Greenwood Tree

Greenwood Tree Educational Cooperative offers a wide variety of educational enrichment programs for homeschooling families. These offerings include:Roots, parents and children ages 18 months to 3 years:The Roots program is a parent child group designed to be both a community of support and connection for parents as well as a first taste of school for young children. Together we engage in seasonally appropriate, meaningful activities, both indoors and outdoors, which nurture parent and child in the world of the senses, rhythm, and wonder.Early Childhood Education (ECE) for children ages 3-6:This mixed age program offers children an introduction into classroom life that meets them where they are. Students enjoy outdoor time, circle time, free play, story time, arts exploration, practical arts, and a wholesome snack time together.Grades 1-5:Our classes are divided into same age groupings for core Waldorf themes, specialty classes and socializing. Track lessons are taught with mixed ages and stages, lessons brought through cooperative games in the autumn quarter, as students are assessed by abilities. This helps teachers work with groups that have similar skills and allow mobility within groups as students reach their grade levels in literacy and numeracy.Outdoor Education for children in grades 1-5:This class will facilitate children in creating a new relationship to themselves, each other, community, and nature. Children will receive the experience of being outside with minimal restrictions, as well as having choices in curriculum based on their own interests. Teachers will offer tutorials throughout the day, letting children spend their day studying plants, animals, plant spirit medicine, primitive skills, or the ecosystem as their curiosity leads them.Parent Education:In addition to family volunteer and fundraising expectations, parents/guardians are required to attend three Parent Education Nights per school year in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. At these meetings, parents have the opportunity to learn more about homeschooling, discipline issues, and the Waldorf approach to education.In the program year 2022-2023, Greenwood Tree was privileged to provide educational services to 65 children and 48 families. Families contributed 1,952 hours of service to the community to help offset the cost of operations, and brought in $24,878 through various fundraising efforts over the course of the year 7.8% of Greenwood Tree's proceeds. In particular, Greenwood Tree's annual auction dinner generated $15,083 supporting the cooperative's ability to continue providing quality educational programming into the next school year.Improving and enhancing the quality of the educational opportunities at Greenwood Tree was the organization's top priority heading into the 2023-2024 school year. In response to challenges leadership identified and explored the previous year, the Board of Directors consolidated the ECE and Grades programs in an effort to evaluate the curriculum offered in-class and improve the learning outcomes of students. At the same time, the Roots and Outdoor Education programs were expanded dramatically. While Roots was not held in the 2022-2023 school year, 2023-2024 started out with 06 families enrolled. Similarly, Outdoor Education increased the number of enrolled students by 20. In keeping with Greenwood Tree's vision of honoring "each child's individual needs, temperament, and interests," leadership has found that adjusting the scale of the educational offerings is helping to improve the educational experience of each child we serve by fostering opportunities for respectful and rich relationships between children and adults in our community.