The School of Life model assumes the training of the whole person (heart, mind, body & spirit) and thus places a high value on these intentionally chosen electives, which achieve that in a comprehensive way.
Our model aims to help children craft a depth of knowledge in the areas of Biblical & comparative worldview as well as Christian apologetics to effectively engage the culture around us.
If you’re a church hoping to start a private Christian microschool, here are some enrichment ideas to consider:
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Foundation Worldview
Early Childhood Worldview (4-8 years)
This series lays the foundation for seeking truth in all aspects of life, with the goal of helping little ones see that everything we find in the world around us aligns with the worldview presented in Scripture.Each lesson involves a lot of body movement and repetition, designed to meet little ones where they are at developmentally while stretching them to think through foundational worldview truths.
This series is one of the first essential building blocks in laying the foundation our children need to understand and live out the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Christian worldview.
Comparative Worldview (8-12 years)
This curriculum equips youth with a biblical worldview and exposes them to the basic beliefs of competing worldviews.
This Curriculum sets the stage for critical worldview analysis and biblical worldview integration in every area of life. As children begin to learn the basic tenets of competing worldviews, they quickly will begin to recognize these philosophies in novels, textbooks, television shows, movies, music, and daily conversations. -
Economics, Sound Money, Personal Freedom, Responsibility, Entrepreneurship, and Individual Rights
Are you looking for educational material that teaches students the values of a free society- ideas that support your family values?
The Tuttle Twins books are a fantastic curriculum resource for this!
It is critical to empower our children to understand these time-tested principles so that they develop critical thinking skills about real world concepts.
Recognizing that the world is full of companies, people, teacher-activists and politicians who want to expose your children to ideas you may not support, it is our job as parents to make sure our children have a foundation of freedom and critical thinking skills.
Through this course set, your children will learn things like :
- Why a free market economy is the greatest way to lift people out of poverty and allow people to trade with one another.
- How property rights allows us to decide what’s best for us, and make decisions for our family.
- Why the world is a better place because of entrepreneurs who create businesses to help serve us and improve our lives.
- What socialism is and why it is so destructive to our freedoms and well being.
- How the Golden Rule is so important to people getting along with one another, no matter where we live, what we look like, or what we believe.
- Why education is so important, and why children should be allowed to learn things they are interested in.
- What true laws are, and why the government should protect our rights.
- … And so much more
There’s curriculum for K-6th, and material for the middle & high school years as well. -
Practical Life Skills Training
Much like a typical day in anyone’s life, there is a rhythm of work & rest and then there is the other part of the day spent helping and performing the practical tasks of living in a home & community. The goal is that we do this while delighting in the things that we do and create!
The goal is to offer scholars many occasions throughout the school year to learn new skills, to informally apprentice in trades they are interested in, to learn survival skills, to build things, and to do service projects for neighbors and/or throughout the larger community.
Cooking, baking, cleaning, gardening, shelter building, fire science, forestry work, fishing, plant identification, firewood splitting, canning, caring for farm animals, soap making, etc. are just a few examples.
These elective are ideally integrated into every month of the school year but are dependent on parent-volunteers and neighbor-volunteers.
For example, it could be that students learn a new trade/skill each month and get to practice 1/2 days each week. We look forward to partnering with local neighbors who specialize in these areas.
*Church Leaders - This would be a fabulous opportunity to connect the church members (who have any of these skills) with the scholars to support their education experience -
Life Academy Kids - "How to Keep Your Love On"
We all want connected and life-giving relationships–it’s what we were made for. Yet for so many of us, relationships remain one of our greatest areas of struggle and pain.
Thankfully, there is good news. No matter what kind of dysfunction or pain you’ve experienced, you don’t have to pass that on to your child.
We want to help children to build strong relationships by introducing three areas of relational practice that form the foundation for every healthy relationship: connection, communication, and boundaries. We want to be your child’s coach and provide them with critical tools and skills that will enable them to establish these practices in their life, which include:
Becoming a powerful person
Communicating well in conflict
Taking personal responsibility
The importance of telling the truth
Keeping your love on no matter what
Help your child get the skills and knowledge they need to build healthy, connected relationships. (It’s truly a gift that will keep on giving) Get ready to watch your child grow on a journey of personal and relational transformation!
Your church cnenroll in the Life Academy Kids courses online at: kids.loplifeacademy.com -
Creating a Rule of Life
Information alone is not enough to produce formation.
We want to encourage and lead children to practice Jesus’ teachings, to get his ideas from our minds into the muscle memory of our bodies.
We do this in a fun and interactive way by introducing and adopting practices from Jesus’ own life, time-tested disciplines for the spiritual life that open up our entire being to God and allow him to transform us into people of love. Our nine core Practices work together to form a Rule of Life for the modern era.It’s very simple: It’s encouraging children in time-tested habits that support their spiritual formation over a lifetime.
