2025 Make Believe Monday Cohort

On Mondays our cohort is focused on giving students opportunities to build their imagination and creativity. We know that not every student is drawn to creative or imaginative activities, so we designed this cohort to help all students build their imagination muscles even if they are reluctant. We will give them tools to make steps that fit them as they explore and discover their own creativity.

We meet at Ridgewood Church on Mondays from 9:00-3:00. We go outside as often as possible when the learning and the weather allow. We take a walk ever day after lunch unless it's raining.

A typical Make Believe Monday Cohort will look something like this:

9:00 World Watch, Care Club and ASL

9:30 Middle School and High School Cohort team meeting. This is a chance for our middle school and high school cohorts to talk through upcoming learning experiences and touch base on what planning still needs to happen.

10:00-11:30 Learning Experience. (See below for some of the learning experiences we will be offering on Mondays. High School and Middle School students will not participate in all of the Learning Experiences, during the Daisy's Diner Mondays they will be working on projects for their businesses.)

11:30-Noon Lunch

12:00 Walk

12:30 Drama

1:30 Arrow Kids Entrepreneurs Cohort

3:00-3:30 clean up and head home

Some of the learning experiences we have planned for the Make Believe Monday Cohort are:

*(The dates of each learning experience are to be determined, we will publish them as soon as possible. The list below is to help families know what we will be covering during our Monday Cohort.)

Artist's Academy: We will be offering a few unique Artist Academy learning experiences throughout the year. Some of these will be stand alone experiences such as rock painting, introduction to crocheting and bracelet making.

Cohort students will be working on a semester project. Once a month, Artist Tom Foty, will join us to mentor and guide students as they work on learning to build a strong foundation in creating art. Middle School and High School students will work to create a final project alongside Tom's guidance. Students will learn how to critique their art work and how to take feedback as they work to create unique works of art.

American Sign Language: Throughout the semester we will be working to learn ASL together. It will be a part of our morning rhythm for learning

Care Club: Each morning we will have a little time set aside for our students to work on our Care Club projects. Students will work on creating care packages to deliver to different people in our community. You can read more about our Care Club here.

Drama:

This fall we will be preforming the short play “How Miss Finch Stole Christmas.” Our date has not been finalized for the final performance, once we have that information we will post it here.

Arrow Kids Entrepreneurs Cohort:

Monday afternoons we will be learning about all it takes to start and maintain your own business. We will be exploring everything from naming your business to taxes. We will have some special guests come and share about their experiences as business owners.

Maker Monday: Another way we will engage the students and their imagination is through our Arrow Kids Market. Students will work throughout the semester to dream, design and create a product that they will sell at our November Arrow Kids Market. We will help the students to walk through the process of moving from a concept or dream to creating a product, considering the cost of making it and determining how much to sell it for. We will have tools, ideas and even some supplies available to help students be successful. Some of the projects they will be able to work on are: clay jewelry making, cross-stitch, jewelry press, diamond art, pony bead key chains, candle making and more.

Math Monday: Our Make Believe Monday is the perfect place to help kids fall in love with math in a playful way. Once a month our Elementary Cohort will be opening Daisy's Diner, a restaurant where the students get a chance to practice their math skills through play. Daisy's Diner will be serving something new each month so the students will have fun running a coffee shop one month and a dessert stand the next. We have a few other fun Math Monday learning experiences we are working to put together.

This year we are offering separate elementary, middle school, and high school cohorts. There will be a lot of overlap amongst the cohorts but there will be different expectations for students depending on which cohort they are participating in. During your family cohort interview we will set goals for your student(s) and clarify what the expectations will be for each student.

Our middle school and high school cohort will help to lead a few of the learning experiences this fall. During your cohort interview we will plan which learning experiences your student will be responsible for creating and running.

One of the values that runs through all we do is helping the students develop lasting friendships. We want to encourage students in developing friendships with the other students as well as the adults. All students who participate in our cohorts will be given an Arrow Kids Academy Post office box. Students will be encouraged to write each other letters to get to know one another as well as to practice their writing skills.

Students who participate in our Make Believe Monday Cohort will automatically be registered for all of our Monday learning experiences. The cost of this cohort includes all supplies needed for all the learning experiences on Monday. Students will get a journal that will correspond with their track to record their learning this fall. The cost for the Make Believe Monday Cohort for the 2025-26 school year is $350 + the one time $25 cohort application fee. Arrow Kids Members can register for this cohort for $10 per student. The commitment is September- May on Mondays from 9:00am-3:00pm.

We will meet September 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th

October 6th, 13th, 27th (We don't meet on the 20th)

November 4th, 11th, 18th

December 1nd, 8th, 15th

January 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th

February 3rd, 17th, 24th (We don't meet on the 10th)

March 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23st.

April 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th

October 21st, November 25th, February 10rd, and March 31th. These dates are part of our rest week, you can learn more about why we plan regular rest time in our schedule in this blog post.

To participate in our Make Believe Monday Cohort, please fill out the cohort application. After the application is completed, we will schedule an interview. The purpose of the interview is to discuss the track that your student(s) will want to focus on this fall and to make sure that the cohort will be a good fit for your family.

Make Believe Monday Frequently Asked Questions:

Why do we ask for an application fee?

Over the years we have had a large number of families register for learning experiences and cohorts, but for one reason or another they don't follow through. We spend a lot of time chasing down those who register, buy supplies and prepare for these families who may have never intended to commit to learning with us. The application fee is our way of asking families to commit to joining us by applying for our cohorts. If you are applying for more than one cohort, you only need to pay for 1 application fee. This is a one time fee for the 2025-26 school year.

Do I need to attend with my student?

Our Arrow Kids Academy learning experiences and cohorts are interactive and we ask parents to stay and be involved with their child's learning.

I have a younger child who will be attending with me, do I need to register them as a student?

We ask that you register everyone who will be attending. If you have a younger student who will attend with you, we recommend that you register them as a toddler so that we have enough supplies for them to join us with the activities we do. Our goal is to learn together so we work to make activities successful for all ages.

Are there scholarships available to help lower the cost of participating in the cohorts?

We never want finances to keep families from joining us. We know that it can be a burden on families especially those with multiple children so we want to work with you to help make it possible. We offer 50% off all our learning experiences and cohorts to Arrow Kids Family members. You can learn more about our memberships here. If you are in need of financial support beyond the membership discount, please complete this request form and we will be in contact to see how we can help make it possible for your family to be a part of the Arrow Kids Cohort.