What We Offer
Discovery and Learning
At Wondering Oaks Learning, we believe that a child's developmental needs don't just end after preschool. An effective early childhood education should last through age 8, and present ample opportunities for play, exploration, and allow autonomy for the child to develop the non-academic skills they will need to be a confident, well-adjusted adult.
Students between ages 5-8 are at a tricky stage - they still require plenty of time to play, but need to build strong foundations in literacy, numeric, and scientific skills to prepare them for the higher level academic world.
Classes are Wondering Oaks are designed to provide a balance of teacher-directed learning, student-initiated learning, and free play/exploration, to gently guide students through their first years of formal schooling.
The Program
Is Wondering Oaks a Good Fit for Your Family?
On average, students between the ages of 5 and 9 will get the most out of a Wondering Oaks experience. However, the developmental needs of each student are more important to making a decision.
The ideal Wondering Oaks student:
Is at least 5 years old/Kindergarten age
Is learning or ready to learn to read, spell, or write
Is still highly interested in typical play
Has a guardian available for weekday field trips or in case of school closures
Is fully potty trained and requires no physical assistance in self-care skills
Is able to resist physical methods of problem solving (will not resort to hitting/kicking/biting when upset)
Is not looking for a religious program
Course Overview
Wondering Oaks Learning teaches foundation skills in a multi-age classroom, reaching each child on their individual level. We do this through a combination of self-chosen activities, whole class instruction, and small group/one on one instruction. Scroll below to review all available courses.
Foundational Core
Mondays and Wednesdays
Our Foundational Core days focus on literacy and math. These days are our most work-based days, but still offer plenty of play!
Literacy instruction includes learning to read, spelling work, writing skills, and beginning grammar concepts. Students learn to read using Logic of English, a systematic curriculum designed for students with dyslexia, ADHD, and dysgraphia. Logic of English follows the science of reading, and is phonics based. Students who complete all 4 levels of this program will be confident, capable readers, with the phonetic ability to read any word they come across.
Handwriting Without Tears may be used to aid with handwriting for our earliest writers, and Explode the Code is helpful to beginning readers in practicing learned phonics skills.
Reading instruction occurs between 9:40 AM - 12:15 PM every Monday and Wednesday.
Math block, occurring in both morning and afternoon sessions, approaches math in a variety of ways to build a solid foundation of numeracy skills.
Students gain practical math skills throughout the week by checking and graphing the daily temperature, creating graphs and charts to display, measuring the size of various objects, and sometimes, cooking! Students enjoy playing math games with Ms. Lisa as well - she loves gameschooling!
During work periods, students work one-on-one with Ms. Lisa to complete their lessons in Math With Confidence. Math With Confidence offers a gentle math approach, but builds strong foundational numeracy skills and promotes mental math. Students in need of a more rigorous or challenging math curriculum may utilize Beast Academy.
Science and Special Projects
Tuesdays and Thursdays
At its core, Wondering Oaks believes in a strong scientific and curiosity-driven education!
Science builds critical thinking, problem solving skills, communication, and a love of learning. All of these things are critical for a young learner! Having an interest in their world encourages them to continue learning, reinforces core academic skills, and promotes a sense of protection for their planet and its inhabitants.
Students study topics such as native plants, electricity, and how to conduct experiments using a variety of tools such as microscopes, magnifying glasses, goggles, tweezers, a chemistry set, scales, and more. Students learn about force, motion, descriptive qualities, gravity, weight, volume, length, anatomy, insects, bones, rocks and minerals, light, and whatever else the students come up with! When they aren't engaging in science lessons, many students opt to pursue their own research; learning about their chosen topics in our extensive nonfiction library.
During students' independent work periods, they are also free to tackle their own self-chosen projects. Ms. Laura facilitates their learning, guiding them through relevant science and math topics to add to their creation. Ms. Lisa is there to assist with their writing and presentation features of their projects!
Students may choose to build a hotel with working lights using a circuit board for their toys, run research on growth and the "cute" factors of babies, or present detailed information regarding their favorite dinosaur - the choice is theirs!
Our Community
Students should feel a strong sense of community within their school and home environments - this ensures the most success, and happiest learners!
The home environment is closely felt at school - students interact with teachers' children (yes, we encourage our teacher moms to be moms too!), view their classmates as family, and are encouraged to be unapologetically themselves!
By attending field trips together, building gardens on family work days, or getting together for casual play dates, Wondering Oaks offers families not only a school for their children, but a community where parents, students, siblings, and extended family can thrive together.
