Lower Elementary 3rd - 5th
Our goal is to cultivate self-confidence, independence, creativity, and a passion for learning in our students. Our engaging, low-stress, student-focused environment encourages productive learning, critical thinking, and innovation in a fun and supportive space. Our curriculum and instructional practices at all levels embrace a quality-over-quantity approach, allowing students in these middle years to apply their previous leaning in the core skills or reading and writing to practical application and deepening content knowledge. We believe students thrive when they are fully engaged and suitably challenged, without being bombarded with excess busywork. Our curriculum across all subjects is engaging and hands-on. It is structured enough to cover the core skills and standards, yet flexible enough to adapt instruction and assignments to meet students' interests and abilities. We understand the importance of breaks and social interaction, therefore, we offer a balanced 'work hard, play hard' schedule where all groups, no matter their age, benefit from a 30-minute outdoor playtime in the morning, along with a generous hour-long outdoor break for lunch and play.
Lower Elementary Hybrid Program Options
Lower Elementary Hybrid Hours
M - TH: 9:00 - 2:00
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After School Enrichment
M - TH: 2:00 - 4:00
Friday Learning Labs
Friday: 8:45 - 2:45
Learning Climate
We offer a warm and nurturing learning environment with a typical teacher to student ratio of 1:6 (8 max) at this age. Our students enjoy a small, calm, compassionate, stress-reduced learning environment with a community of peers who respect and encourage each other. We understand that a supportive, community-oriented environment better serves overall academic development and mental health than a traditional setting for many students.
Student Body
We serve engaged and enthusiastic learners. We accept neurotypical students and students with specific learning challenges such as dyscalculia, dyslexia, and dysgraphia. Our expectation is that students are willing and active participants who are excited to learn. Students are expected to come to class prepared and ready to do their best. Our small environment makes a great choice for students with mild to moderate anxiety.  We are not equipped to enroll students with disruptive, aggressive, and/or non-compliant tendencies.
Teachers
Our teachers are understanding, engaged, creative, and nurturing professionals who are highly qualified and experienced. Each teacher possesses a minimum of a bachelor's in education, with most possessing a masters degree, GA certification, and multiple specialties. All primary teachers are trained in the OG approach.
2-Day Academic Essentials
Monday/Wednesday
Our Academic Essentials program provides relevant, engaging, hands-on, multisensory instruction in the core subjects of Math, ELA, Science, and Social Studies. The focus of our math program is building mathematical fluency and understanding mathematical concepts through engaging, hands-on math instruction. Our ELA program transitions from learning to read and write to expanding their reading and writing skills into more advanced decoding, encoding, grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, and building composition skills through ability-appropriate paragraph writing. During the math block, students are placed in academic learning groups that match their current level of understanding, ensuring success in this critical area. The content-based subjects of science and social studies culminate our day and provide an opportunity to explore exciting, standards-aligned topics through hands-on labs and fun investigations!
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Students in this program receive 2 days of home study curriculum in ELA and math (60-120 minutes per day) to reinforce concepts at home. We can provide recommendations for supplementary curriculum options in ELA, science, and social studies should you desire more than what we offer.
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Reading Remediation: Our Foundations in Literacy (FIL) hybrid and private remediation program offer continued instructional support in decoding, encoding, and fluency for this age and above. These can be added, or built-in, to your child's learning program.
2-Day Academic Expansion
Tuesday/Thursday
Our Academic Expansion program serves as a wholistic addition to our Academic Essentials program, though it can be taken as a standalone program as well. The math component of our Academic Expansion experience continues building mathematical fluency and strengthening math concepts through additional practice and support. The ELA component offers a brief review grammar and spelling concepts, then dives into a robust literature, comprehension, and composition curriculum. Students will enjoy thematic deep dives into interest-rich informational texts, novel and literature studies, poetry, instruction in various forms of creative and expository composition, and so much more. Our day concludes with literature-inspired, interest-based STEM and art experiences that help tie learning together with a beautifully creative bow!
