Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Shipman.
Hi Melissa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I graduated from Berry College with an English and business degree, intending to attend law school. In my senior year, I needed another elective credit, and “Introduction to Education” was available at the right time. I was immediately hooked! Instead of law school, I went straight to UGA to begin work on a master’s degree in special education.
After teaching special education for 10 years, I moved overseas to work with an organization that provides educational support for missionaries and humanitarian workers in Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. I learned about the various challenges that families face when trying to educate their children overseas without the geographic or financial access to the large international schools found in most capital cities around the globe.
Many of these families homeschool because there really aren’t any other viable options.
Over the years, my biases against homeschooling began falling away as I observed parents doing a great job and students who were extraordinarily capable of managing themselves and leading in their own education.
However, these families are involved in important, demanding work, and most of them never pictured themselves as homeschoolers. When I later moved back to the US, I continued to travel to speak at educational conferences for families and saw that the stress level for many homeschooling parents (usually moms) was incredibly high.
So, I began wondering what I might be able to do to help. In 2017, my husband and I started Learnwell Collective and our teachers supported parents homeschooling overseas with lesson plans and coaching, which took the burden off of parents of choosing curriculum, knowing the grade-level standards, planning out the year, months, and weeks and troubleshooting when kids hit the inevitable bumps along the way.
In sharing about Learnwell, I quickly realized that there were parents right here in my neighborhood who would love that type of support in order to homeschool their children, so, we quickly opened the doors to anyone in the world.
My own children attended a homeschool hybrid school when they were little that doesn’t exist anymore, and we began dreaming of Learnwell adding a 2-day-a-week program here in the north Alpharetta area. We began Learnwell North Georgia in the 2021-2022 school year, and now have 50 students in grades K-8 enrolled on our Alpharetta campus in south Forsyth County.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Goodness, no, the road hasn’t always been smooth. But we know that we are doing what we are supposed to do. Finances are always a concern when building any type of business or organization. Finding just the right team has been a priority, and I’ll confess that we’ve had some mid-summer moments when I began to worry a bit. And of course finding and inviting families who want to homeschool but also want community and support is something we are always working on.
But we’re so encouraged. Our retention rate at the North Georgia campus was high, and we’ve doubled here in our second year. We have an incredible team of qualified and experienced teachers who provide our parents and our North Georgia students with an amazing educational experience.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Learnwell North Georgia?
In the north Atlanta area, Learnwell offers a high-quality hybrid school option that is distinctive from others in many ways. Primarily, we are truly partnering with the parents we serve. They are not simply homework helpers on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when students are at home; they are an integral part of the team providing for the education of their children.
Outside of our local area, we offer the Navigator program, which provides homeschooling parents with everything they need to provide a great education for their children. This is not an online school, but rather equips parents with the day-to-day tools they need to homeschool well.
We have four core values, and we’re not kidding around about them; they drive everything we do and set us apart from other school options. First, we value intentional margin, both for kids and families. We are not trying to add to the disease of busyness that has pervaded our culture. We provide four days of educational activities every week in core subject areas so that Fridays can be spent on field trips, other enrichment activities, or rest!
Second, we value educational excellence. Our students (and the parents we support here in north Georgia and all over the world through the Navigator program) are receiving a great education. We just completed assessments for a new leveled reader program for our elementary students, and our student’s reading levels were, for the most part, far beyond their grade level. As we continue adding a grade every year to our North Georgia campus all the way through high school, we will incorporate hands-on experience through job shadowing, internships, and an emphasis on entrepreneurship.
Third, we value authentic community. Our community events, which take place about once every 4-6 weeks, offer simple, authentic opportunities to connect with other Learnwell families. The students we have on our North Georgia campus participate in lots of creative, community-building activities at school that give them opportunities to build relationships with all of the students at school, not just the others in their grade.
Finally, we value our faith. A Learnwell education marries a deep belief in the tenets of our Christian faith, and we teach our students that our relationship with God does not stand in opposition to science, caring well for others, and treating each other with respect.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
A typical vacation growing up was driving to Indiana to visit all of our extended family. When I was in high school, my family, which included my parents and three brothers, began going to Georgia state parks to stay in cottages for the weekend occasionally. It was the first time I experienced a true break from the day-to-day and deep rest. Now I’m a big believer in this for families especially!
Is there any pricing information that is relevant to our readers? If so, and if you would like us to share it, please include details (in bullet form) below.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://learnwellcollective.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/learnwell_northgeorgia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/learnwellnorthgeorgia
