One of the most common questions we hear is…”we love this place! What about education? Are there any good schools?” What do you guys do about education?

When we purchased land here many moons ago our son was just born. We fell in love with Samara after spending many years and many miles on the road looking for that special place to settle down.

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Our criteria were pretty high given that we were coming from a pretty special place called California. Thinking about education was not on our minds and seemed very far away. I always thought… well, we would just home school if we needed to.

When we moved to Samara there was one public school. Forty-five minutes to an hour away in Nosara was a well-known school called Del Mar Academy but that was it.

A few years later two additional private schools opened called Samara Pacific School and Nosara Home School Beach Academy. We tried both and were excited to see educational opportunities opening around us.

My husband and I are both teachers and therefore had some specific desires for our son’s education — rather ironic given that we moved to a town where there was only one school — beggars can’t be choosers I would remind myself!

This would be a trade off and we would make up the difference! For various reasons, neither school fit with our needs, however they both offer very good programs for families in both areas and I would recommend checking them both out. Since then, the school choices have expanded even further.

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For the last two years, a few parents have been throwing around the idea of offering a very different type of school given that our community continues to grow and there were still parents looking for additional options of educational philosophy.

With the courage of Lenina Arias and the support of a small group of parents and friends, the Mareas Home School Samara opened this year with about 25 students. There was an overwhelming response from the community.

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We proudly joined this group to help get the school open and our son loves this place and has been attending since they opened their doors in November. He is flourishing! More than once, I have heard our son and other students ask if they can go to school on Saturday (Steve and I have moved to chopped liver status without even knowing it!)

Mareas Home School Samara is also a fee-based program and they offer a PK-12th grade program based upon the Waldorf-inspired Oak Meadow School curriculum. If families wish, the school will assist in the accreditation process through a US accrediting agency.

You can find them on Facebook at MareasHomeSchoolSamara
or on their website at: www.MareasHomeSchoolSamara.com

Over half of the students that attend Mareas are on scholarship, which really ensures that no one is turned away and the student body is a diverse group. On December 19, 2012, Miryam Gonzales of Coco’s Mexican Restaurant hosted a fundraiser to raise funds for 12 scholarships.

The school had hoped to sell 40 tickets and instead sold 61!! We are all truly fortunate to live in such a generous community.

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A community that helps with our school and other causes — folks that come out and give their time or resources to make our community even more special. Samara and our surrounding communities are very fortunate to have great people from each of these institutions that saw a need for our children and have dedicated their lives and resources to growing our children.

We Love Living in Samara, Costa Rica But … What about schools?

Article/Property ID Number 3992

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