Personalized Tutoring with Hello Sunshine

Everyone needs a little sunshine in their life!

After stepping out of the classroom, she missed doing the thing she was wired up to do... teach kids. Starting a tutoring company seemed like a natural step. Mrs. Drenk is known for her kindness, high expectations, and encouragement. Often, she will greet you with a 'Hello Sunshine!' Those sunny beliefs are infused in the fun and academics that Hello Sunshine Tutoring provides.

Mrs. Drenk

Ms. Ashmore

With more than 30 years of experience in both general and special education, Ms. Ashmore brings a warm, energetic, and student-centered approach to helping children and teens thrive. She specializes in supporting learners with diverse learning styles, attention challenges, autism, and behavioral needs, providing individualized instruction that honors each student’s strengths while addressing areas for growth.

Mrs. Drenk has been a dedicated educator for over 25 years. Throughout her career as a classroom teacher, she has served not only as an instructor, but as a passionate advocate for children, a trusted partner to families, and a collaborative team member within her school community.

As an educator, Mrs. Ashmore believes that progress begins with connection—when students feel understood, capable, and supported, confidence grows and learning accelerates. She loves incorporating creativity and play into learning. From game-based teaching that builds problem-solving and teamwork skills to leading after-school clubs that foster friendships and leadership, she strives to make learning meaningful and fun. Ms. Ashmore's goal is always to help students discover their capabilities while developing independence, resilience, and self-advocacy skills that last a lifetime.

Outside of tutoring, she enjoys gardening, traveling, and spending peaceful lake days with family and friends. She believes balance, joy, and a little sunshine are essential for growth.

“Keep your face to the sunshine, and you cannot see a shadow.”

Mrs. Drenk believes meaningful learning happens when students feel seen, supported, and inspired. She builds strong connections with her students, weaving their interests into engaging, research-informed lessons that foster confidence, belonging, and growth. By breaking down complex skills into manageable steps, she helps students of all levels build independence, resilience, and a love of learning. Whether supporting students who feel behind or challenging advanced learners, her goal is to help every child discover abilities they didn’t know they had.

Outside of tutoring, Mrs. Drenk designs board games with her husband through their company, Pizza With a Fork Games, where creativity meets learning and play. In her free time, she enjoys coffee with friends, serving at her church, cooking, gardening, reading, and the occasional road trip.

“I love seeing that spark in a student’s eyes—when their confidence grows, and their passion ignites, it feels like a little burst of sunshine.”

Meet Our Tutors

Ms. Ashmore joins Hello Sunshine Tutoring during extended breaks and summer sessions, bringing expertise in academic intervention, behavioral coaching, social skills, and executive functioning support.

Mrs. Diller

Cai

Reagan

Cai's creativity, imagination, and eye for detail makes him the best DM at Hello Sunshine Tutoring! He has written and lead several dungeon crawls that have resulted in found treasure, stopping the evil master, and yes... even saving the world.

Cail will be leading our RPG classes with either created or prewritten scenarios for students. He creates characters for each adventurer or can help tweak one that you have already created yourself. Whether you are new to the dungeon, or have some experience fighting trolls and goblins, you are sure to have quite the adventure!

Reagan is joining Hello Sunshine as our in-house artist. Her creativity, eye for design, and experimentation with color make her an asset to our team. While still a student herself, creating art that speaks to life, nature, and experiences has grown her as an artist. Her ideas of 'what could be' guides much of her work. It makes what she creates unique and thoughtful. She has experience with Manga, nature painting, sketching and is growing that list.

Reagan and Mrs. Drenk will lead our art classes together. Whether it is painting, cartooning, or crafting, you will definitely have fun while you create!

Mrs. Diller is our favorite Jane-of-all-trades. She has hobbies that have become businesses and businesses that have become hobbies. Her creativity and craftiness have made her an invaluable asset to our tutoring team for creative works. She taught several sessions in an After School program to teach elementary children how to carve. The junior carvers created unique wands, spectacular spoons, and even got to try their hand at designing the handle of a spreader. (Lots of fancy PB & J sandwiches from that crew!)

While Mrs. Diller has taught many over her years of carving, finding new techniques, trying out new wood types, and discovering the project inside the woodgrain is a passion of hers. She has attended classes through the Vesterheim Norwegian American School of Arts to learn techniques, kholrosing, and knife handling. In her learning experiences, she was even able to sit under master carvers to learn the secrets of working with wood.

When she is not carving, Mrs. Diller enjoys calligraphy & hand lettering, gunsmithing, cooking, being outside, teaching about personal safety, hanging out with one of her favorite sisters (Mrs. Drenk!), serving with others at her church, and learning her next great hobby!

Research Based Support Materials

Here are some example of the support materials that we use at Hello Sunshine Tutoring.
This is certainly not an exhaustive list because we will find what works for your child!

Making Words