Frequently Asked Questions

How does a mixed-age classroom environment work?

At The Treehouse, we work together as a community of adult mentors and learners ages 5-15. There are many benefits to mixed-age classrooms including:

Enhanced Social Skills and Emotional Development:
- Interacting with peers of different ages encourages children to develop stronger social skills. Younger students learn from older ones, who often model more advanced social behaviors and empathy. Older students, in turn, can practice leadership and mentorship, fostering a sense of responsibility and empathy.
Increased Academic Achievement:
- Mixed-age classrooms allow for more personalized learning experiences. Teachers can adapt instruction to meet individual students' needs, rather than teaching to a single grade level. This flexibility often results in better academic outcomes as students can progress at their own pace and receive targeted support.
Promotion of Collaboration and Cooperation:
- Collaborative learning is a key feature of mixed-age classrooms. Students learn to work together regardless of age differences, promoting teamwork and cooperative skills. Peer teaching and learning become natural, where older students help younger ones grasp concepts, reinforcing their own understanding in the process.
Broader Perspective and Understanding:
- Exposure to peers of different ages exposes students to diverse perspectives and experiences. This broader perspective can enhance critical thinking skills and empathy as students learn to appreciate different viewpoints and backgrounds.
Reduced Competition, Increased Support:
- Mixed-age classrooms tend to reduce the competitive atmosphere often found in single-age settings. Older students are less likely to see younger peers as direct competitors, fostering a more supportive and nurturing environment where collaboration and mutual encouragement thrive.
Development of Leadership and Mentoring Skills:
- Older students naturally assume leadership roles in mixed-age classrooms. They learn to mentor younger peers, which develops their leadership skills, boosts their confidence, and reinforces their own knowledge through teaching.
Long-term Positive Impact on Personal Growth:
- Research suggests that students who experience mixed-age classrooms often demonstrate greater emotional resilience, adaptability, and self-confidence. These qualities contribute to their overall personal growth and preparedness for future challenges.

Is financial aid available?

The Treehouse is funded by tuition. The tuition is $6000 per child per year. However, Utah has a few program options that can help or even fully cover this cost.

Utah Fits All Scholarship program opens applications once a year and offers $8000 education scholarships to K-12 students. We are approved Utah Fits All vendors which means that families can pay directly from their Class Wallet account. Visit here for more information.
MyTechHigh and Harmony Education are both education reimbursement programs in Utah that can cover up to $1900 of tuition. Learn more about them at mytechhigh.com and harmonyed.com.
Email thetreehouse.alc@gmail.com if you are interested in sponsoring a learner at The Treehouse.

Is The Treehouse accredited?

The Treehouse is considered a homeschool support service. Because we do not meet the requirements for compulsory school hours, all families participating in the program need to be on record as homeschoolers. You can become a homeschooler in 2 ways:

Fill out the homeschool affidavit at Washington County School District. It is a simple form and does not need to be notarized, but does need to be filled out for each child. This is the simplest route as you will not be required to report to anyone about your child's learning journey and progress (although you WILL see them learning!). Utah Fits All scholarship recipients at The Treehouse are still considered homeschoolers and will need to fill out this affidavit. They will also need to report according to the Utah Fits All requirements.
Apply for one of the two reimbursement programs (charter schools) in Utah which are Harmony Education and My Tech High. Both of these are "Schools" in the sense that they will report your child's enrollment to the state. They each have their own reporting requirements so research each and choose the best fit for your family.

The Treehouse is happy to assist you in this process once you are enrolled. We also keep records of student goals, projects and activities to ease the process of reporting should you choose to go with the funding options available.

As a self-directed learning community, we do not have any required tests or set curriculum, and we do not use a schedule of mandated standards. As learners become self-directed, they learn to reflect and decide for themselves not only what to learn, but how to learn it, and how to assess their own growth and sense of achievement. If you choose to homeschool, you are automatically opted out of state standardized tests. If you choose to use My Tech High or Harmony funds you can choose to opt out easily on their website. You can also choose to opt in and they will set you up with the exams. This is a choice for parents to make. The Treehouse does not offer the state testing.

Where do you go after "graduation"?

One of the great benefits of self-directed learning is that students have the time and space to get to know themselves, their strengths and interests. Given all the exploring, many start to get a clear idea of their "career" interest around age 14 or 15, and thus it is a great time to start considering educational paths that will lead them in those directions. For some, it will be a technical college or vocational school. Others may enroll in University classes--there are many options for this, and My Tech High and Harmony Education are great resources for such programs. Others find internships or mentorships, online school, or other microschools. There are many ways to homeschool high school and many ways to get into college without a high school diploma. This website has many great resources. However, if your plan is to return to public school for high school, it is simplest to transition your child before 9th grade. Here is a great blog post about transitioning kids from homeschool to public school. The culture at The Treehouse is intentionally designed to foster lifelong self-driven learning and a growth mindset, all of which will greatly contribute to their future success no matter which path they take.

What does a typical day at The Treehouse look like?

Learners can begin arriving at 9:00am. There is no bell. We ease into the morning, greeting one another and checking in with our mentors. Learners can jump right into their personal projects, they can catch up with friends, or they can sit on the porch swing and finish their breakfast. Some learners may even choose to cook breakfast with the mentors (Dustin loves pancakes!). It feels like a happy Saturday morning with your extended family.

