Our mission is to provide early learners with an opportunity to socialize, learn, play and gain confidence in the safety of their home.
Our Story
“We believe that parents are a child's first and best teacher. Parents can survive home education solo, but they THRIVE within a community of other parents, students, and educators. Ready to Learn Circle is a platform that makes learning fun and accessible, our sights are set high: for a more equitable, efficient future for learning.
Each Circle Time Session promotes
FOUR key dimensions of learning:
Socialization
Academics
Emotional Intelligence
Learning Through Play
Meet The Team
ALICIA MCKAY
Executive Director
Alicia McKay is owner of No Fear LLC and Director of No Fear Café. No Fear LLC is the founding company of Ready to Learn Circles. Alicia shares her 20+ years of experience in leadership, business consulting, and education to focus on her mission of promoting personal growth, developing small businesses, building independent authors, and creating innovative youth programming to enhance communities through math and science. Currently, Alicia is board President for the non-profit organization, The Literacy Project, a board trustee President for the Harper Woods School District and a Christian author and consultant. However, her most important position in life is that of a wife to her husband Joseph and mother to her two children, a 6 year-old son and a 10 year-old daughter.
SHANNA SANSOM
Program Manager
Shanna is Managing Partner for Ready to Learn Circles. She has extensive experience in media relations, strategic planning, community outreach, operations, new media design, and grant writing. By day, she's a super-homeschool mom raising 3 amazing children.
As our main circle leader and program manager, Ms. Shanna understands the importance of cultural awareness in teaching and uses her extensive experience traveling the world to teach in a culturally responsive way. Her training as an international Montessori classroom liaison has helped her develop a baseline understanding of cultural elements outside of her own. Her circle time lesson plans are carefully curated to ensure that less widely known cultural differences are taken into consideration and properly presented to help students adapt to the class environment and feel safe and comfortable. She is an expert in creating an atmosphere of inclusivity.
She believes that it is her responsibility as the "Lead Learner" to model cultural awareness and sensitivity. Early learners are curiosity-driven and are designed to wonder about the people around them. Ms. Shanna does not expect early learners to always ask their questions in a sensitive way. Therefore, she is readily prepared to answer these questions in a way that: validates all cultural differences, explains differences in an academic, unbiased way, and show students how to ask questions and discuss cultural differences with sensitivity.