Garden Gate Homeschool
Garden Gate Homeschool is an organization of passionate instructors offering a breadth of quality a la carte class options with an emphasis towards free thought, self-sufficiency, agriculture, and sustainability. We are secular, inclusive and welcoming.
Garden Gate offers classes and clubs for grades K-8 Our enrichment experiences give our students opportunities to practice leadership skills, build community, and deepen their learning.
Research shows that children are happier, healthier and more attentive when outdoors. With these benefits in mind, Garden Gate classes are a combination of indoor and outdoor learning. We partner with homeschool families to ensure that our students have everything they need to explore, socialize, engage and grow from a worldview that is playful, ecocentric, humanitarian, and inspired by nature.
Questions? Email us: camps@ourgivinggarden.org
Register your student now:
Judy Byler
Judy is one of the founders of the Giving Garden in Mableton, GA. Judy is a Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist with her Masters Degree in Nutritional Sciences. She has a background in journalism, working at the Independent student newspaper in College. She has a passion for making nutritious foods available to everyone, teaching, writing, traveling, and spending time her friends and her family.
Abby Redmond
Abby has been a proud member of the Garden family since 2020 in a variety of capacities. She graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA, and attended O’More College of Art and Design After many years as a Costume designer/design assistant Abby and her family moved to Smyrna where she created Art With Ms Abby, Shake n’ Create to serve the local community. Abby is also a watercolor artist focused on nature.
Abby enjoys making art for herself and with her two sons, homeschooling, spending time outdoors, gardening and volunteering in the community.
Matthew Doherty
Matthew was born in New Jersey to the best family on the planet, studied Sustainable Agriculture and Ecogastronomy at the University of New Hampshire, and couldn’t be more grateful that life plopped him down at Our Giving Garden. Working for the Garden and its community has changed his life, and has allowed him to learn and grow in an environment that challenges and empowers him. Matthew wants to spend his life working to connect people to themselves, each other, and the Earth through facilitated community experiences- and he gets to do that 5 days a week thanks to OGG. Matthew likes art, dirt and games
Lauren Fariera
Lauren aka SeñoritAwesome is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter. She formally studied music as a Vocal Performance Major at Spelman College and heavily incorporates music theory concepts into her teaching methods. Señorita has been working with children and adults as a private music instructor since 2005, and leading various workshops for middle and high school aged children centered around songwriting, music technology, music business and live performance. She has performed hundreds of shows around the country as a solo artist and accompanying musician for other performing acts. She founded Little Awesome Music Academy which offers lessons to both children and adults.
Julie Rickerson
Julie is a dedicated and passionate mother, educator, and maker born right here in Smyrna, GA. She grew up as the oldest of ten siblings and developed homesteading skills naturally to support the family. Whenever she was able to grow fresh vegetables, pick berries for jams, prepare pickles for the next season, make Halloween costumes, or even create crafts to sell at the local market fair, it was an exciting accomplishment. From an early age she has been involved in both learning and teaching a wide variety of skills, from cross-stitch to making balloon animals.
After spending 20 years in corporate life, while simultaneously earning a Bachelor’s degree from Mercer University and switching careers, she chose to step away to focus on her family. She spent some time exploring hobbies and took a variety of local classes where she discovered her love for fabrics and quilting. She is also an avid cook, canner, sewist, and crafter.
Julie started bringing her daughter Violet to Our Giving Garden activities almost as soon as she could walk. She enjoys the opportunity to give back to her community, so you will find her participating in creative events and teaching classes for both children and adults locally.
Jenn Fletcher
Jenn is an educator, wildlife conservationist, artist, and homeschooling mother. She has a fine arts degree, and is also professionally trained and certified in areas of early childhood education, environmental education, CPR & first aid, sustainability and conservation, and zoonoses & wildlife handling. She currently balances her time between homeschooling her own child, working in the art & science fields, volunteering in her community, and road-tripping the US. Jenn also has a passion for herptofauna (reptiles and amphibians), and has worked in wildlife research (permitted) with loggerhead sea turtles, a variety of freshwater turtles, diamondback terrapins, salamanders, and frogs. She loves bringing her real-world experiences into the classroom in fun and engaging ways.
Jenn has previously taught classes at Our Giving Garden through partnerships with another program, and will be joining Garden Gate Homeschool this year as a guest instructor, and leading the Conservation Club.
Victoria believes that old world skills still hold incredible importance in the modern world. She is a long time student of primitive survival skills with a passion for teaching children, which began with her first job as a youth martial arts instructor, where she nurtured confidence and self discipline as well as fostered the discovery of the inherent joy of motion.
Her fascination with the natural world began early with catching bugs and learning plants, developed into herbalism and food production, and later was fostered through training with Medicine Bow, a North Georgia school of old world skills such as foraging, medicinal plants, shelter and fire building, tracking, and more.
She was a research assistant to Doctor Brian Campbell, who headed up the environmental studies program at Berry College, where she helped build gardens for the homeless and impoverished communities.
In her spare time, Victoria is a beekeeper and artist, with a gallery at the Marriott Marquis II Tower, and interactive style events with overtones of natural connection through whimsy.