I feel quite confident if
you are here or watching us via Facebook your biggest question is, “what will
this cooperative look like.” And really,
it is the most important question. If
you are like me, you have a clear vision on what you want your child’s
education to look and feel like. So I am
going to attempt to paint a picture.
Please feel free to chime in with questions or comments!
Learning Tree Academy
Overview:We are looking to do something that
has not been done in the Richmond area by marrying homeschooling with a more
“school” like environment.
School for most is looked at as a one
stop shop. You drop your children off and when they are picked up that
day, they have been “educated.” Typically, the most parental involvement
that families have with hands on instruction is with their children’s homework.
Conversely, most homeschoolers bear not only the task of educating their
children entirely, but also serving as social intermediary. Our approach
is different.
We see learning as an active process
that occurs between student, teacher and parents. All have to be engaged in the
process. Think of the academy as an educational tool to help redistribute the
burden, not to remove it. The emphasis is on the intersection where home
and “school” come together, as such learning should extend beyond classroom
time. There will be a teacher on site approximately 3 hours a day.
The learning will be child centered, but facilitated by the teacher. The
teacher will introduce concepts to your child within a rich setting and your
child will have different modalities in which to explore the concept. Sometimes
that may be all your child needs, sometimes they will need you to help
reinforce things beyond the classroom. You will meet periodically
with the teacher and they will review concepts that they will be introducing in
class that you should be reinforcing at home. You will also find out
areas in which your child shows particular interest or talent. There
should never be a time when you are not aware of what is happening in the
classroom at a given period or not clear on your child’s interests and areas
you might want to watch or support.
After instruction, the children will
all share lunch together. The second part of the day is
enrichment. Depending on what is decided going into that year,
enrichment might involve contracting an outside instructor to do some classes
or it might be parent led.
The other thing that will be unique
about what we are doing is you can choose to do a whole day or just our
enrichment program. One of the frustrations with homeschooling is
having to drive all over town to find enrichment activities for your
children. We would like to open the enrichment part to homeschoolers not
interested in the academic day, but want a “one and done” place to provide
their children with access to arts, music, language and more.
Curriculum:The academy will take a child centered
approach. Child centered learning is a philosophy of education that
focuses on learning by doing. To paint a clearer picture, let’s say the
concept being taught is fractions. The teacher will introduce the
concept. To reinforce the concept the children will be given an option of
either using a mixing bowl and water and various measuring cups to explore how
many quarter, or eighth cups make a whole cup of water, or they might want to
go to the area that has a play pizza to explore fractions, and if they are a
worksheet sort of kid, they can do a worksheet. After they explore, they then
have the opportunity to present to their classmate what they found. This not
only builds their confidence and understanding of the skill, but allows the
other students to learn at a peer to peer level. What is important is that they
explore and use the concept in a way that is meaningful and concrete to
them. It is an approach that allows the teacher to individualize
the learning process for your child.
Parents Role in the Academy : Your role is important. In fact,
it is critical in reducing the cost of your fees. The amount of time you are
responsible for will be determined by enrollment. While not everyone is
comfortable leading a class there are many, many other ways you can contribute.
Planning field trips
Helping clean the space
Paperwork and Bookkeeping
Library Runs (to get material
pertinent to the class)
Fundraising
What if I Work Full Time or Can Not
Complete My Hours: The “dues” are based on the assumption
you will not complete your hours. While most of your dues will go directly to pay for building fees and
teacher fees, a portion is held in escrow. At midterm, if you have
completed your hours required you will be refunded half the amount held in
escrow. At year end, if you complete the hours required you will be given
the remainder. You will have a set amount of time you are responsible for per
week. You cannot hold your time and “knock it out” the last month or so.
As a reminder, this refers to in
school time. No matter the circumstance you will still need to be engaged
in co teaching your children at home if this is going to be successful for your
child.
So that is the concept in a nutshell. There is so much to iron
out, but we will open in the fall. We hope you will join us!
