Hi everyone!
SLOCA is definitely moving forward and is becoming a reality! It has been an extremely encouraging week, both with sign ups, planning and feedback, and the short-term future of the school is now on solid ground. In addition, we’ve had many doors open and many people encourage us towards our long-term goals, giving us every reason to believe that this school will get stronger year after year.
This week we have several short updates and another great feature by Lisa Lewis. Be sure to read it all. Those of you still deciding on next year may find Lisa’s article very helpful.
Welcome
We are happy to report that our numbers went up from 9 to 15 this past week, and we couldn’t be more delighted with the families that have joined our quest to offer our children a rich, wonderful education. That puts us 5 children away from our goal, and over halfway to our dream of 27 children this first year. We’d like to welcome the Montemurro family, the Allshouse family, the Oberts family, and the Palmquist family. There are two other families that have joined today and we are simply waiting for permission to share their names with you. Thank you to all these families for trusting in the year to come. We are looking forward to educating classically with you!
In addition, we have several others on the cusp of registering and are looking forward to hearing from them!
Registration
The deadline for the $50 registration fee is July 1st – this Friday. If you know you are going to register your child/ren, and can give us a definite “yes” by Friday, the $50 fee will stand. If you need more time to decide or if you are new to even knowing SLOCA exists, that’s fine as well, but the registration fee goes up to $75 after July 1st.
Speading the Word
Some of the fun calls or emails we have received have been from people we’ve never met nor heard of. Thank you to all for spreading the word for us, and keep on doing it! We will accept kids all summer. The earlier the better for planning purposes, but we know that some families may need more time and some may not hear about us until later. The feedback from people about what we’re doing has been wonderful. It motivates us to keep on keepin’ on!
And Now, our Feature Article of the Week…
It is time to discuss why a partnership in education is beneficial. Many of you who are interested in SLO Classical Academy have been home schooling already. The thought of changing what you are already doing may not appeal to you, but I’d like to highlight the benefits to you of a partnership. As a professional educator I have had countless informal parent conferences over the tomatoes at Von’s, on the side lines at baseball practice or waiting in line at a store. These conferences have often been with parents who know me as an educator but I have not been their child’s teacher. You might think that odd but it’s not really. These parents have wanted advice on homework, how to help reluctant readers or authors, ideas for helping with math, you name it. What they have wanted from me, and every other teacher I know, is support. We all need encouragement and new ideas as we work with our children, whether it is academic or otherwise. This support is a major component of what the SLO Classical Academy will be providing on an ongoing basis. The experience of working with many children and seeing the variety of ways that children learn and grow will be shared with you and your child/ren. You as the parent teacher will have a resource of information to focus on your child’s learning experiences to help make the process as rich as possible. The partnership will also provide an additional learning environment for your child to experience with a very small group of students under the guidance and supervision of the mentor teacher. We will mentor your child through the education process and you through the teaching process. Our desire is to provide as much structure as each family
wants while also providing the parameters needed for continuity between home and school. We won’t be telling you what to do every day your child is at home unless you want that much structure! We will however be available to you for those kinds of questions that you haven’t had someone to ask, like “Am I doing enough?”
I am looking forward to this school year. We have many ideas that we are excited to implement! I hope you will join us in the partnership of education at SLO Classical Academy.
Susie Theule & Lisa Lewis
“Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.”
–William Yeats–
