You Asked, We Listened....More Food!

Since everyone enjoyed the meal so much last time and asked us to do it again, who are we to refuse! 

Our chef has created an amazing menu full of local produce. 

Enjoy a wonderful meal August 10^th and allow our chef, Sue Cline to cook for you.  Pick up is between 5-6:30 Friday, 405 w. 32nd st Richmond, Va 23225.  If you need to arrange a different pickup time, contact us and we will try and accommodate!  Pay pal does not offer a lot of payment options, so if you need more than one meal, simply contact us at learningtreeacademyrva@gmail.com or vlmccauley@verizon.net and tell us what you want.  We will then send you an invoice. 

Before I go on to the amazing menu, I…no WE ALL wanted to say thank you so much for the support.  First day of class is September 10^th and we could not have done it without the support we have received! 

  On to the menu...

Grilled Lime Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Corn, Tomato and Black Bean Salad

Celebrate summer with a delicious and healthy combination. Grilled shrimp marinated with lime and a hint of garlic served with a salad of roast organic corn, local organic tomatoes and Cuban style black beans. Served with flour tortilla.

For dessert enjoy Pastel de Tres Leches (three milk cake), a delightful vanilla flavored confection.

Vegetarian option:

Mediterranean Style Tabbouleh

An Arabian classic featuring fresh, local organic vegetables (tomato, onion, garlic and cucumber) and herbs (mint, parsley) over a base of Bulgur wheat. Served with a side of hummus and pita bread.
 

About the Chef

Sue Cline is the former owner and executive chef of The Aurora Grill, one of the nation's first farm-to-table restaurants. Her restaurant background includes an apprenticeship at the Marshall Field and Company restaurants, pastry chef at the original Intermezzo Cafe and sous chef at the Courier Cafe in Urbana IL. She now resides in the Forest Hill neighborhood, where she can be found growing her own vegetables and experimenting wildly with fermentation.

options

Grilled Lime Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Corn, Tomato and Black B$8.50 USD Mediterranean Style Tabbouleh$7.50 USD

SUPPLY LIST 2012 - 2013

 3 - 10 packs of #2 pencils (sharpened) (Best Deal in office supply dept. - pack of 10 for $.47)

 1 -  Bottle Elmers school glue (4 oz. bottle)

 1 -  2 piece pack pink pearl erasers

 1 -  Pack 4 X 6 index cards

 2 -  Boxes crayons (24 Count)

 2 -  Packs colored pencils (12 count)

 2 -  Yellow HiLiters

 1 -  12" ruler (1/2", inch and centimeters) wood or clear plastic

12 -  Glue Sticks

 1 - Pair age appropriate scissors

 2 - small packs loose leaf notebook paper (wide rule about 50 pages total)

 4 - Spiral bound notebooks (70 page, wide rule)

 2 - Pocket folders (no prongs, plastic, solid color)

 2 - Pocket folders (with prongs, plastic, solid color)

 2 - Packs of multi colored construction paper (best buy is dollar store)
 2 - Standard 6 color watercolor set
 1 - artists pack of paint brushes (variety of sizes $4.97 at Wal-Mart)

(All of the above are at Target and WalMart now at the back to school sale prices!  The Academy will provide a storage box for each child.  Please label every item you purchase, so we know where to return any leftovers at year end.)

 2 - Large boxes of Kleenex

 1 - Containers Clorox/Lysol Disinfecting wipes
 1 - Large Tub of Baby Wipes

 4 - Rolls of Paper Towels

 1 - can of spray Lysol

 1 - Large men's dress shirt for art smock (best buy is at GoodWill if you don't have an old one at home)

 1 - Roll of toilet tissue

Special projects during the year may require additional items, but this list should cover the day to day needs.

Meeting Update July 12th.

It was a really great meeting.  We had two new families.  If we keep this up we might outgrow meeting at a home and may have to switch to a meeting place.

We reviewed the cost breakdown.  I also ran numbers based on hiring a teacher just 3 days  a week.  We also talked about what is the maximum everyone can afford.  I didn’t get everyone’s numbers, but will be reaching out this week to find out.  It looks like $3,000 or less is the number we are looking at.  For us to hit that price and hire a teacher 5 days we will need 7-8 students, so would need a few more families.  It does seem that we should easily be able to hire a teacher 3 days a week. 

With that said, we are reviewing resumes and will decide if we should re-post an ad now that we have a more clear image of what we need from a teacher.  We agreed we all should interview the teacher. 

One thing the new parents suggested was that we have more information on the blog. What is going to be expected of the parents, how much will they be required to teach.  We will work on getting that written and on the blog. 

