About Miss Christel
Christel Hino is an autistic mom, registered nurse, and passionate community educator based in Snohomish County. With over 20 years of nursing experience, she blends her clinical expertise with a deep commitment to building supportive, diverse learning communities for children. Christel founded Sonder Life, a secular community-based homeschool program, to connect families throughout the challenges of COVID-19, offering free community-based classes and practical health education. She believes in child-led learning, the power of diversity, and nurturing each child’s intrinsic motivation within a safe and encouraging environment. She basically read as many books as she could get her hands on to create an eclectic, child-led mash-up of unschooling/Montessori/Waldorf for her children and for whichever children in the community have joined her many classes over the past 5 years. She is passionate about helping other caregivers learn how to follow a child's lead without neglecting the real skills that will enable them to thrive as adults. How to focus on the essentials: Reading, writing, and math without creating power struggles. The real goal is to take childhood and an opportunity to learn about themselves and their passions without getting lost in all the entertaining distractions of Babylon. :) How to mentor kids, not master them, and not befriend them by enabling a childhood which only teaches them how to engage in fun activities. How do you teach a child who is averse to hard work how to focus? Slowly and with adaptable boundaries.
With a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing and plans to pursue a Nurse Practitioner license in Psychiatry, Christel’s clinical background ranges from emergency medicine to psychiatric care. She understands that real learning and healing go hand in hand, and she specializes in supporting people through life’s most challenging transitions with empathy and resilience.
As a neurodivergent parent who has raised two very different children with unique needs, Christel knows firsthand the challenges of navigating systems not built for every brain. She champions the idea that differences are strengths and aims to help kids build self-understanding and confidence for life.
Christel’s educational philosophy centers on fostering resilience, agency, and community. She believes deep learning happens when children face challenges and are supported to find their own reasons to persist, surrounded by encouragement and belonging.
Deeply curious, Christel is inspired by thinkers like Montessori, Steiner, and John Holt, and blends evidence-based practice with lived experience. She is always learning and eager to connect with others passionate about child development.
She is now launching a democratically governed middle years program, inspired by her son’s needs and her vision for a supportive learning community. Christel believes older and younger children thrive together, learning leadership, patience, and collaboration.
The program gives kids real opportunities to develop independence, leadership, and practical skills—navigating their communities, making decisions, and learning together in the vibrant environment of Snohomish and King County.
Christel’s goal is to help children become confident, capable learners who value diversity, know how to seek help, and aren’t afraid to try, fail, and try again.
