Week 6 - Schole' in Practice - Friday

A beautiful day for our pond study and practicing one last time before our first Learning Celebration of the year!  We were blessed to have Bedford Avenue Flutes as our Schole' lunch performer today.  These beautifully hand made instruments are unique in sound and beautiful to both listen to and look at!  Join us as we put Schole' into practice in our community...

Rehearsal Week!

This is the week before our first learning celebration of the year.  The kids have worked hard for six weeks learning literary devices in Great Books for poetry and Latin vocabulary, as well as the history of Roman life.  Today was our rehearsal for the entire campus.  You won't want to miss our first Latin Poetry Cafe' with a Twist!  We look forward to sharing it with our families and all of you too....

Week 6 -Schole' in Practice -Wednesday

Week 6 was marked by beautiful weather, fun science experiments, and our Schole' lunch up at the retirement home.  Our students ate lunch with the residents and then played Chinese jumprope as they looked on.  Join us as we put Schole' into practice in our community.

Week 5 - Schole' in Practice Friday

Illustrator, Darren Wheeling with Black Egg, a graphic design company, was our Schole' guest this week.  He brought along some of his fantastic illustrations, and explained some of the ins and outs of graphic design for illustrating a book.  He also had the kids do a fun activity at the end.  The kids folded a piece of paper in half and then he had them draw half a picture on the top.  Then they flipped it over and handed it to their neighbor to draw the other half at the bottom.  The end result was a pretty whacky and fun compilation.

Today was a bit rainy off and on, but that didn't stop us from going out on our nature walks as planned, and the 4-6 year old class still walked up to serve at the retirement home.  Join us as we put Schole' into practice in our community...

Schole' in Practice - Week 5 Wednesday

This Wednesday featured our middle school students stepping up first, to do their Around the World Geography Presentations for their Community, during Schole' lunch.  Join us as we put Schole' into practice in our Community...

Week 4 - Schole' in Practice - Fridays

This was an exciting week at SGCA.  We were so thankful to have had an authentic medieval knight visit us for Schole' lunch!  Eric with the European Medieval Arts of Arms was our special visitor today.  He teaches sword fighting classes at the Holly Springs Parks and Rec for anyone interested in learning this medieval form of weaponry.  He was great with the students and clearly is passionate about this time period of history. You can visit  Classes for more information or to sign up.  Join us as we recount our week of putting Schole' into practice…

Obstacles to finding Schole'

This is our second year putting Schole' into practice in our community.  As a director I get a chance to talk to many families and see the curtain pulled back on the inside of their homeschooling life.  I find that the obstacles to Schole' often fall into the same general categories.  I have struggled with some of these too in the beginning, and I have had to prayerfully find my place of Schole' within our homeschool.  I wanted to share some of my observations in the hope that these insights will help you to find a more restful place of educating your children and putting Schole' into practice.

Week 4 - Schole' in Practice -Wednesday

This was our first Wednesday of student led Schole' lunches.  We had three students who brought their talents to share with our student body.  It's all part of our effort to continue to encourage leadership skills in our upper elementary and middle schoolers.  Join us as we recount our Schole' moments from Wednesday…

Week 3 - Schole in Practice Friday

Fridays are busy days on campus with lots of activity and kids.  This week we had two special Schole' guests!  One was our special guest for lunch on our main campus from Ten Thousand Villages located right here in Cary, NC.  Our lower, upper and middle school students learned all about what fair trade is and then were able to participate in a little fundraiser through the purchase of keychains made from Haiti and Thailand that were available for sale.  All monies raised went to their non-profit organization to benefit the families of fair trade.  Our second special Schole' guest was a children's author named Miss Tiggle Wiggle .  She came dressed in character to read her books to the young and old alike at the retirement home campus next door to us.  Everyone had a wonderful time listening to her!  

Join us as we recall our Schole' moments for week 3...

Week 3 - Schole' in Practice - Wednesday

One of the ways we put Schole' into practice this week was by having lunch with the retirement home residents located next door to our campus.  We've formed a partnership with this facility.  Every third Wednesday students walk-up to spend their Schole' lunch eating with the residents and playing games. Such a blessing for our students and their residents.  We also had our first field trip to the Bayer Bee Center in RTP.  We had three groups that toured the Bee Center together on various days this past week.

Join us as we put Schole' into practice this week...

Week 2 - Schole' in Practice - Fridays

Join us for our second week of embodied learning in fine arts, math, logic, music theory, Latin, and nature study.  We also had our 4-6 years olds engaged in our Primer program focused on music, sign language, read aloud books, nature study, crafts, and playing with the residents of our local retirement home.   Our virtue discussion was on the importance of virtues in character development.  We built a "character house" and discussed the importance of putting boards on your character house (virtuous acts/good habit formation) verses taking them off (vices/bad habits).  

Our featured Schole' lunch guest was from Graceful Expressions Dance Education studio located here in Cary.  Graceful Expressions is a unique ballet studio featuring creative dance with a modest, Christ centered, excellence focused, curriculum.  They stopped by to share the history of ballet with our students.  Props in hand from the various periods of ballet history. The kids tried on tutus and even tried a few dance moves!  

Stop by and see our week of putting Schole' into practice...

