Worldschool Old School, 2025
A program tailored specifically for homeschooling families with parents that work remotely. Our program is essentially turning the hidden village of San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala, into a school campus. Go back in time and rediscover lost arts and craftsmanship with your children. Give your child the chance to unplug and apprentice in shoemaking, baking by woodfire, weaving, sewing, farming, welding, etiquette and more. As an immersive program, we offer the opportunity for your child to come with no Spanish and leave fluent.
We care about and love our local neighbors: cultural awareness, community service, and building mutually beneficial, long-term local friendships is the cornerstone of our vision.
PROGRAM DATES: September 1st - Nov 27th, 2025
7 Spots Available
What is included:
Delicious breakfasts every morning: Oatmeal, fresh cut fruit, waffles, boiled eggs, coffee, bread.
A beautiful common outdoor covered kitchen to use with plenty of your own fridge space.
East facing lakeview rooms overlooking Atitlan
Biweekly boat tours to different villages
2 Weekly Spanish Lessons with local tutor
English speaking host and leader that will be available to the group for the duration of your stay.
"Family Pairing" with a local family with children of similar ages to yours.
Shuttles to and from Airport
Arts and crafts room stocked with supplies, Lego, games, books and scheduled childcare with daily activities.
"Old School" age appropriate apprenticeships
Guided biweekly tried and tested sustainable community service activities.
1 Monthly guided hike or tour: coffee demonstrations, cacao, hikes to hidden viewpoints, volcanoes, trails.
Bottomless fresh Guatemalan coffee every day.
What is not included:
Flights
Personal Travel Insurance (Required)
Gratuity for guides/hotel staff
Lunches and Suppers
Minimum Stay: 1 Month
Weekly Schedule
Monday
Day of Language
6am
Sun is up, coffee is on.
8am
Breakfast
9am
Morning walk and talk to burn some energy before school work
9:30am
Personal curriculum. Mornings are booked off for families to work privately or in groups on their homeschool curriculum.
1 Hour Spanish tutoring with local teacher.
12-1pm
Lunch hours
1-2pm
Arts and craft room open for children to have a guided creative hour with paints, beads, scrapbooking and journaling.
3pm
Spoken Spanish, local friends and conversation centered around games and drawing.
Tuesday
Day of Craftsmanship
6am
Sun is up, coffee is on.
8am
Breakfast
9am
Morning walk and talk to burn some energy before school work
9:30am
Personal curriculum. Mornings are booked off for families to work privately or in groups on their homeschool curriculum.
11am-1pm
Lunch hours
1-2pm
Arts and craft room open for children to have a guided creative hour with paints, beads, scrapbooking and journaling.
2pm
One hour recess: read, jacuzzi dip, play in the playhouse, go for a walk.
3pm
2 hours with chosen craft: Baking, cooking, shoemaking, farming, weaving, welding or sewing.
Wednesday
Phys-ed Day
6am
Sun is up, coffee is on.
8am
Breakfast
9am
Morning walk and talk to burn some energy before school work
9:30am
Weekly guided market trip for kids to find, barter, buy needed fruits and veg used for breakfasts (Spanish Immersion)
10am
Personal curriculum. Mornings are booked off for families to work privately or in groups on their homeschool curriculum.
11am-1pm
Lunch hours
1-2pm
Arts and craft room open for children to have a guided creative hour with paints, beads, scrapbooking and journaling. (Parents free time)
2pm
One hour recess: read, jacuzzi dip, play in the playhouse, go for a walk.
3pm
1.5 Hours of physical exercise:
Options
Kayaking - Trail Hiking - Gym - Yoga
Thursday
Craftsmanship Day
6am
Sun is up, coffee is on.
8am
Breakfast
9am
Morning walk and talk to burn some energy before school work
9:30am
Personal curriculum. Mornings are booked off for families to work privately or in groups on their homeschool curriculum.
11am-1pm
Lunch hours
1-2pm
Arts and craft room open for children to have a guided creative hour with paints, beads, scrapbooking and journaling.
2pm
One hour recess: read, jacuzzi dip, play in the playhouse, go for a walk.
3pm
2 hours with chosen craft: Baking, cooking, shoemaking, farming, weaving, welding or sewing.
Friday
Day of Language and Etiquette
6am
Sun is up, coffee is on.
8am
Breakfast
9am
Morning walk and talk to burn some energy before school work
9:30am
Personal curriculum. Mornings are booked off for families to work privately or in groups on their homeschool curriculum.
11am-1pm
Lunch hours
1-2pm
"Ladies and Gentlemen" Etiquette class
3pm
Spanish Immersion Play! Meet up with your local "paired family" for kids to practice their spoken Spanish and get to know about the local Guatemalan culture and way of life.
Saturday
Day of rest 1
8:30am
Breakfast
9am
Scheduled room cleans and in-room massages for parents ($16 for 35 minutes)
*Biweekly boat tours
Sunday
Day of rest 2
8:30am
Breakfast
9am
Scheduled room cleans and in-room massages for parents ($16 for 35 minutes)
*Monthly Hike
*Biweekly community service activity
Where you'll be staying while in San Juan, La Laguna, Guatemala:
The rooms offered in this package boast two double beds and a beautiful east facing view so you enjoy the daily sun rising during your time at Lake Atitlan.
Beautiful views, local decor.
Double Bedroom Monthly Rate (all in)
4 Person Max
$3400.00
Bungalow suite with private kitchen, deck, 3 double beds
6 person Max
$4400.00
Want to save?
Private rooms with 3 double beds and shared bathroom
(2 bedrooms share 2 common bathrooms on the main floor)
5 person Max
$2800.00
All prices in USD
Affordable and practical education by design.
Experience a trial run of community living during your stay. We encourage scheduled potluck community dinners, campfires in the garden and reading circles in our shared spaces. Daily space is given to the parents for an hour after every lunch during our supervised arts and craft time in the crafts room. Boardgames, Lego, cards and toys are also available! Starlink Wifi is here to stay for all you digital nomads and we offer private workspaces for those of you that video call regularly.
Program suitable for children 5 and up
Want to see more? Here's our promo video that showcases some of our activities, area and accommodations.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Join us for an incredible one to three month stay of work hard - play hard fun! We are so proud to offer this experience! Once registered, you will be invited to the Old School WhatsApp group party-line where registered guests are posting ideas, preparation tips and general info.
Lake Atitlan remains extremely traditional and conservative in nature. Please remember that we are guests and as such we should dress and behave respectfully towards our hosts. Please dress modestly during your time here.
Bringing some small gifts is 100% recommended to give to some of the families we support that we will be pairing you with from our community. (Quality socks, non-lingual games (like UNO, a quality deck of playing cards, Blockus), children's art supplies, toys or a quality kitchen utensil/gadget.)
As our name Culture Chalk implies, we specialize in Cultural Education. We truly want you to experience the best of Guatemalan culture while representing your own culture with class, sensitivity and objectivity. And trust us, we know it's not always easy when experiencing new things, as good as they may be, they are still different and different can be challenging. We encourage visitors to come with an attitude of loving Guatemala for what it is and not judging it for what it is not.
Guatemala is a vibrant place and roosters crowing, dogs barking, music playing and fireworks being set off at all times of the day is considered normal. Come ready to laugh, dance, sing, and see yourself in a brand new light.
Also... Please bring earplugs if you are a light sleeper! ;)
Our goal as your hosts is for you to leave our place BETTER, in so many ways.
Cultural Immersion Retreats