At 10:00am we are "officially" starting the school day. We have morning check-in meeting with the mentors. This is done in small groups. Here, we set intentions and choose whether or not to share them with our cohort. Intentions can look like anything from "I'm going to work on my Lego robot" to "I'm going to be kind and grateful." This is when learners can update their Kanban boards with projects they plan to work on, or new ideas they want to plan for later. They can ask mentors for help planning their projects. We regularly ask the questions, what do you want to learn more about? and, what do you want to get better at? This is also when we go over any offerings that are available that day. Offerings might be "classes" that a learner or mentor is teaching, outings, or other activities that have been planned by learners or mentors. These are all "on offer" and are optional unless an activity required prior commitment.

The next hours are spent in deep engagement, collaboration, conversation, following curiosities, and exploring.

Lunch is also self-directed. Students may bring a lunch and eat it when they feel hungry. Other times, with prior planning and approval, students may choose to try their hand at cooking with a mentor. Learners have access to the kitchen according to certain community rules to govern safety and cleanliness.

Toward the end of the day, learners clean up their projects and store Works in Progress in their personal bins. We end the day with our same morning cohorts, where we reflect on how things went with our intentions. This is where learners discover their own measure of success. Some days they might discover that they were distracted from what they really wanted to do and make a plan to help them focus the next day. Other days they may realize that they actually aren't as interested in a project as they thought they were. And sometimes, they might discover other roadblocks keeping them from their goals. They can discuss these findings with their cohort or mentor, journal it, or simply ponder it. Throughout this process, learners realize that their life will be what they make of it, they are capable, and mistakes are how we learn.

What will my child learn at The Treehouse?

The short answer is ANYTHING! The Treehouse is a cultivated environment, designed to foster curiosity, and harness learner's natural interests by encouraging inquiry, critical thinking, exploration, and sharing. When a learner chooses a project, they are given time and space to explore it as deeply as they wish, allowing for true learning where information is assimilated and used in meaningful contexts. This direct application (as opposed to traditional "memorize and regurgitate" methods) increases retention, the true marker of deep learning. More importantly, they will learn HOW to learn, and more specifically, how THEY learn. This happens through cycles of intention, trial and error, reflection, more effort, more mistakes, and more reflection, all of which is lovingly guided by our mentors.

Here are some examples of this process based on different ages and skill levels:

5-6 year old, non-reader, "Henry"

Henry chooses to play with Magna-Tiles when he starts his day. He builds several "gems" as he calls them, exploring different shapes and how they work together to make other shapes. His mentor notices his interest in gems and asks if he would like to use a book about gems to get other shape ideas. Henry accepts the suggestion and starts looking through the book. He asks an older learner to help him read the names of some of the gems. He decides to copy the names of the gems onto 3x5 cards from the art station so he can label his gems. He invites a friend to come to his gem "shop". The two start discussing numbers as they figure out the prices of each gem in his shop. The friend shows Henry how to write the prices on his cards.

7-10 year old, reader, "Sarah"

Sarah loves to draw. She chooses to sit at the art table when she starts her day. She uses a "how to draw" book and starts working on a horse drawing. She notices that her book recommends shading pencils, and she doesn't see any in the art supplies. She would like to request shading pencils, so she goes to the bulletin board to get a project proposal sheet/materials request. She fills it out, including looking up the cost of the pencils she would like to have purchased. She brings the paper to her mentor to ask for a signature (the request will be considered in the next school meeting). The mentor asks if she included tax in the cost. They sit for a minute to learn how tax is calculated, which leads Sarah to ask, "Why do we have to pay tax?" The mentor says, "That's a great question for our Wall of Curiosity." Sarah can look it up on her own then, or add it to the wall for later research.

7-10 year old, emerging reader, "Brennon"

Brennon is looking through a book of Guinness World Records. He is fascinated by the physical feats of the athletes listed there. A mentor asks him about what he is reading and notices that Brennon is still sounding out words fairly slowly. She asks Brennon, "Would you like some help getting faster at reading?" Brennon says he doesn't like reading that much, so they have a conversation about how reading faster might affect his life. Brennon decides it might be useful so they discuss ways he could make a habit of practicing reading, considering options such as online programs, one-on-one practice with his mentor, reading to younger learners at school, or setting a timer to read a certain number of minutes per day. Together, they make a plan and Brennon adds the plan to his Kanban (project management) board. He and his mentor will check in during morning and afternoon meetings to see how this goal is working for him.

10-14 year old, competent in basic math and reading, "Eliza"

Eliza loves to bake. She starts the day using a muffin mix from the pantry. A couple younger learners ask if they can help her. She finds that she enjoys teaching them how to measure and mix. Her mentor observes her teaching and expresses appreciation for her patience with the younger learners. When Eliza tells her she liked teaching, her mentor asks if she would like to try making a baking class offering. Eliza thinks that sounds fun. They look at the calendar together and choose a day and time that would work. Eliza then gets on Canva to make a flyer about her offering. She plans to teach how to make brownies, but when the day comes to teach, she realizes that there is no brownie mix. This is a tricky situation, but mistakes are how we learn at the Treehouse. Her mentor supports her as she makes a pivot in her plan, looking up recipes together that she can make using the ingredients available, and Eliza makes a mental note to check her supplies first next time.

The Treehouse Agile Learning Community