Leadership

Emerald is the founder and director of Root & Arrow Homeschool Co-op and lives in Holly Hill with her husband, Michael, and their four children.

Emerald grew up in Northern Canada surrounded by acres of forest and all the natural beauty her country of origin had to offer. She built forts in the backyard, carved out her own hiking trails and logged thousands of hours on her bike exploring her neighborhoods.

Her love for discovery never waned, and as a young adult she travelled to more than a dozen countries.

Now, as a homeschooling mom, her hope is to inspire her own children to fall in love with their sense of adventure and happily pursue the paths God has in mind for them.

Emerald is a recess leader for the preschoolers and she also teachers leadership and etiquette to our middle school students.

Carli has always been passionate about learning and education. From the time she had her first child, she knew she was meant to homeschool.

After her husband got out of the military, Carli's family weaved their way around the U.S. while exploring hidden gems and beautiful sights along the way. She has now settled down in Moncks Corner with her husband and four children.

Carli is a strong proponent of bringing learning to life through play-based and hands-on discoveries, with an emphasis on time outside in nature. Above all, she values relationships: with God, her husband, and her children.

With almost a decade of experience schooling her own family, Root & Arrow is lucky to have Carli’s talent as she leads our “Montessori-ISH” style class for Babies and Toddlers. Carli is absolutely the best at curating open-ended play and discovery opportunities for all the littles and helping them to choose “work” they will have fun accomplishing.

Paige has been a lifelong resident of Sandridge just outside of Holly Hill. She and her husband enjoy living in the country as a family of six.

Paige has been homeschooling for over 5 years. In her free time she enjoys camping, boating, gardening, and all things homesteading.

Although her children’s education is important, Paige believes it does not come above instilling a love for God in her children.

Paige is our in-house story teller as she leads our Duplo Club for Preschoolers. She guides them through grand adventures and curious tales before directing them into their engineering activities. We love Paige for our Duplo Club classes!

Krysten has always been passionate about education and teaching children to use kinesthetic exploration and investigation to make their own discoveries. Growing up outside of Atlanta, Ga, Krysten spent much of her childhood dancing, signing, and spending time outdoors.

In 2013, Krysten received her Bachelors in K-12 Dance Education from Winthrop University.

After marrying her husband, she relocated to the Low Country, and now resides in Ridgeville, SC with their wonderful 5 children.

Krysten was the Director of Dance for the Berkeley Center of the Arts in Goose Creek, SC for years where she worked with high school students to master the craft of dance. Now a stay-at-home mom, she is excited about the opportunities homeschooling has to offer while helping her children develop and deepen their relationships with Christ.

Krysten leads our Music & Movement class for Babies and Toddlers - A perfect match for her education, skills, and experience!

As a wife and Homeschool mom of four, Marea is passionate about inspiring others. She is the owner of “Recess & Results with Marea” where she specializes in play-based fitness & learning for children and their families.

Marea is also the founder of Homeschool Revival - helping moms get back to educating their children at home.

Marea is a certified Personal Trainer, Group Exercise Instructor and Play-based Fitness Instructor with a degree in Athletic Training from Charleston Southern University. ​

Marea lives in Holly Hill, SC. and her hobbies include spending time with family, meeting up for playdates with friends, and taking well deserved afternoon naps! ​

There is no doubt Marea is the perfect fit as one of our Recess leaders. She makes outside playtime fun for everyone!

Gwen Reedy was born in Florida. She spent most of her childhood outdoors riding bikes, go carts, three wheelers or at the lake with her brothers fishing.

Gwen now resides in Ridgeville on 120 acres with all of her family and has a small variety of farm animals. She is a soccer mom and spends many days at the soccer field or with the family enjoying the outdoors.

Gwen has been homeschooling for 8 years and has enjoyed the freedom and flexibility as well as the chance to keep God first and foremost in her family’s daily life.

Gwen leaders classes for our Elementary students and is an asset to our team.

Taqueshia has for the past 17 years, has been married to the love of her life, sharing an incredible journey of faith and ministry together. With four children aged 15, 13, 11, and 8, she embraces her role as a mother as being her greatest ministry second only to being a wife, both being two of the most privileged gifts in her life.

