Join Leanne Paulin of Sankalpa Academy and Ali Ronder from Natural Learning Foundation to celebrate summer!  Come join us as we make some beautiful origami suncatchers.  All ages welcome to participate!

Sankalpa Academy is a small, secular private school in Austin, Texas that pursues excellence in early childhood education. Sankalpa provides purposeful education for life through awareness. At Sankalpa, education is holistic, foundational and individualized. They achieve this through an assessment of a child’s developmental climate and core competencies. This understanding is used to design learning experiences that are meaningful and foundational. Their individualized curriculum is carefully crafted by our master teachers, so every child works at a level that is most relevant and appropriate for him/her.

Their mission is to help children become the best seekers they can be. They strongly believe that education should help a child recognize and reach her/his potential so the child would grow up to be confident and ethical as well as emotionally, intellectually and physically ready for what life has to offer.

The Natural Learning Foundation pursues the improvement of learning systems for children, parents, educators, and surrounding communities through the exploration of nature.

They partner with mission-driven small nonprofits and companies that promote natural learning to leverage resources and develop capacity building strategies.

The foundation helps children and adults connect nature with learning in the following areas:

• Natural Learning in Education: course curriculums; teacher trainings and funding; student scholarships
• Natural Learning in Health and Wellness: wellness information; health promotion and disease treatment programs
• Natural Learning in Foods and Nutrition: school / community foods and gardens; nutrition and food prep instruction
• Natural Learning in Ecology and Environmental Sustainability: human impacts; green building; eco-village planning and development

As sustainability is achieved when working in balance with natural systems and in cooperation with each other, they promote the experience of understanding a shared humanity that is integrated with the living world.