The Cabin is our community for home educated young people aged 5-11, based in the village of Berden, on the Herts/Essex border. It is open from 10-3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays during term time, and you can choose to attend either one or two days (space permitting). Each person's experience of the day is unique to them, depending on how they choose to use their time. 

Frame for the Day
We have a 'frame for the day', which looks like: the opening meeting, lunch break, tidy up time, and the closing meeting, where we need everyone to be present. The rest of the day is free for people to do as they wish. You can see some pictures of the Cabin here, and a video of our meeting here. 
 
10-10.15am: Arrive and settle in. 
10.15-10.30: Opening meetings 
10-12: Plans for the day, plus access to all of the Cabin resources and free flow into the outside space.
12-12.30pm: Lunch
12-30-2.30: Plans for the day, plus free access to the The Cabin resources and outside area. 
2.30-2.45: Tidy up time
2.45-3pm: Closing meetings and pick up. 

Plans for the Day:
Activities proposed in the closing meetings form the next week's plans, and include a combination of things suggested and organised by young people and facilitators. Throughout the day the children can, if they want, choose to be entirely independent in what they do, and not participate in any of the Plans for the Day - they design their own day. The Cabin will be set up and resourced with the following which can be freely accessed:

Resources:
We are equipped with a range of resources, that have been built up thanks to requests from the community over time. We have a small budget each week to purchase resources that we need, and anyone can request a new resource in the closing meeting.

The resources we currently have include:

The Book Box and Cosy Corner a comfy and cosy corner with books and audio books.
Sewing resources: set up with dressing up and props for those theatrical moments!
Arts and Crafts resources: a project space with writing, art and craft equipment.
Card and Board Games: puzzles, board and card games galore.
Lego: lego and other building kits to turn ideas into reality.
Show and Tell: bring something in from home that you would like to share!
Table Football and Table Tennis: we have both of these available to use inside. 
Outside Things: filled with equipment that you might want to use in the outside, including balls, badminton, flags for Capture the Flag, skates and scooters, football, campfire pit. 
The Kitchen: We have a fully equipped kitchen
The Garden: We free flow into a big garden area, with an oak tree for hammocks and climbing, a roly poly hill and lots of space for playing and growing. 

Offsite Trips
The Cabin is based in the village of Berden. By walking down to the village we can go to a meadow, a small area of woodland, the church, and the playground. Offsite trips can be added to the Plans for the Day by members of the community.

To enquire about a place at the Cabin, please email us at: hello@downatthecabin.com