contributions AND DIFFERENT CHOICES AND TAYLOR MAKING A LEARNING EXPERIENCE THAT SUITS YOU AND YOUR CHILD/REN.

Children who do not wish to enroll with any of these online programs, such as unschoolers or those working with alternate programmes, bring additional materials from home or research their passions here, and we provide extentions based on our current activities and their interests. This could include learning materials or projects of their own making, games or books.

We focus mainly on morality – Natural Law – in our umbrella life skills learning aproach. Numeracy and literacy is built into everything as well. Creativity (music, visual and dramatic arts), imaginative play, games, nature immersion, conservation, self-reliance, eco-farming and animal husbandy are more of the parts that make up the whole. Relationships are crucial, so everything we do here is part of the learning process – life coaching in action. Part and parcel of our experimentation with more natural ways of being and doing, is exploring alternative economies – for example Charles Eisenstein’s Sacred Econimics, a short version, and do more research for yourselves :-). We do not charge fees but instead operate on voluntaryism – parents agree to donate or contribute energy in the form of time, fiat currency preferably cash, skills, etc. See Contact US page…

There are many informal learning programmes and materials that can work with this Natural approach, such as Fun-Schooling with their range of context appropriate books. We also create our own learning materials as we go, using experiential learning with note taking as our way to cover numeracy and literacy on the move, naturally.

CHILD CENTRED LEARNING

Animalia Learning Center operates as a Voluntary Cooperative : The children participate in making the rules for the center. They learn that free will, free choice, has responsibility. Actions have consequences, and ownership of both is cardinal. The main emphasis is on self love and self ownership, doing no harm, and love all of nature including others as if that is ourselves, i.e. living and acting in harmony with Nature – our own true nature, and Nature.

This is also a highly recommended source for free thinking educational materials and inspiring information for cocreating new and novel learning environments and actual actionable ways of getting it done: Education Options

Also see our blog explaining the concept and practical side of Unschooling, and listen to the chat below for another perspective on our learning and teaching methodology:

For daily updates of our activities and weekly programme, see our Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as our YouTube channel – LIKE, FOLLOW and SUBSCRIBE.

GLOBAL COMMUNITY

There are many versions of our learning environment all over the world, and we have had families and individuals from those contexts visiting us for short or longer periods over the years, cross polinating and sharing and learning with us. Some examples are Alliance For Self-Directed Education and Nature Schools. We also have a special connection with https://peumal.org/ in Chile, investigating exchange programmes etc going forward.

PLEASE GO TO OUR Fees & Contact us PAGE FOR DETAILS ABOUT FEES AND DIFFERENT CHOICES AND TAYLOR MAKING A LEARNING EXPERIENCE THAT SUITS YOU AND YOUR CHILD/REN.

WhatsApp Niko at 083 274 3297 for any more info and come visit us to see and feel for yourselves and chat about life, learning and cocreating a better – even courageously a NEW – world for ourselves, our loved ones, our community/ies, our country, and yes our entire world!

Thank you for considering to join us on this brave and courageous journey. We are at the forefront of rebooting education, on the edge of (r)evolutionising what education yearns to be – for ourselves, our more than human kin in the natural world, for our future generations and life on this beautiful planet.