Out of the Box: New School Update

I started this blog with the hope that it would serve as my personal journal where I would be inspired to write what the Lord is teaching me in the areas of faith, family, fitness, and freedom. Now that I have started writing a national health column and a local Christian living column for a secular news agency, many of my personal lessons and reflections are now being recorded in AP format in those articles instead of on this personal blog.  So, now it seems that the primary content of this blog relates to topics that are not exactly newsworthy but still very dear to my heart.  I hope my few readers will still want to stop by even if a larger percentage of posts are about our kids and our struggles to raise them up in the ways of the Lord.

A number of people, both friends here in America and friends serving overseas, have been asking me about our new schooling adventure.  After three years of homeschooling, we decided this year to send our daughter to a brand new private Christian school that is very unique, unlike any other school in America or perhaps anywhere else in the world.  We are still homeschooling our son and continuing our involvement in our homeschool co-op while we test out this new school concept with our daughter.  I will be sharing my observations and maybe even my own assessments of the school's vision and effectiveness regularly on this blog for those who have asked for more information.

The school's motto is "Out of the Box:  Learn it, Live it, Believe it!"

Sometimes we need to pull ourselves "out of the box".

Some of the "out of the box" ways this school functions that I have observed over the past two weeks include:

1. Attention is given to individual needs.
• One student has a severe gluten allergy, so an entire classroom has been designated gluten free.  Student lunches are kept in a separate part of the school and any gluten products are eaten far away from this student.  
• Other students have peanut allergies, so the entire school is peanut-free.  Each student must thoroughly wash his or her hands before entering the classroom multiple times throughout the day.
• The classical hands-on homeschool curriculum used at this school is ideal for teaching multiple students of various ages with a wide range of learning styles.  The standard and excessively monotonous Abeka worksheets used in most Christian schools will never be found at this school.  Instead, students learn by listening, reading, experiencing, and applying.
2. Students discover that learning can be fun.  This school makes learning so enjoyable that our daughter wears a smile from ear to ear every minute she is there.   Now, if we ever decide to pull her out of this school, we will need to drag her out kicking and screaming.  She simply loves school now, as do the other students in her class, despite having four different temporary teachers in the first eight days. While I am frustrated that her original teacher had to resign, the school administration has adapted amazingly well to every hiccup or short notice change of plans.
3. Worship classes are a priority.  Every student in this school takes a praise and worship class. Once a month, the weekly praise assemblies are opened to the students' families, so today I enjoyed watching the students "lead" us in praise and worship.  One very young girl in the K-2 class seemed to especially get a lot out of the worship time.  She waddled up to the front of the "stage" and sang with all her heart while shaking her little body with wild enthusiasm to the rhythm of the music as she heard it in her head anyway. While her little performance may have distracted others from their time of worship instead of directing their attention to the Lord, her childlike enthusiasm for the Lord both inspired and convicted me.
4. Students do not merely learn about Christian values, they regularly apply them. 
• When one student felt anxious and stressed, the entire class stopped working and went over to the hurting student to lay hands on her and pray for her.
• When Biblical truths are revealed through the study of science, history, literature, or even math, the students pause to give God glory.  One student even spontaneously exclaimed to her teacher, "Preach it!"
5.  Every lesson points to God.   The homeschool curriculum used by this private Christian school is hugely popular among homeschooling families because every lesson points to the divine Creator and gives glory to God.
• How can Christian students study the wonder of the human body or the infinitely sophisticated design of any living creature or plant on earth without pausing to give glory to the perfectly creative, infinitely wise Designer?  How can anyone study the Laws of Thermodynamics and not consider how the theory of evolution so obviously contradicts these basic laws of nature by claiming that order came from disorder and that life sprang out of non-life?  At this school, worship is encouraged, not silenced.
  
• I loved teaching social studies in our homeschool because the timeline and historical lessons tied in so beautifully with our Bible study.  When we studied the Babylonians in history, we studied the book of Daniel during our Bible study time.  When we learned about ancient Rome and their oppressive rule over Israel in history, we examined the gospels and the Messianic prophecies to better understand the Jewish expectations for their Savior.  A similar course of study along a common timeline should take place at this school.
• When studying geography at this school, the students also study missionaries who have been to those parts of the world.  The students have initiated prayer times for the lost in those regions.  When they studied Napoleon, they considered both his weaknesses (short and angry) and his strengths (brave, intelligent, effective leader).  Then they considered their own unique spiritual gifts which were given by God for His wonderful purposes for their individual lives. They also considered this verse as it relates to Napoleon's conquests:

Matthew 16:26
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

School T-shirt

The greatest difference the parents are observing at this school is the powerful presence of God.  No matter what curriculum, methodology, or vision shapes a school, without the direction and power of the indwelling Spirit, the school functions in vain.  During the worship assembly today, many parents and grandparents shared their personal observations which testified of the Holy Spirit's power and presence at this school.

Psalm 127:1
Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

Getting out of the box is never easy, but so far, I'm glad we stepped out, and our Right Brained Girl is thrilled to the gills that we did.