Canby Community Preschool

Apt Academy is a Christian homeschool alternative in Canby, founded after the arrival of COVID-19 by families who wanted to rethink education for students whose needs were not being met in traditional schools. Our families register their children as homeschool students and partner with us for teacher-led group instruction in small classes, so students get the flexibility of homeschooling with the structure of a classroom. Each teacher covers a grade band: kindergarten and first grade, second and third, fourth through sixth, and seventh, eighth, and GED preparation. Students advance by mastery rather than age, with flexible pacing for both acceleration and extra support, which suits gifted and high-aptitude learners and students who are under-challenged elsewhere. We administer state-required homeschool testing and plan with older students for GED completion, college coursework, and careers. The school day includes recess, PE, hands-on science, art, and group projects. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Full-time tuition is $6,300 a year or $630 a month, with discounts for siblings, and families can also enroll in individual subjects or tutoring. Donors and local sponsors help most of our students with tuition.

Canby Learning Tree is one of three owner-operated Learning Tree schools, a family business that opened its first preschool in 1994. Our Canby school takes infants starting at 6 weeks and school-age children through age 12, and our hours are 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday to Friday. Children move through rooms built for their age. Infants, wobblers and young toddlers have one teacher for every four children, our 2.5-year-old toddler room runs at 1 to 5, and preschool, Pre-K and our Canby-only Kindergarten Readiness class run at 1 to 10. Learning centers, stories and hands-on projects build early reading, math and science skills. School-age children come for before and after school care with homework help, art and outdoor time, plus full and part-time summer care with field trips. Monthly tuition includes lunch and two snacks, one mid-morning and one in the afternoon, with breakfast available until 8 a.m. We provide transportation to local schools by public school bus or our own buses and vans. Our building has a large outdoor play area, tricycle space and an indoor gym, and every staff member is CPR and first aid certified.

About 250 students in kindergarten through sixth grade attend Philander Lee Elementary School, a Canby School District campus on South Ivy Street. Our staff of 50 includes the teachers of general education classrooms and of a Kindergarten to 2nd Grade Communication Classroom housed in our building. Technology is part of daily work. Students in grades 3 and up receive their own district iPad at no charge, while kindergarten through second grade classrooms share devices from a cart, and our teachers draw on a district makerspace playbook for hands-on projects. Grade levels take field trips through the year, and the school calendar includes spirit days and seasonal events such as pumpkin carving. District nutrition services provides breakfast and lunch, with free and reduced-price meals available to families who apply. Every Lee parent or guardian is automatically a member of our PTO, which meets in the Lee Learning Center and organizes volunteer opportunities and events for families.