Welcome to Brock Academy

 Upon graduating from college I spent some time working for a evening after-school program. I remember a family coming in to sign up their 3 beautiful, well behaved children for our program. While going over the enrollment paperwork I discovered this family was homeschooling. I mentioned this to my director at a staff meeting. My director rolled her eyes, stuck her finger in her mouth and faked a gag as she declared loudly, "Oh, God no! Homeschooling families are so weird."

  As the weeks went on I studied these "weird" home schooled children, only to find that they were a delight to our program. They assisted other kids on their homework, played well with others, and (gasp!) even made friends with ease.

  Well I wish I could share my excitement today with that old boss because over the last week we have began homeschooling and to some... that might make us weird. But for those of you who know us, that box has already been checked.

   We made the decision to home school Lexie this year. She would have gone to a half day kindergarten in a high preforming public school. We are blessed to live in a good district with strong academics. Many of you have to be thinking we are crazy to turn that down.

Our school boxes came. My inner nerd was so delighted at The Boxcar Children, The Little House in the Big Woods, The House on Pooh Corner and more classics. This should postpone Snoop Dog and JayZ from being the kids inspiration for a few years.

 

    Homeschooling allows us to choose a curriculum that gives Lex a biblical worldview, flexibility to travel with Trav's job,  more 1 on 1 instruction, and the opportunity to cultivate her passion for hands-on-learning and classic literature . We also sat down and discovered that she is able to still do ballet and soccer, whereas we may not have been able to as easily facilitate activities with a public school schedule and homework. She's also able to attend Spanish and Art classes through homeschool resources in our community. The area we call home is rich in resources to offer homeschoolers such as classes that supplement their education, groups, and local field trips.

Photos from our first Friday Field Trip to Mt Rainer. Trav had a safety visit (yes, at a National Park) and this is a clear reason I am so excited to give the kids experiences they might not have in a classroom. Lexie also got to help out at the front desk of Paradise Inn. She's got connections.

 

    That said, it clearly isn't a fit for every kid. One kid it doesn't fit right now is our son Liam. He will attend preschool this year. He can benefit from added instruction in following directions, social skills, and adhering to a more firm classroom structure.  

     We were organizing the school room together and I wrote Ecclesiastics 7:8 on our white board. 

"The end of a matter is better then it's beginning, and patience is better then pride."

 

We talked about what that verse means. I explained to her that people often put a lot of effort into the beginning of things. The beginning of life (showering babies), marriage (beautiful weddings), school (first day fancy) but God really values how our heart is at the end of things. I told her I was excited to open our new curriculum boxes and start the year but even more then that I wanted to have a vision of a Godly young women accepting a high school diploma. Because the end is better then the beginning. Through our discussion I could tell she was able to capture this idea much more easily then I could. It was proof that her little mind and heart are still somewhat unclouded from the confusion of the world and she is eager to hear spiritual truths. Come as a child!

So we begin...off to put on my long skirt, milk the cows, and make the children do my chores!