The practices of Jesus are otherwise known as the Spiritual Disciplines are habits of the heart, mind, body & soul that can be developed and encouraged from early on, with age-appropriate application and teaching.
The idea is that children develop formative habits, a rhythm for their weeks that stabilize and nurture their inner-worlds to help them thrive in their relationship with Jesus throughout every stage of their lives.
We’re excited to invite children to go on a journey with Jesus, by doing what He did.
Practicing the Way is the best template we can think of for this, where the Spiritual Disciplines are assimilated into everyday by practicing a new one each month. At Practicing the Way, it’s typically for adults but any could take these teachings and make them applicable to to a child’s life as well. It’s all about habit and daily rhythms.
Practicing The Way -
Mama Bear Apologetics
MAMA BEAR APOLOGETICS GUIDE TO SEXUALITY
Starting at a young age, kids are being fed damaging misinformation about sexuality, gender identity, and human biology. As parents, it’s up to you to help your children understand God’s truth about these integral concepts in the face of the candy-coated lies that saturate today’s world.
In the footsteps of the bestselling Mama Bear Apologetics comes this invaluable guide to training your kids to know and respect God’s design in a world that has rejected it. The Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality will equip you and your children to:
Understand God’s design for gender, sex, marriage, and family as a beautiful portrait that reveals the nature of God Himself;
Identify the tactics being used to trick children into adopting an unbiblical view of sexuality under the guise of Christian-sounding words like love, identity, tolerance, and justice; and
Teach your kids to treat those who hold different beliefs with gentle, Christlike compassion without compromising biblical values.
This course would be done as an after school “Book Reading,” option for families who are interested in their child(run) participating. This course relies on a parent-volunteer reader.
Mama Bear Apologetics
School of Life Style Events
Your church could create similar event options such as these or create your own!
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Entrepreneur Fair
Each year, scholars of all ages will work toward developing a product or a service (at their level) that they will showcase at our annual Entrepreneur Fair!
Scholars will begin by brainstorming ideas of what they’d like to do or make, discussing what they may see as “demand,” and thinking about what their gifts are and how they could use them to create something of value to sell, or a business plan to implement.
The idea is that scholars would begin to think like an entrepreneur, and would work out all of the practical business variables as they go, employing their math skills, logic, critical thinking, creativity and more, while keeping records of their process.
The Entrepreneur Fair will be an opportunity for guests to visit each scholars’ booth and observe their product or service, ask questions, and if desired, purchase. This will give children a sense of accomplishment, responsibility, and will help them to experience the “payoff,” of their hard work and dedication to something they’ve invested time and energy into.
Scholars may also barter with their peers, to exchange products or services as a real-time trade opportunity. -
Summer Camp
We encourage all scholars to attend a Christian summer camp together. In Southern Oregon, we send our scholars to the Kidder Creek Classic Camp (in northern CA) tas an annual faith-building and community-building opportunity. Kidder Creek Classic Camp is one week filled with crazy games, outdoor activities, and target sports like archery and riflery for 2–6th graders.
There is also a middle school and high school camp option as well. Daily water events at the pond include swimming, the water slide, fishing, and the aqua glide. Cabin devotions and campfire are times of sharing and learning more about God.The memories and friendships forged at camp will last a lifetime! Full & Partial scholarship are available thru Kidder Creek. Some churches may offer financial support as well. Whether your church opts for Kiddr Ceek or another similar camp alternative, the sumer camp experience is excellent!
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Family Campouts
We highly encourage that the families at each chapter of The School of Life plan an annual family camping trip! Whether its to the beach on the Oregon coast or to a lake in the mountains, this experience is a bonding experience like no other. It can be done simply and yet, with great adventure!
Even if it ends up being somewhere local nearby, spending a few days together building and strengthening the community that your children are part of is a beautiful way to add value to their total education experience!
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Family Movie Nights
We encourage the micro-schools to host a monthly Family Movie night at each church to encourage community-building and as a fun rhythm for the children to look forward to each month!
Families can come with their pajamas or comfy clothes on, with snacks & drinks for their own family if they desire. A great way to ring in the weekend and the start of a new month together!
*The date & times must be prearranged with church leadership -
Car Wash
A car wash put on by each micro school is a great way to engage and serve the community and is a fantastic fundraising opportunity for each scholar to participate in! We encourage that all funds go back to supporting the school.
Scholars feel a much greater sense of ownership of their education and their school when they invest themselves in events like these!
The church parking lot is a great place for this event!
The kids can help volunteers with the process of washing cars and in doing so, know that their “work” helps to support their school! -
Classical Dance
We encourage the micro schools to host a dance where the children learn classic dances (ballroom, tap, folk, waltz, etc.) from different genres. Many of these types of dance are lost art forms in the current generation but we’d love to recapture their value and beauty! These memories will last for a lifetime.