A Special School Day At The Park!

Nice weather means park time! Who says school has to be inside??

As schoolwork becomes the everyday norm for us and we are quite a ways into our homeschool experience, we have decided that once a week, weather permitting, we will do school work at a local park.  The fresh air seems to do them good - and they made wonderful grades on what they did outside! 

When we take our school work outside, we normally just do our review workbooks instead of worksheets, lapbooks, or curriculum.  I have been working on an outside bag that is packed and ready to go with both things to do that are educational and the necessities we need such as bug spray and sunscreen so that we can just get up and go.  I am learning that the more organized you are, the better.  

A little tip from one homeschooler to another: Just because it is called homeschool doesn't mean it always have to be done in the house.  By picking different scenery and things outdoors, it takes away from the repetition of everyday school work.  As the boys seem to struggle or stress on certain days, I try to find other ways to make it unique, challenging, and fun.  My little classroom moves from place to place and we never do the same thing twice.  I have decided not to follow as strict of a schedule as I had once planned so hopefully that will also allow the boys to explore the world and learn from other things than just books.  

Our Umbrella School Choice and Why!

I have had so many people ask me a million and one questions about homeschooling that I thought it was important to give direct details and information that pertains to the way we choose to educate our children.  We have had some legal issues (post to come) but overall this has been a wonderful experience all the way around.  I stand firm on my decision to homeschool and my decision to use the umbrella school, Daniel One Academy, of Cookeville, Tennessee.

The website to the school directly is www.d1academy.org .  Here is a little info about the school provided by the website -

Daniel 1 Academy is a church-related school committed to enabling parents to educate their own children. Parents can register their children with D1A to satisfy Tennessee’s legal requirements for homeschooling. Daniel 1 offers its parents opportunities to help themselves and their children make the most of their home education experience.

Daniel 1 Academy is a member of the Association of Christian Schools International, ACSI, and is a Category IV (private) school. The founders and administrators are Jack and Cindy Holman. The Holmans have 2 grown children that they homeschooled K-12 grades. Together they have been helping other families homeschool since 1992.

I know firsthand just how wonderful that Jack and Cindy are.  We had some issues with paperwork due to a move, a death in the family, and some communication issues.  There was some missing information that was very valuable and the school could have easily either turned us away or just given up.  My grandmother passed away on March 30, 2012 as most of you know and she had me put all of my family's most important paperwork including birth certificates, social security cards, health insurance forms, life insurance forms, etc, into her safe.  After her death, I had completely forgotten about the items.  When I removed the children from their former school, I was under the assumption that their former school would help get the necessary paperwork to their new homeschool, but I was unfortunately very wrong.  They had me do a Withdrawal check list including paying lunch fees, returning books, talking to teachers, and picking up all of their purchased items.  I signed them out and completed the list assuming that they would help me help my children get the very best education possible.  I never expected them to be so difficult with anything and everything pertaining to children.  When a school boasts that they want to help the children, doesn't that include the process to help the children exceed even if they are no longer at that school? It floored me as I was told it was my responsibility and not the former schools.  They had access to this paperwork, yet instead chose to withhold it thereby delaying my children being legally enrolled in this school program... but as always, D1 stepped in, stayed calm, listened to my concerns, and helped me with anything and everything I could have asked for.  Cindy was especially helpful while listening to my concerns and guiding me in the right direction.  I cannot thank them enough for their positive attitude and willingness to help us get the most of our homeschool experience.

If you are considering enrolling your child for the 2013-2014 school year, their enrollment will be opening on June 1st.  They give discounts to those who enroll early so if you are able, go ahead and do it now!

The thing that I found the most wonderful about this school is their basis for starting the program.  It's all about JESUS!  Everyone who works for or is on the board is a Christian and professes their beliefs.  This was something very important to me as I want my children being raised on the morals and beliefs I stand and build my family upon.  On the school website they discuss their beliefs by saying:

D1A is a Christian organization meaning it was started by a group of Christians, the board members are Christians as well as the staff. It is run on Christian principles and uses and promotes Christian homeschool materials. We do not allow things in the newsletter, on the website or taught in workshops that would contradict Christian values.

If you are wanting to homeschool but possibly not interested in the Christian faith or not a believer, D1 will not turn you away on that alone.  Even on their site, they say this in regards to those who believe in homeschooling but may not share the same faith values:

However, we believe all children are given to their parents by God and therefore, all parents, regardless of religious beliefs have the God-given responsibility to educate their own children. We do not require parents to sign a statement of faith in order to homeschool under D1A. We do ask that all parents respect the Christian foundation of Daniel 1 with appropriate behavior at all school events.

If only all people of this world could profess that same statement and love one another without judgement! What a wonderful place this world would be!!

So, for those of you who were asking me to blog about our homeschool choice, I hope that this post will help you find the school that we have chosen.  For those of you who do not feel D1 is a good fit, I will try to find more school resources and post them at a later time! For now, I must go because we are studying the sun and it is about to set for the evening!