Your children were born curious.
School is making them forget that.
Freedom Thinkers is a homeschool, mixed-age micro school in Oviedo/East Orlando FL where K–12 learners work at their own pace, four days a week. Opening August 2026.
What’s a homeschool micro school?
It's a small learning community(35 kids per workshop, more on that later) that works as a homeschool hybrid.
You're the official homeschool parent, and we handle the Mon - Thurs daily learning environment.
We see it too.
They started kindergarten excited about everything. Somewhere along the way, school became something to endure, not explore.
Bored & Unchallenged
Bright kids slow down to wait for everyone else. Curiosity dies.
Lost in a Crowd
No teacher has time for 30 kids. Your child's needs get missed.
You need to go back to work, but you're not ready to give up on a better education for your children.
Tried Homeschooling
Photograph courtesy of Jerry Ghionis
Hi! I’m Isabel Sam.
My mother's family escaped socialism when she was a child, and my husband fled it at 11 to avoid a military draft for 12-year-olds. Those experiences gave our family a bone-deep appreciation for freedom, critical thinking, and strong community; and they quietly shaped everything about how I believe children could be educated.
I spent 13 years homeschooling my own children, and my background in science taught me something important: the best learning happens when children are free to ask real questions, test ideas, and discover that hard things are worth doing. I've seen what works and what doesn't and I built Freedom Thinkers around what actually works.
What if education had a better path?
That was full of deep friendships, love of learning, critical thinking, mentorships, and outcomes that guarantee your children will be flexibly ready for whatever the future holds?
Every child has a story to live. Here’s how we help them write it.
In our “Hero’s Journey” terms, your child is the hero. We’re the mentor. Each Quest is a chapter in their story.
Seen. Not Sorted.
A mentor meets them where they are, not where a grade level says they should be. In our mixed ages workshops, your child's strengths and gaps shape a personal learning path built around our mastery based badge system, while the kids around them (younger and older) become part of how they grow.
Learn more about each workshop here.
They Begin Their Quest
Each 5–6 week long Quest is a real world project that mixes subjects together. For example, building a business, solving a local problem, or exploring history through simulation. Core academics run alongside, at their pace.
Learn more about Quests here.
Obstacles aren't failures, they're the story. Mentors guide children & teens through Socratic Circles, conflict resolution, and real decisions. This is how resilience is actually built.
They face hard things (on purpose)
At the end of every Quest, learners present to the whole micro school (parents included). This is where confidence is born. Real work. Real audience. Real pride.
Present Their Work to the Village
Badges earned. Skills mastered. A new Quest begins. Each year, the challenges grow with them, until they graduate as a young adult who knows how to learn anything.
They Level Up & Go Again
Transform Learning Through Adventure
Our mission is to help raise a joyful generation of doers who will turn into our leaders, innovators, and world changers.
Plus…Bilingualism Encouraged
With our quickly changing world, relational skills & communication in multiple languages will be highly valued.
We’ll be encouraging Spanish mastery via stories, immersion, and play with younger children. With teens, we’ll use cognates and immersion to encourage Spanish mastery.
If your children also want to tackle another language, we’ll have tools set up to support them on that journey!
“Our role as adults is not to force them to follow the track we’ve laid out for them; it’s to help them develop the skills to figure out the track that’s right for them.”
- William Stixrud & Ned Johnson
What a Day at Freedom Thinkers Looks Like
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Morning
9am
Drop off begins at 8:45 and we’ll start our morning meeting at 9am. Everyone works on core work (Math, English, and Science) at their own pace and level, with frequent breaks. -
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Midday
Lunch
Kinders go home and everyone else has lunch together, cleans up together, and has time to play. -
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Early Afternoon
Socratic Circle
For smaller children this might look like “Is a pie or a cake a better treat?” for older teens they’ll tackle harder questions like “Was Abraham Lincoln a true civil war hero?”. No matter their age, they’ll be expected to respectfully defend their side and work together to come up with a conclusion. -
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Later Afternoon
Quest Work
Project Based Learning, real life skills, mixed ages, and collaborative learning that’s on a rolling six week timeline! We can’t wait to see the final version at the Quest Presentations! -
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Go Home
We’ll clean up from the day, together, at 3:15 and head home at 3:30! Fridays are off so you can schedule family field trips together.
We don't just talk about community. We're built on it.
The word "village" isn't a metaphor here, it's the actual structure of how we learn, care for each other, handle conflict, and grow. Children of different ages share space and skills. Parents are partners, not empty faces in a car line. Mentors guide rather than lecture. This is how humans raised children for thousands of years. And it works, while smashing the loneliness crisis.
We ask every family to read these three books.
Not as homework, as a shared language. When our families understand the same ideas, the whole community gets stronger. These books shape how we think about children, working together, freedom, and what education is really for.
Describing in fantastically fun detail how people who still live in tribes & villages work together on key principles while raising and educating their children using tried and true methods that have worked for thousands of years. This book is foundational to our school’s culture.
It’s also available as an audio book and in Spanish.
A great overall view of how awesome families can be when they work together. A researcher applies the science of high performing agile teams to family life. The practical rituals for strong, resilient family cultures that complement what we do here.
(We’ll not address the sex ed chapter in our micro school.)
Also available as an audio book.
This book is a look back at a portion of how our founding fathers were taught. Our Hero’s Journey craves complexity plus meaning in life. This book is great at inspiring adults & teens to enjoy the journey that is life while finding ways to critically think freely about what is going on in the world around them and who they want to be!
Families who've read even one of these above books have a much richer first conversation with us.
More Recommended Resources
Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity”
We help kids thrive in community adventures.
We are dedicated to guiding your children on an adventurous path to self-discovery and meaningful learning.
Let’s adventure together
Interested in our micro school and want more information? Fill out this form below and we’ll be in touch very soon!