The 14 years of homeschooling experience, has allowed Taqueshia to build incredible relationships with her children and given her the ability to, not only nurture character and creativity, but customize their learning experience based on the child's specific needs which she sees incredible value in! She cherishes the opportunity to instill her values, faith, and knowledge into her children, providing them with a well-rounded and personalized education

She is also an avid homemaker! Serving her family through her love of cooking and baking is one of her absolutely favorites! She is also passionate about gardening, singing and all things arts and crafts!

Aspiring to live by the example set forth in scripture she also has an incredible desire to train up the next generation of women to love what God has purposed for us to love and become beautiful representations of Titus 2 women!

Makal grew up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota and has always been passionate about movement. When he met his lovely wife Bailey, he really started dreaming big.

He now full-time Rv’s with his wife, their 3 boys, all while sharing his passion for movement and selfcare through his business Dream Believe Achieve Fitness.

Throughout their travels his family has focused on learning through experiences and asking their little ones what they would like to learn about. They arrived in Santee SC area in August of 2022 and have felt overwhelmingly blessed by the community and fellowship they have found here.

As one of our recess leaders, Mak’s energy is contagious and he brings out the fun at every meeting!

Megan had big plans for her career in the medical field, until she had her own children and began to learn about the incredible benefits of "homeschooling.”

Now Megan is fully invested in her children's educational experiences and has made their success her full-time mission.

She lives rurally with her family on a small parcel of land that is ever changing and growing to meet their homesteading dreams.

Megan enjoys reading, exploring outdoors, and baking. She is passionate about respectful parenting, wholistic medicine, and her family.

Tricia was, herself, homeschooled and she graduated high school a year early, with two years of community college credits via the dual enrollment program. She then went on to a four-year college and graduated with a degree in Psychology (a minor in Art Therapy).

Tricia met her husband, Neil in college, they got married, Neil joined the Navy, and they started a family. They have 6 children with a beautiful array of unique learning styles.

Tricia has always had a heart for teaching, volunteering in High school with her church as a special needs teacher/friend, and mentoring those in her community. In recent years she has been the Nursery director for her Church, and special needs teacher for their preschool, both of which she ran in similar style to her calling, which is that each child is designed totally unique by the Master Creator, each deserves to be taught, and led to learn, individually, and the way in which they learn best.

Tricia also helps run a local Animal Rescue. She loves music, reading, card games, and laughing and making memories with her family.

Monica was born and raised in a small town in Michigan. As a child she spent most of her free time outside exploring all around her family’s country home. Not a day went by during the summer without finding her knee deep in a ditch looking for tadpoles, crayfish, or the elusive giant Bullfrog that lived in the drain pipe. She now lives in Ladson, SC and still has a passion for nature and all of God’s creatures. She loves it here and often says it would have been a dream come true for her as a kid. Seeing lizards in the backyard everyday never gets old!

Monica has been married for 10 years and is a mother to two wonderful boys ages 8 and 5. She always knew that she wanted to work with or help children. This is her 4th year homeschooling and the whole family is loving it! Her homeschool mission is to raise strong compassionate Christian men by exploring the world to find joy in learning backed by faith. It has been such a blessing for her to be able to learn new things right alongside her children.

Monica is also a certified Play-based Fitness Instructor and works with kids at Homeschool Explorers. She loves making a difference in the children’s lives no matter how small. In her spare time, she enjoys learning to garden, spending time in nature, and going on fun outings with her family.

Learning is a lifelong venture for Natalie and her family! She holds a B.A. and M.A. in English, and, over the last 14 years, has taught rhetoric, composition, technical writing, and American and British Literature at the college level. In her work as a full time professor at Trident Technical College, she’s also advised transfer students, served as a faculty advisor to Phi Theta Kappa’s local chapter, and contributed to the study abroad committee.

Natalie has a passion for home education, and worked as a full time private homeschooling tutor for a Charleston family. She later used this experience to homeschool her own children for preschool and kindergarten. After several years away from homeschooling, Natalie and her children have returned to it in order to provide more flexibility for travel, family, and interest-led learning.