You know your child does not go to any old ordinary school if....

Our daughter's first year at her unique private school kept getting better throughout the year.   Sometimes, I found myself shaking my head, however, because some of the things that took place at her school never would have happened at the government funded schools I attended.  I will summarize her last month of school in list format.

You know your child does not go to just any average, ordinary school if...

• Students are allowed to bring Civil War replicas guns and swords into the classroom as part of their history presentations on the American Civil War.

Unsheathing the sword

• During an entomology lesson, students are allowed and even encouraged to drown insects and then use salt to bring them back to life while other insects are frozen and later revived in a series of experiments dubbed the "The Lazarus Project".

• After EOG testing, the administrators surprise the students with a fun filled day involving cupcakes, snow cones, and a firetruck visit.

  

  Group pic in front of the firetruck

• Chicken eggs are incubated and baby chicks are hatched in the classroom.

• Each student loves the other students as close friends who have become like family.

• There is no bullying or upperclassman piety.  All students are viewed as equal and infinitely valuable.

• When a student's father wants to surprise his daughter on her birthday, he arrives via one of the nation's top hospital's LifeFlight helicopters and gives all the students a chance to climb inside.

 

Out of all there was to see inside, our daughter thought the seat belts were the coolest.

• Your child's closest school friends are over a foot taller and a few years older that she is, but they do not look down on her or consider these differences of any importance.

• The graduation ceremony includes praise/worship, prayer, and both parent and student testimonies instead of a prayerless program of humanistic speeches.

• The students mourn when summer break arrives because they would rather be at school than almost anywhere else.

• The school only operates 133 days per year compared to the 180 day minimum required for public schools giving the students more time to play, explore, and spend time with family.

• Your child rarely has any homework, never studies for any tests, and causes you to wonder if she's learning anything at all at that bizarre school, yet she blows your socks off with amazing EOG test scores further confirming that she flourishes best in a classroom setting amid lots of other like minded students.

So much for my intent to "show her" that life was better as a homeschooler!

At least my son still prefers to be educated at home with me.  Every child is wired differently with varying learning styles, motivators, and educational needs.  For now the plan is to continue with one child enrolled in a small, classical, private Christian school and the other child enrolled in our homeschool.  Our future is very much in the air right now, however, so we are open to whatever plan God has for us.