What are the opening hours?

Monday 8am - 4pm Tuesday 8am - 4pm Wednesday 8am - 4pm Thursday 8am - 4pm Friday 8am - 4pm

Vine Academy

We are a school in Burr Ridge, IL that focuses on providing customized education. We started with a tutoring company, Nurturing Wisdom, that we still run today.

Students who are gifted, twice-exceptional, or need support in executive functioning thrive in our environment. Our Start

Education is our passion, and providing the best in education is our obsession. For over ten years, we’ve offered 1:1 in-home tutoring to thousands of students. We are so proud of the amazing results we received in helping students earn high marks on the ACT, get into the hig

h school of their choice, develop executive functioning skills, and much more…

But, something was missing. It’s so rewarding to help a student with one tough class or test. Other times though, tutoring can feel like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We realized what some of these students needed wasn’t tutoring but a different approach to learning. Our dream to start our own school was born. The Patterns

In our typical compulsion to collect data, we started to look closely at the students who didn’t seem to be best served by traditional schools. Here’s what we saw:

Smart or gifted students who were not working to their potential. Students who had been inquisitive in their elementary years but had lost their intellectual curiosity. Students who were falling behind at school not because they were missing the knowledge or skills, but because of waning motivation and lack of executive functioning skills. Next, we looked at traditional schools. Traditional schools have many merits and serve many talented students. In each school though, a number of students fall through the cracks and are not achieving to their potential. At the heart of this problem are the things that our traditional schools are missing:

developing advanced writing skills in students
allowing customization for giftedness and special needs without alienating students
teaching executive functioning skills
helping students to purse their academic passions and interests
customizing to every student

Our Dream

From this reflection and research, we designed Vine Academy. We took the best of everything we could find in traditional and alternative education formats. We addressed every major weakness we saw in traditional schools. We designed our school for students whose amazing potential was not being actualized.

05/13/2026

Our final showcase featured an incredible variety of student projects — from research papers and foods of the world presentations to catapults and even a student-created escape room! We were also treated to a special performance by our musical groups led by Mr. Ryan. Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the evening so memorable!

05/11/2026

8th grader Linnea F. is the 2026 Level II Letters About Literature state winner!

Sponsored by the Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian, and the Illinois Center for the Book, Letters About Literature, is a statewide reading and writing promotion. Students in grades 4–12 are invited to read a book of their choice, reflect on it, and write a personal letter to its author explaining the impact this work had on them.

Linnea’s letter was selected the winner from 671 other Level II entries from across the state! Last week, she had the opportunity to read her letter and receive her award at the Illinois State Library in Springfield.

Congratulations, Linnea!

05/07/2026

Our primary and elementary program students attended a field trip to Lake Katherine Nature Center yesterday! Students enjoyed a presentation where they learned about local wildlife and then explored through live animal demonstrations. We had a spectacular day!

05/06/2026

Luke P. in our middle school program recently participated in the Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools. Luke scored within the top 3-10% of all participants, earning a silver pin! Way to go Luke!

04/24/2026

DROP EVERYTHING AND REEEEAAAAADDDD!!!!!
Our annual DEAR day celebration is a favorite for students and teachers alike!!!!!

04/16/2026

We had an egg-cellent time today planning, building and celebrating both our winners and our failures! Special thanks to the Pleasantview Fire Department for making today egg-tra special!