Week 2 -Schole' in Practice

Our Wednesdays on campus are for our upper elementary and middle school students only.  This day is when we tackle English Grammar, Writing & Rhetoric, Science Experimentation, Around the World Geography, and Great Books.  Schole' lunches are geared towards helping our students develop servant hearted leadership skills.

This week's Schole' guest was from Woodland Terrace, which is a retirement facility that has residents ranging from independent to full care.  The Director explained to the students what life can be like for the elderly.  

This week we also had our first get together for our monthly Schole' Sisters events!

Join us as we seek to put Schole' into practice in our community...

Schole' in Practice -Friday, Week 1

Our new adventure continued with a full day on Friday - all grades on campus from 4 years old to middle school!  It was certainly more dynamic than Wednesday, but very blessed.  

We have started a new program in partnership with a local retirement community that is located next door to our campus.  Our new 4-6 year old class is scheduled to spend their afternoons up at their facility playing, singing, reading and interacting with the residents.  The smiles and laughter on both sides was amazing!  I saw first hand how this ministered to young and old alike. I give praise to God for His good plans, as I watched months of prayers and planning come to fruition through His faithful servants (our Academic Mentors) facilitating all this joy.  

Our special Schole' guest featured this week was Ms. Jill Johnson, author and creator of Kindermonkey!  Jill did a great job engaging students both young and old with her fantastic books and of course, her playful monkey!  Join us as we put Schole' into practice in our community…

Schole' in Practice - Wednesday, Week 1

We had a wonderful start to our new school year! We are truly thankful for God's provisions in it all.  Much work has gone into the planning of this year, and it was so good to see it all come to fruition this past week.  The photographic journey below is from Wednesday, when we only have our upper elementary and middle school students on campus.  Friday, we have all six classes on campus (4-6 year olds through middle school) and that will be a separate post each week.  Join us for a visual journey as we put Schole' into practice in our community…

Mud Kitchen Birthday Party!

We went to the Asheboro Zoo this summer and my daughter loved playing in their very fun mud kitchen.  As my husband watched her play, he told me he had a great idea for her birthday this year...he would build her a mud kitchen at home!  We kept it a secret, and my husband built it while Sarah and I were away for the day shopping for school supplies.  When we got home, she was very surprised to find a mud kitchen in her backyard - just in time for her birthday party!

Schole' in Practice /Meet and Greet Orientation 2016-2017

It's been a long summer with lots of planning going on behind the scenes for our new school year! This year we have expanded to two days a week with 11 classes available on campus!  We have also added a middle school and 4-6 year old program!  It's been a year of growth and challenges, but we're very ready for what God has in store.  Join us as we kick off another year of putting Schole' into practice...

Virtue Formation through Literature

One of my favorite things is spending our morning time reading books that help form my daughter's ideals about good and bad character.  Reading a book that clearly demonstrates virtue or clearly shows a character lacking in virtue, is a great discussion to have in those quiet morning hours.  Using literature to help with virtue formation is a very seamless way to approach a topic that is often caught more than taught.  Let me share some of my favorite books for helping with virtue formation…

When Nature Isn't Beautiful

"Isn't nature always beautiful, Mom?"..."Then why did the eggs get killed?"  I realized then and there, that I've spent much of our nature studies over the years on the beauty of creation.  Always referring to how beautiful nature was, as if it was whole. Enough.  The fact that the flowers are brilliant in color, complex in design, filled with wonderful variety and math abounding.  Discussing the perfect balances of water cycles, life cycles, contemplating in wonder and awe, the number of creatures created, and their intricate designs -perfectly suited for the job God had created them to fulfill.  We have talked about the lessons of weeds in a garden and how they relate to the sin of man and we've discussed why Jesus used so many analogies to nature and natural processes.  However, we never discussed the cruel side of nature.  That side of nature that makes you cringe as a beautiful zebra is taken down by a lion or a bird's eggs are abandoned in a nest, never to see the first sunrise or set.  How do we approach the parts of nature that aren't beautiful and why are they so?  Let's explore...

Schole' Moments - Curriculum Paradigm Shift

As homeschooling parents, we can get caught up in spending too much time going to homeschool conferences, doing online research reading reviews, or frequenting our local curriculum stores; trying to decide what curriculum our children need for the school year.  There are a lot of things out there vying for our attention and trying to convince us that we must do this or that in order for our student to "keep up" with other students or be a "STEM" student.  All that curriculum "sell" is just begging for us to feel discontent, like we're not doing enough, like we fall short, and like we have to add one more thing to our student's curriculum list for the next year so they won't be handicapped for life. It's just a great way to stress ourselves (and our students) out.

I have had a life changing shift in my paradigm related to curriculum that has set me free. Let me help you make a shift in your paradigm about curriculum too.  What if I told you that the curriculum itself doesn't truly matter, but more so what you do with the curriculum that does?  I know, I know, it seems like I just committed some homeschooling atrocity to say that curriculum doesn't really matter.  I imagine the homeschooling police are being notified right now, as to my heretical statement.   However, let me explain....

Science Activity - Picture of the Day

A science "picture of the day" is a terrific tool for helping students to begin to analyze information and think critically.  It is also another tool to begin to teach the scientific method skills of observation, hypotheses and drawing conclusions.  Beyond all that, it's just plain fun!  Here's how to make thinking fun...