The founder of Ia’s Learning Tree, Ia Kakhidze, worked as a teacher in Tblisi, Georgia, for 17 years before immigrating to the United States with her family. She and her daughter, Teona, created Ia’s Learning Tree in 2014 and have been serving families in the Park Slope community since.

Ia’s daughter, Teona, is the Director of Ia’s Learning Tree. She graduated from Tbilisi State University in 2007, with a degree in International Law and Human Rights. She then went on to pursue a Economics degree from Baruch College (2008-2013). While she was in school, Teona worked with children and loved it. After graduating college, she went to work at J.P. Morgan Chase, but decided to quit her job so that she could return to doing what she loves: working with children.

Teona also recently completed the Child Development: Behavior and Mental Health program at Stanford University and she recently earned a Masters of Arts in International Affairs and Public Justice (2019-2022). She lives in Park Slope with her husband and her 4-year-old daughter, Vivienne.

Pikria has been a teacher at Ia’s Learning Tree for six years. She graduated from the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science (Journalism) and a Masters in Philology: Legal Translations. She loves helping children learn everything from language to shapes and numbers to the Montessori Coat Flip.

Dean graduated from Auburn University with degrees in English and Political Science. Then, she earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Georgia State University. She worked as a middle school teacher for eight years. She joined the Ia’s community when her first child, Liam, started attending daycare in September 2020. Liam and her youngest son, James, have now been at Ia’s for over two years and she will be the Coordinator for the 2s program, along with Teona and Pikria.

Originally from Sydney Australia, Mr. Simon is a fun, energetic and engaging music enrichment provider, inspiring and delighting infants through to Pre-K children in New York and beyond!
​He brings decades of multi-instrumental experience and combines that with his love for children and exceptional rapport skills, to make every single class, birthday party, and concert and live stream, an amazing experience.

www.mrsimonmusic.com

Youtube: youtube.com/mrsimonmusic

Michelle Ruiz is the founder and Director of Espáñate . Michelle was born in Málaga, Spain and aspired to teach and help enrich the minds of her students for as long as she can remember. In 2005 she earned a Bachelor´s Degree in Education at the University of Málaga in Spain. Following her graduation she started her career as a bilingual teacher in English and Spanish as a lead teacher for preschoolers, helping children to learn the language through immersion and repetition, using games and following routines in both languages and using role play and music as key tools for the learning process.

After gaining 5 years of experience as a lead teacher in Spain, Michelle decided to take a leap of faith and made the decision to leave her small town in Málaga, Spain and moved to New York City, the city of her dreams. Michelle had always dreamt of sharing her love of the Spanish language with the world and as a native bilingual teacher, the opportunities were boundless in her new city.

In 2014 Espáñate was born, to provide children with the opportunity to learn Spanish in an effective way. Michelle has been working with Americans for 10 years now and has mastered the way to teach Spanish in an effective way were they speak the language from day one discovering how Spanish can be easy and fun to learn when done in a creative way. Michelle consistently trains her teachers in her techniques so that they can pass them along to the more than 20 centers that she is working with across New York State. For the past 4 years she has incorporated Yoga to her school, believing that Yoga can help children to control their bodies, emotions while having a great time exercising and learning to relax. It has become one of her passions to add the best yoga classes to children, so children can benefit from it.

www.espanate.com