MEET THE TEAM
Meet Miss Ariel
Co-Founder & Executive Director
As a former missionary and dance school founder, director, and teacher, even though two generations before her had been leaders in educational programs, Ariel never imagined she would help start a homeschool academy. Growing up in Virginia, she was homeschooled K-12th and watched her parents start a homeschool academy, which benefitted her greatly (along with many others) through the community and instructor expertise it provided, all the while still allowing her the advantage of being homeschooled: the ability to accelerate learning, have extra time to devote to her rigorous ballet schedule, do an internship in her field of interest as a senior, etc.
In 2023 she began looking around the Kansas City Metro for a good fit for her son. Similar to what she had experienced, she wanted the homeschool benefits of overseeing and being involved in his education without the pressure to plan all the details out. She knew her son would benefit most from a group setting and other more experienced teachers linking arms to provide a strong framework she could use to launch off from. She also wants to see learning happen through hands-on, nature-rich methods, and has been greatly inspired by farm-schools. Most of all, her passion is to see her son and others grow up knowing and deeply loving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. As Ariel searched for and visited schools and co-ops, she was surprised she was struggling to find what she had in mind - the multi-day, hands-on academic support for elementary homeschool families was not as readily available as she had imagined. So with “necessity as the mother of invention”, she linked arms with her dear homeschooling friend, Kim Ladish, and starting with little weekly prayer times where they prayed together for their children, the Lord moved and has brought forth Tree of Life Academy.
Meet Miss Kim
Co-Founder & Afternoon Enrichment Teacher
Kim has experience working with children and program development for over 15 years, and as a proud homeschool Mom of 2 very active boys, is thrilled to be helping launch Tree of Life Academy this year. She is currently Licensed and Certified as an Occupational Therapy Assistant in Pediatric Outpatient setting, and has been practicing for over 7 years. She has also helped develop and implement Christian, trauma and sensory informed programming for grades K-5th for the non-profit "The Single MOM KC", while serving as the Children's Director. Her goal is to teach the Tree of Life Academy's enrichment programming in a way that promotes the best learning outcomes for each child. We believe that through an active, hands-on, Christ-centered, nature-rich and developmentally appropriate approach, children will thrive!
Meet Miss Monica
2025-2026 Morning Academics Teacher
Education & Experience: Monica graduated from Creighton University with a degree in marketing, a co-major in philosophy and an elementary education certificate, and eventually earned her Masters of Education. She taught at Nativity Parish School in 2006, teaching kindergarten for 3 years, and first grade for 5 years. In her final year she was honored with the "Teacher of the Year" award. She had her eldest son in the summer of 2014 and has tutored many students on the side since then.
Teaching Approach: Monica has a passion for teaching students to learn with fun and games. She uses humor to diffuse behavioral issues and has worked with a variety of students with learning and behavioral issues/disabilities. She likes to teach in a variety of ways to engage each student on their level and learning mode.
Reading Instruction: Monica will offer a reading approach that will be very phonics based with support of sight words. Through the stepping stones of letter identification, letter sounds, blending words and memorizing sight words, we will build a strong foundation that will set our students up for success in reading. They will be able to problem solve through independently sounding out words and eventually differentiating between long and short vowels. When children have shown success in these skills, we will move on to higher level skills. She will differentiate instruction according to the child's need, ability and learning style for our Kindergarteners and first graders, and support other learners' needs with supplemental materials.