Ashley Boland, director of the Learning Treehouse, said the new location was opened to offer an after school program for students at Rincon and Ebenezer elementary schools.

“People would leave our program for pre-K or kindergarten, and the parents would always say, ‘do you serve Ebenezer,’ ‘do you serve Rincon Elementary after school,’ and we did not,” Boland said. “We thought this would be a great opportunity to serve those schools and start a half-day program for a lot of mothers that stay at home that want some socialization for their children,” Boland said.

The first location on Goshen Road opened in 2001, according to Boland, and an addition was opened in the summer of 2003. Boland, then a special education teacher in Chatham County, and her paraprofessional felt there was a need in the county and opened the first Learning Treehouse.

Boland said the assistant director Jana Flowers suggested opening the new location to service the schools that could not be served at the Goshen Road location.

Flowers taught at the first center for three years before moving into the office and then becoming assistant director.
Boland said the half-day program is Monday through Wednesday from 8 a.m.-noon for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Boland and Flowers worked for a few weeks at the end of July to prepare the new location for opening.

“We’re proud of it,” Boland said. “The house is almost 100 years old.”

She said the new location opened on the first day of school.

“In the mornings they have curriculum,” Boland said. “My background is as a special needs children. Our goal is to have them prepared for school.

“The after school children love it because they think it’s cool that they have a house,” Boland said. “They come in and the first week they want to take their shoes and socks off like it’s a home.”

Boland said there are four rooms devoted to different activities, and when the after school children come in, they get to choose what room they want to go into.

She said when she picked up a new student, he was asked by another child if he had ever been to the Treehouse. The student said no.

The child told the new student, “You’re going to love it. We can go anywhere we want in the house except the kitchen, and we can’t go outside without an adult,” Boland said.

Rooms in the house include an activity room, a homework room and a reading room.

The Treehouse Too is at 120 North Carolina Ave.