At KaiPod Learning’s Winter Garden location, today’s eager young minds take ownership of their academic and emotional growth as they discover their passions and develop long-lasting curiosity about the world around them

Dani Fox, the head of company pods at KaiPod Learning, says that you can feel the “KaiPod magic”—“a great balance of academics, social development, fun, gameplay, chatting with a good friend, the opportunity to wonder about the world you live in in new and exciting ways”—as soon as you walk through the door.

After spending 12 years in traditional education as a secondary math teacher, it took some frustration with post-lockdown schooling to nudge Fox toward KaiPod Learning, an innovative learning environment with eight locations across the country—including one right here in downtown Winter Garden—that all share in the desire to nurture 8-to 18-year-olds both holistically and in a way that recognizes their individual strengths, unique interests and limitless potential.

In Winter Garden, KaiPod provides a small group learning space where homeschoolers, online learners, and students seeking a more flexible or hybrid approach come together to learn, grow and form friendships. With flexible attendance options, including both part-time and full-time, families can choose to attend when it works best for them. KaiPod follows its own approach to this innovative model often referred to as microschooling or hybrid schooling, supporting two “pods” of children in grades 3-12, with one group for younger students and another for older students.

As an alternative to traditional public or private schools, KaiPod also accepts scholarships available to all Florida families through funding organizations like Step Up for Students, making it accessible to all types of families.

Fox admits that she didn’t fully understand what she was getting into when she herself became part of the KaiPod community, though founder and CEO Amar Kumar’s dedication to and passion for revolutionizing education convinced her that she was on the right path. But when she started working in the Arizona pod last year, she was quickly blown away by how “something so new and so unlike what anybody else was doing” could be so immediately impactful.

“We want to have smaller groups, we want parents to be driving their students’ education, we want to personalize it, and we want to support kids better,” Fox explains. “They said, ‘You’re not going to teach, you’re not going to grade, you’re just going to support these kids in their personalized learning that’s self-paced, based on self-mastery, and then help them socialize and get back into the swing of things. We want to create this beautiful place where they can make friends.’”

And throughout her entire career, Fox has never seen young minds blossom like they have when they’re warmly welcomed into the KaiPod family.

“It works so well that it really takes your breath away!” she enthuses. “When we took this burden off our teachers and put them in pods and said, ‘Do the thing that you’re great at, do the thing that you never had the time to do in the classroom and help these kids,’ you don’t have to wait for the payoff because it happens so quickly: They thrive and they start experiencing success—and you’re watching it every day. You see the difference you make every day.”

Unlike Central Florida’s other homeschool enrichment centers and hybrid schools, KaiPod is focused on providing a learning experience that’s flexible, well-rounded and fun by using games and activities to keep kids engaged—while also supporting homeschool or online learners with a truly personalized approach to learning. Its balance of academics, socialization and enrichment activities means that a child develops the soft skills that they typically wouldn’t be able to in a typical classroom.

Children fall in love with learning by immersing themselves in what interests them—and being encouraged to do so. That’s why the student experience at KaiPod embraces that student-led approach, offering them the freedom, empowerment and autonomy to either build their own curriculum or opt to follow a curated one in a wholly supportive environment where they get plenty of one-on-one time with their pod’s learning coaches.

That individualized attention underscores just how dedicated the learning coaches at KaiPod are to “loving your kids as much as you do.”

“We want our coaches to build those deep, meaningful relationships with the students they work with, and it is just as essential that we do it with the parents, too,” she notes. “We are extraordinarily high-touch with our parents because we know that, in public school, when your kid isn’t doing well, you’re often going to find out too late. As part of our structure, you will hear from us at least weekly and oftentimes daily. … And we have an app where they can ask questions and have that constant contact with their kids’ learning coach.”

After all, it’s not just about strengthening young minds today: It’s about modeling how to be a well-rounded adult tomorrow. And that’s exactly the future that KaiPod is focused on, as its teams endeavor to foster the sense of curiosity that fuels lifetime learners while helping children develop into fully realized, confident adults who are primed to make a positive impact on the world around them.

“As much as we focus on the skills that will make them successful right now in their academics, those skills are intended to make them successful people well beyond that,” Fox enthusiastically affirms. “Whether we’re helping kids navigate conflict or a misunderstanding, or watching a friend be a friend, I’m always like, ‘Wow, we’re making good human beings here!’”

KaiPod Learning
Winter Garden
hello@kaipodlearning.com
KaiPodLearning.com