Reading With Fun & Fluency! Decoding and Phonics Age 6-7 Learning to Read

Do you want to raise happy, curious, and creative kids?
Do you want their imagination nurtured, their critical thinking sharpened, and their skills developed?

We love Art, Literacy, and Big Ideas—and we inspire children to fall in love with these disciplines too.

I’m Daniel Grissom, an artist and lifelong educator, and I believe that kids learn best when their curiosity leads the way. As a child, I read, wrote, and drew constantly—long before I ever thought of it as “learning.” Most kids do. But by high school, I had stopped doing all those things. I stopped drawing. I stopped reading for fun. I stopped loving to learn. Somewhere along the way, I lost the joy of creating and the spark of curiosity that had once come so naturally.

It wasn’t until college—when the right mentors helped me reconnect with my passions—that I realized how powerful learning could be when it starts with what you love. That’s what led me to create Curious Together Arts and Humanities: the kind of education I wish I’d had in middle and high school. One that builds real skills (because skills breed confidence), while taking kids’ ideas and creativity seriously.

Our classes are designed for all kinds of learners: the outside-the-box thinkers who crave more challenge, the passionate artists and storytellers, and the kids who may be struggling in school—not because they aren’t bright, but because they haven’t yet found the right environment that sees their potential.

After over 15 years of teaching in classrooms around the world, I now lead a team of passionate educators who design arts and humanities classes that spark curiosity, build confidence, and make learning feel like an adventure—not a chore.

If your child is looking for a place where their ideas matter, and where learning feels meaningful and fun again—you just might’ve found your people.

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Our program is built on 3 pillars of success:

🎯 Developing Skills
🚀 Building Confidence
💪 Fostering Independence

At Curious Together, these pillars guide everything we do. We use research-backed teaching methods to boost engagement and accelerate growth—for students of all ability levels.

Our teachers are not only highly credentialed, but bring real-world experience in the fields they teach. That means your child is learning from people who’ve lived what they’re teaching—artists, writers, educators, and creators who know how to inspire and connect.

We focus on specific, teachable skills that students can master early, so they know what success feels like. That sense of progress fuels their confidence and lights the fire for deeper curiosity. Whether your child already loves reading and drawing, or they’re just beginning to explore their creative voice, we’ll help them discover new passions—and pursue them with joy.

Our classes are a bridge between your child and a world of ideas, expression, and skill-building. Let’s help them cross it—together.

🔦 ABOUT OUR TEACHERS 🔦

⭐ DANIEL GRISSOM, Founder of Curious Together: 
With fifteen years of experience teaching in schools around the world, Daniel knows what it takes to nurture a child's imagination, talents, and unique, creative voice. In 2021, he left the brick and mortar classroom to make more room for the things he loves most--art, family, and teaching children in ways unbounded by traditional schooling. And in 2022, he founded Curious Together and his online cartooning program Kids Cartoon Academy. He has a Master’s Degree in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University (NYC) and knows what it takes to cultivate a child’s imagination and develop their skills. He has taught over 2000 students in his online classes within the last two years. He uses scientifically proven methods to create a fun and engaging classroom that invites students to deep learning and transformative results. When he's not teaching, you'll find him drawing (of course), reading, watching sports, smoking barbecue, traveling, running his online art store, or being silly with his wife and two daughters.

📓 DERRICK HEISEY, Writer and Teacher: Since 2015, Derrick has taught every grade level from Kindergarten to 12th. He is a licensed Special Education teacher with a degree in English Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and a minor in Philosophy. He's published short stories and poetry, and produces a podcast where he reads his original fiction. According to him, mastering the written word is one of the most empowering journeys a person can pursue, and nothing brings him as much joy as sharing that passion with students. Everyone has something important to say; they just need to find the right words, and Derrick can’t wait to help his students discover their voices. When he isn’t teaching, you can find him in his garden inspecting tomatoes, scribbling in a notebook, or reading a book with his dachshund Charlie Marlow curled up on his lap.

📖 MICHELLE BOWEN, Literacy and Storytelling Specialist: Michelle is a passionate and dedicated teacher who has made her home in teaching middle and high school ELA and literature courses. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of San Diego and her Master’s in Liberal Studies: Ethics, Science, and Culture from Arizona State University. With a knack for teaching argumentation and close reading, she helps her students develop their analytical skills while fostering a love for literature. Her teaching philosophy is best summed up by quote from On Writing by Stephen King: “Just remember that Dumbo didn’t need the feather; the magic was in him.” She believes every student has the ability to grow into a confident reader, writer, and thinker-they just need the right support to realize it. When she’s not in the classroom, Michelle can usually be found at a film festival discussing the finer points of horror and sci-fi films or hiking the California coast. 