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Students in this program will have an opportunity to complete math and phonics assignments from the Academic Essentials program. Students not enrolled in the essentials track will receive complimentary assignments during work periods. We do not offer home study curriculum in this program; however, we can align math instruction should you decide to use our math curriculum. We are also happy to provide curriculum recommendations.
3-Day Essentials + Friday Lab Combo
M/W + F
Our 3-Day Essentials + Lab Combo is our most popular model as it provides a 'best of both worlds' learning experience. This model blends 2 days of quality instruction in the core subjects and 2 days of home study curriculum with a full day of academic enrichment in our socially-focused Friday Learning Lab Program!
3-Day Expansion + Friday Lab Combo
T/TH + F
Our 3-Day Expansion + Lab Combo is the perfect option for families seeking a balanced, enriching, and socially-forward learning experience. This program is perfect when paired with home-based instruction in reading "leveled' instruction in learning to read is not included.
4-Day Academic Track
Monday - Thursday
Our 4-day program is tailored to students seeking a well-rounded academic experience that covers all required subjects in their entirety. Participants will benefit from ongoing, individually leveled- learning through hands-on, multisensory instruction in math, reading, writing, spelling, literature & comprehension, composition, science, and social studies, and STEAM. Minimal home study will be expected as students will have the opportunity to complete most assignments in class. Like all of our programs, students will enjoy plenty of time to socialize and build friendships in our outdoor space.
5-Day Comprehensive
Monday - Friday
Our 5-day program is a wholistic learning experience that combines 4 days hands-on academic instruction with our amazing Friday Learning Lab! Monday through Thursday, participants will benefit from ongoing, individually-leveled learning in math, reading, writing, spelling, literature and comprehension, composition, science, social studies, and STEAM. Minimal home study will be expected as students will have the opportunity to complete most assignments in class. Fridays will culminate the week of learning with lab-style enrichment in math, Mad Science, Creative Writing, and Cultural Explorations!
1-Day Friday Learning Lab
2nd - 8th Grade
Friday Learning Lab offers a full-day interactive academic enrichment program that can be taken as an add-on to our hybrid programs or as a standalone option. Students engage in four lab-style enrichment rotations that bring concepts to life. Students are organized into age-based groups that stay together throughout each rotation, which includes Math Lab, Mad Science, Creative Writing, and Cultural Explorations (Cooking, Games, Art).
As with all our programs, students have ample for socialization during our extended outdoor breaks in the morning and afternoon!
1-Day Friday Learning Lab
Kindergarten / 1st Grade
Students in kindergarten and 1st grade will enjoy their own "Learning Lab" experience on Fridays, but curated just for young learners! This socially-forward program provides our youngest students with thematic, literature-inspired, cross-curricular learning experiences that include math games, literature-based projects and craftivities, STEM, art, cooking, drama, and loads of time for outdoor play.
UNDERSTANDING GA LAW
Georgia law requires that all homeschooling families submit an annual Declaration of Intent to Homeschool. Parents must provide their learner with instruction in four core subjects of ELA, math, science, and social studies. Students must receive 4.5 hours of learning opportunities for 180 days per year. There are no mandated instructional hours or standards in any given subject, nor are there any mandatory graduation requirements for homeschoolers aside from being 16 years old. Students must take a standardized test every three years (starting in 3rd grade) and families must write an annual progress summary. While the law provides a lot of liberties to homeschoolers, most families seeking our services generally want their child to receive quality, standards-aligned instruction in the core subjects in a relaxed, hands-on, creative setting that embraces the experience of family and childhood, while fostering independence, creativity, critical thinking, friendships, a sense of community, and self-confidence.
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It is important to note that only the 5-day track meets the instructional hours requirement, meaning families must continue the learning process at home. Home learning can include our supplied home study curriculum (C4 program only), enrichment classes, or any other learning activities such as field trips, sports, cooking, reading, music lessons, language classes, reading activities, science experiments, etc. Both the Core 4 and Deep Learning programs offer instruction in the mandated subjects. The Core 4 program aligns to Georgia Standards for Excellence, while the Deep Learning programs support the standards in a more broad-scope fashion.
Students enrolled in our Core 4 program will receive 2 days of home study, mid-year conferences,
and an annual progress summary. We do not currently offer standardized testing.