We talked about doing a neighborhood market as a fundraiser.  We have reached out to Woodland Heights Baptist and they might be interested in letting us use their parking lot.  Everyone thought it could be a good idea. 

We are going to start working on a outreach campaign to grow our numbers.  We will be putting information out on homeschooling groups, flyers in target rich areas and doing some press releases. 

Next meeting is Thursday July 19^th at 2:00.  Please let me know if you are coming.  I might need to see if we can find a meeting place. 

So…You Are Not a Homeschooler, Don’t Want To Be a Homeschooler and Frankly Think Homeschoolers Are Weird? Why You Should Still Consider Learning Tree

I know what you are thinking: “I don’t want to homeschool!” There are probably 5,000 reasons in your arsenal as to why homeschooling is a terrible idea. So why on earth, if you are 100% sure homeschooling is not right for you, would you consider this?

It is an excellent question. Maybe you shouldn’t. However, maybe you should. Clear? No, I suspect not. Let me help.

First ask yourself the following:

• Do I think the current public schools are a good fit for me and my child?
• Would you, if you could, send your child to a private school?
• Do you think class sizes are too big?
• Do you think SOLs are not the way to pace your child’s school experience?
• Are you willing to help with your child’s educational experience, but not willing to be 100% responsible for it?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, keep reading. If you answered mostly no, then we are probably not a great fit for you. However, feel free to keep reading anyway.

Homeschooling Myth and Reality

The reality is that in a traditional homeschooling paradigm, the burden of teaching falls fully on parents. Either they have to teach subjects at which they are not great, or just don’t enjoy, or they have to find someone else to teach those subjects -- usually at a cost. It also requires them to find and coordinate art, music, physical education and social outlets. It often feels like more than a full-time job to do all of this. There is a constant fear that no matter how much you do, it is never “enough.”

It is hard to find all the resources to give your child the education you wanted when you decided to homeschool. Sometimes it feels if the idea of homeschooling in your head was a far more dreamy endeavor that the reality of it has become.

However, the massive benefit to homeschooling is that YOU decide what your child learns. So, if, for instance, your child is an avid reader, she isn’t stuck reading at a 1st grade level along with the class, getting bored and frustrated; instead, she can skip ahead to more challenging books. It also means if she struggles with a subject or concept, you can take as much time as needed to make sure she is comfortable with the material before moving on. There are no looming SOLs forcing your hand or setting your pace.

Nothing is Perfect….Nope, Not Even This!

In public (or even private) schools, you have little control over the curriculum content. You have little say on policies, either. That said, you also have a lot less individual responsibility for your child’s education. Your children also have a built in peer group.

With homeschooling, you have complete control over your child’s educational experience. But that also means the burden rests squarely on your shoulders. You also have to piecemeal extracurricular activities and schedule social time with a peer group for your child.

Here’s the idea behind Learning Tree. As a homeschooling cooperative, we, the parents, will have input on curriculum content. You will share the responsibility with a teacher and with the other parents. The multi-level classroom will give children the chance to be grouped by ability for some activities, by age for others, and will allow for group learning activities and peer-assisted learning. Your children will have a built-in peer group, with whom they will be able to interact both in an educational setting and during unstructured outdoor time and lunch time.

So what is the downside? Obviously, there will be a financial cost, which we hope will be minor compared to private school tuition. And of course there will be a time commitment, because part of the cooperative experience is pitching in and helping out. You will be responsible for helping with the education of your child. Perhaps you don’t want to teach. That is okay. Instead you might do library runs, or keep the books, or line up guests to come and teach, or find field trips. Finally, while you do have a voice in the shaping of the school, so do other families. That could mean compromise. It also means that every family is very important to the overall growth and success of the school.

So why compromise? Why bother? Why pay? Imagine what your child’s educational experience will be like when he/she has not only a teacher, but a group of parents to help teach that currently have expertise in:

Gardening
Building
Dancing
Creative Writing
Art
Business
Music
Social Work
Foreign Languages
Ancient History
Crafts
Cooking

And these parents have friends that have offered to help with:

Cultural studies
Art History
Computers
Science
Geometry
Plays/Drama
Papyrus Making
Public Speaking


And the list grows as we grow! We have access to a rich community. This will create an amazingly diverse and rewarding school experience. To sum up, it is homeschooling, but with the support of a teacher and community. I guess you could think of it as Homeschooling lite, or traditional school on steroids. You pick.


We can begin by doing small things at the local level, like planting community gardens or looking out for our neighbors. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously.
-- Grace Lee Boggs

"Average people and the average community can change the world. You can do it just based on common sense, determination, persistence and patience."
~ Lois Gibbs

Weekly Update July 5-10th

I have finally got an e-mail group done (please e-mail learningtreeacademyrva@gmial.com).  Sad it has taken so long but we have been so focused on other things.  

