Dream Homes

A dream house is a home for dreams. - Wilder 

​After constructing a guest house for Shelly’s visitors, children continued to express interest in home design. 
Ideas began to subtly shift from practical home furnishings and necessities to imaginative concepts and idea sharing.

The idea of imagining our "dream houses" emerged during whole group conversations about where this interest in constructing a home might take us. 

​What is a dream house?
Like what you dream of being your house. You can put anything in. - Remy
We can make our dreams come true. - Finlay
So we can look at them for real life. - Luke
We use our imagination. You think in your imagination. - Hugh
And use your mind. - Jade
(and) your brain. - Frannie 

What would you include in your dream home?
Remy: A bounce room. 
Finlay: A candy store with a pikachu made out of gummy bears. 
Wilder: I would have a parrot in my house. 
Luke: I would have a pet owl.
Frannie: I would have a unicorn pet and she would sleep in her own bed that's bouncy and has fur and there’s a little slide to go down. 
Jade: (I would have) a snake. With a bed that's bouncy. 
Michael: I have a bed in my house. And stairs. And a slide. 
Wilder: To get into my house there would be a slide and a tunnel and a pet parrot. The house would be painted green to blend in (with surroundings). 
Lily: I want a caterpillar pet and a chocolate milk fountain in the kitchen. 
Luke: A dreamer. To see my dreams. 

Particularly this school year, children have developed an understanding of the importance of brainstorming, discussion, and planning before diving into project work.  

​When there is a collective interest among the group, we also read lots of literature connected to the interest that we share together. These books often provide inspiration and influence the projection of the work.

Here are a few of the examples of books that we currently have around the classroom and have supported our research so far.  

When reading Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty we talked about the important role of an architect when planning the construction of a home.

What is an architect and what do they do?
Capers: A kind of construction man. A builder. Drawing his design. 
Wilder: Someone who paints. 
​What is a design?
Saul: He draws what he wants to build. 
Hugh: Drawing the thing that he wants to build so he knows how to build. 
Cape: To make directions. 
Finlay: Step by step by step by step.
Luke: Like a map to build. 
Lily: Like drawing a model. 

Drafting a design of our intended creation can be very helpful and often necessary. As Capers described, it helps give "directions" and is an important step in the planning process. 

​The idea of a "blueprint" has also been introduced during our research process.
Jack and his mom shared their own blueprints for the renovations that will be taking place soon at their "Hana House" in Hawaii. 

First drafts of children's original dream home ideas:

Shifting from an individual approach,
​to a desire to collaborate

After sharing some of their original drafts and ideas with one another, it was observed that many children shared similar interests for their dream homes. Some children then began expressing an interest in collaborating with one another when moving forward with their work.

In addition to sharing similar ideas and preferences about their homes, it was also communicated that designing a house on your own is quite difficult!

If you have to draw something you want it's hard! - Hugh
If you have a dream that is so good, but it's impossible to build. - Wilder

Perhaps this is one of the main reasons why collaborating, combining our ideas, and working together on this project was so appealing to many. 

You can work together. - Hugh
And finish it faster. - Cate
How about we work together? I help Cate and she helps me. - Luke
Since it's your dream, it (the house) can have 100 rooms for 100 people. - Hugh

We can connect! - Luke
Let's connect all of our own houses together. - Remy 

Like the connected barn!
(Wilder references a type of home in a book we read together while researching different home designs)
And then we can just walk, walk, walk, to our playdates. Hugh, do you want to make a connected house?
​If everyone wants to make the same thing, but they are all connected, so someone can work on one thing and someone else works on a different part! - Wilder 

This week, we have fully embraced this idea of connection and working together.
We are beginning to divide the work into small group team projects based on our shared interests and home design preferences. 
We will continue to keep you updated on this exciting project moving forward!

For now, here is a brief summary of the work so far according to Wilder, Frannie, and Lucas: 

We're building a dream house. We're connecting all of our dream houses together.  The connected house. We're making a connected house and it was my idea and we found it in a book that said houses here are so big and connected. - Wilder

We made rooms, like the flying room and the bouncy room. And there's other kinds of rooms and I don't remember them. Then we're gonna build the rooms. We can use blocks. - Frannie

We made the drafts to see what ones we like to make the dream house. ​Me and Hugh and Lucas and Jade and Michael are working on a race car track for the connected house. - Wilder

First we drawed the drafts of our houses to make the dream house, now we are making the model of the race car track to get people to stops. So it has a lot of race cars connected so it can be super fast. Then we're gonna build the whole house and I wanna help make that video game room. That's my favorite. - Lucas
​

WORK IN PROGRESS
Constructing a model of the race car train track that will help transport everyone throughout the connected house.

construction progress day 1

construction progress day 1

construction progress day 2

If you'd like to get involved in supporting this work moving forward, please refer to yesterday's email sent out to all families titled "Dream House Project Work". 
Thank you to everyone. We truly appreciate your collaboration!