🤔 CHRIS HURLEY, Philosopher Teacher: Chris is a teacher, daydreamer and philosopher (so are you!). He holds Bachelor degrees in Philosophy and History, as well as a Master's of Linguistics. He loves Philosophy because it nudges us to look up at the night sky or to ponder the social ramifications of AI or to view what we encounter in our lives from another’s eyes. In Chris’ classes, you are not students and teachers so much as detectives on a team hunting after clues. You will look at the ordinary and spectacular, as well as your own experiences and those of others. After twenty years of teaching, Chris still enjoys nothing more than exploring the world with my classes and he’s thrilled that you might join him on the journey. Personally, he’s a movie nut, a terrible tennis player, and will devour pizza of any kind (even anchovies!). He looks forward to meeting each of you, to hearing your thoughts and ideas, and helping you understand that by not knowing, we give ourselves the greatest gift of all, that of discovery.

💥 KEVIN CATALAN, PROFESSIONAL COMIC BOOK ARTIST: Kevin Anthony Catalan is a freelance Comic Cartoonist with two published comic books, Space Knights and Tales of Space Knights, and is featured as a cover artist and guest artist for various other comics.  Kevin was taught how to draw at a very young age by his father, an animator that worked at Disney and Warner Brothers, and was introduced to comics at age 9, instantly falling in love with the medium. Kevin graduated with a B.A. from San Francisco State University, majoring in Studio Arts with a focus on oil painting, and took various comic book classes. While in the University, Kevin tutored his fellow classmates in various subjects including Astronomy, Painting, and Comics Making. Kevin self published his epic action-packed comic book “Space Knights” a month after his college graduation in 2020, which has now been picked up by an independent Publisher. With all of this success as a comic book artist, teaching has been the most gratifying thing that has come out of his art career. Teaching is about growth on both sides. Kevin’s approach is to start a dialogue with his students, being able to ask questions and let them form their own way of tackling problems. There are no solid rules to art making, but they are lots of guides. So Kevin will help his students find their own individuality by showing them his methods but encouraging them to find their own unique interests and style. Outside of drawing comics, Kevin loves to play video games, watch movies, use his telescope to stargaze and exercise. 

🎬 MAGGIE WEHLER, PROFESSIONAL ANIMATOR AND ILLUSTRATOR: Maggie Wehler is a freelance animator and illustrator who has worked on a multitude of indie video games and indie animation projects! As she loved video games and cartoons as a child, she began drawing digitally in middle school and hasn’t stopped since! Taking that passion, she took online classes through the Academy of Art University in highschool and then pursued a degree in Film & Animation at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she also completed a minor in Game Design. After college, Maggie attended the Disney College Program and worked at the Walt Disney World Parks in Florida while attending seminar classes with Disney artists and designers! She also makes freelance animated videos for the Youtube channel Psych2Go, which has over 11 million subscribers! Maggie firmly believes that everyone deserves to have a space to create, all art forms are valid, and any art fundamentals can be learned through drawing characters you love to draw! Other than drawing, Maggie enjoys playing video games like Splatoon and Monster Hunter, along with watching movies, anime and reading graphic novels.


🗯️ MIKE JASORKA, PROFESSIONAL CARTOONIST AND COMIC ARTIST: Mike Jasorka grew up in a small rural town in New Jersey and graduated in 2007 from Rowan University with a studio art degree in illustration before making a move to his dream city of Los Angeles. There, he spent his time juggling his joy for self-publishing and creating his own comic books, providing storyboards for the advertising/film/music industry and teaching sequential art (comics) at Venice Arts - a non-profit multi-media arts organization. At Venice Arts, Mike has taught over 500 youth how to write and draw comics by applying the methods and foundations he uses in creating his own comics as well as the opportunities he has had professionally. Mike's teaching philosophy revolves around approaching creativity with a patience to grow - as every project brings new growth through challenge and requires great patience in order to passionately complete them. Most of Mike's time today is spent creating his next comic works, hanging out with his fiancée and friends, writing songs on the guitar and playing drums when he can.