Those of you at the meeting this past week know we settled on a place for fall!  Westover Hills Methodist will be our home come September.  Here is a link to their webpage http://westoverhillsumc.org/

Besides deciding on a space this week we discussed teacher resumes, what our plans are if we don’t get enough number to hire a teacher, how to promote our group and fundraisers and touched on extracurricular activities.

Reaching folks and getting them involved (even just to support what we are doing continues to be a struggle). So anyone that has ideas on how to reach people or ideas for some fundraisers please let me know.

We are also looking to grow our numbers.  So help us brainstorm.  How do we reach people?  Homeschoolers that want more support?  Public School families that aren’t happy but can’t afford private?  Upcoming kindergarteners that don’t have a spot yet? 

Our facility and insurance costs were quite a bit less than anticipated.  Previously we had anticipated that the cost per family with 8-10 students would be $3,200-3,800.  With what we have saved our numbers are now at $2,950-2,400 for 8-10.   So that is great news.  Hopefully with more firm numbers and a home we will find it easier to attract people interested in what we are doing. 

That said, we did decided that even if we cannot get our numbers to the point that hiring an instructor is a financial reality this year we will continue as a traditional cooperative and look to hiring next year. We all felt that the building was a huge hurtle and with that resolved we should find the rest gets easier.  So sink or swim we are opening September! 

We will meet this week at 2:00 p.m. Thursday. Meet at my house again, as the weather seems iffy.  Children welcome!

Learning Tree Academy: Gourmet on the Go

Learning Tree Academy: Gourmet on the Go: Time for our next fundraiser.  We are super lucky to have recieved the donation of time by 2 chefs to help pepare a menue and dinner for ...

Learning Tree Academy: It Was No Cake Walk

Learning Tree Academy: It Was No Cake Walk: Sometimes... well typically really, things you think will be a total cake walk simply are not.   When deciding to do this I thought findin...

It Was No Cake Walk

Sometimes... well typically really, things you think will be a total cake walk simply are not.  When deciding to do this I thought finding a teacher that was versed in child centered learning, that also wanted to teach part time, would be near impossible to find.  I thought finding a space that could accommodate us that wouldn’t kill the budget would be impossible. I was wrong… on both fronts.

We have had so many wonderful teachers contact us who were interested in the position. Who knew!  It made me realize we were on to something that not only resonated with parents, but with teachers. 

However, I had no idea space would be so hard to find and so expensive!  The first place we looked at I think falsely set our expectations.  It was a great space and the price was right.  So with that we set off to look at many, many, many more places thinking that the first place was just our jumping off point.  Either the space was wrong, or they were not interested in having a cooperative or they wanted way too much or typically all three.   Frustrated we had almost forgotten out our first place.  So we went back to the beginning and realized we should have just stopped there ages ago. 

We have signed no lease, so nothing is official; however, barring any complications we are proud to tell you our new home will be Westover Hills Methodist Church.

We hope to have some open houses once everything is official.  Stay tuned!

Here is a link to the church

http://westoverhillsumc.org/

Gourmet on the Go

Time for our next fundraiser. We are super lucky to have received the donation of time by 2 chefs to help prepare a menu and dinner for you guys for Friday July 13th.

So here is the description of the lovely meals they have for you one meat and one vegan (and gluten free!)option. The desert comes with both:

  

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad

Fresh Romaine lettuce served with a traditional Caesar dressing, Parmesan cheese and homemade lemon garlic croutons topped with a savory herb grilled breast of Chicken.


Curried Wedding Lentils

A mildly spicy vegan/gluten free dish featuring Masoor lentils gently simmered in coconut cream and spices. Served over rice and accompanied by a side of cold cucumber and onion salad.


Dessert

Decadent and delicious chocolate brownie topped with a swirl of homemade chocolate ganache. 

All dinners must be ordered and prepaid. If you are interested please order now, because we will have to do the shopping and preparation and will need to know the numbers. You can pay via paypal below or if you want to pay cash or check we can make arrangements. Paypal does not give you as many ordering options as I would like.  Thus you will have to place each desired order separately.  Or please contact me with what you want and I can send a bill via paypal to you. It will be much easier.

Pick up time is from 5-6:30. Pick up at 405 w. 32nd st. Pull up, give us the name the order is under and we will bring your food to you! For questions please e-mail learningtreeacademyrva@gmail.com

Choose Option

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad$7.50 USD Curried Wedding Lentils$7.50 USD Option 3$7.50 USD