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The Luminary

Volo is excited to accept enrollment in The Luminary, our full-time program for 2025-2026

The program enables learning through flexible and adaptable personalized learning programs that express the interests of learners. The Luminary supports the discovery and nurturing of each child’s innate talents and passions.

The Luminary Key Details

  • Limit 15 Participants
  • Ages 7-12
  • Prerequisites: reading and basic numeracy
  • August 25, 2025 – May 28, 2026
  • 4 Days/week – Monday through Thursdays
  • Fridays – The Quest – are available for reduced tuition for Luminary participants.
  • Drop off — 8:45 – 9:00 AM @ Home Base
  • Pick up — 2:00 – 2:15 PM @ Home Base
  • Older Youth – programs for ages 13-18 are slated for the future
  • Tuition – $15,000 with 10% reduction for enrollment before March 15, 2025, and 15% reduction for siblings. 
  • Scholarships & Financial Aid – Thanks to generous donations, we may be able to offer limited scholarship opportunities. Please contact us to discuss the application process if you would like to apply for a scholarship or tuition reduction. 

Learning for Holistic Development

Volo Natural Learning Community’s The Exploratory brings together young people into a multi-aged community – the natural way for humans to thrive. The program centers on helping young people discover learning, life skills, and sense of self on a foundation of place — their place in the world, in history, and in culture (among people). Young people build on that foundation through social innovation, inspired projects, and leadership.

World-Class, Locally-Grown

The Luminary provides world-class learning opportunities for uniquely qualified young people who will grow and develop with curiosity, creativity, and confidence. 

Here we connect top facilitators – teachers and mentors — with bright young people in fascinating learning environments. 

Details

For those of you who are interested in reading more details, here you go.

Pacing & Rhythm

The Luminary is both a carefully articulated design and an adaptable design that can respond to changes, conditions, and learners’ needs. The general daily pace and rhythm are outlined below. Note that Volo is committed to responding to the needs of the participating young people. We strive for balance between stability and flexibility, recognizing that both rhythm and adaptability are important. The daily schedule shown here may be adjusted if needed. 

Friday special programming is The Quest.

Blocks

Blocks focus on themes, which are big ideas. Typically each block incorporates movement, math, reading, writing, speaking, art, history, science, and music. Elements and topics from blocks will also appear in other areas of the schedule. For example, math throughout the year will include numeracy and a focal numeracy block.

Morning Math

We integrate math every day. Most mornings include focusing on math; this will include activities, instruction, and practice. A focal purpose is to engage young people in math in ways that build practical skills and a joy for learning.

Morning Math may include – 

  • Numerical relationships, patterns, and tools
  • Numeracy – concept, history, patterns
  • Measurement – volume, length, weight; units; application (play, cooking, building)
  • Basic operations – concept, application, memorize
  • Ratios – fractions, rates, applications (cooking, building)
  • Resources – We will use a variety of resources. One key resource may be Making Math Meaningful: A Source Book for Teaching Math in Grades One through Five. 2nd N. Fabrie, W. Gottenbos, and J. York. Jamie York Press. ISBN: 9781938210013

Morning Language Arts

Language arts are also integrated in our daily activities. Most mornings include time to focus on language arts; this will include creative activities, reading, writing, and speaking. A focal purpose is to open doors of understanding, confidence, and joy with the English language.

Morning Language Arts may include — 

  • Joy of communicating with written and spoken language
  • Alphabet – concept, history, uses; pictorial
  • Reading – begin with familiar texts then move to reading for instructions and a variety of books and materials. Integrated combinations of whole word, phonic, and contextual methods. Hearing and reading whole class, person to person, self.
  • Writing — practice composing and reproducing. For creative expression – poetry, stories, moods; for practical application — directions for a game, recipes, letters, description of an observation; for thought and inquiry – concept maps, pro and con lists
  • Speaking – qualities of spoken sounds and sentence melody. Drama (plays).

Classes

The following are afternoon classes for 2024/2025. 

Fall Term

  1. Baking and decorating cakes and cookies from scratch
  2. Why food matters: from your body to the natural environment

Winter Term

  1. Life in dramatic performance – plays, costumes, and sets
  2. Weather, from partly cloudy to hurricanes.

Spring Term

  1. Business math, for real.
  2. Growing food and flowers

Projects

Projects may include the following and/or others. Final plans will be co-created with the participating children and volunteers.  

  • Restoration tree and shrub planting
  • Building furniture
  • Building fences to protect priority natural areas
  • Leading another school group in an outdoor activity
  • Participating in community science such as bird counts or searches for sensitive plant species
  • Creating and donating materials for needy people
  • Creating and donating materials for wildlife rehabilitation
  • Growing and selling vegetables
  • Creating artwork for gifts