Our Mission
The name of our school is based on the Bible verse James 3:17. We desire to partner with parents as they model and teach godly wisdom to their children so that they can represent Christ’s pure, peaceable, and gentle qualities to our world.
From a practical standpoint, as a school we want to come alongside homeschooling parents and support them in their efforts to educate their children at home. As we continue to build and improve our school, five key components are driving us: flexible support for parents, engaged and active learning, core subjects, community, and a drop-off program.
Flexible Support for Parents
We offer a one- or two-day a week program for students. We have intentionally designed our school this way to make our school more affordable and to offer the amount of desired support to parents. Some families cannot afford to send their child two days each week. By offering a one-day option, we make the school affordable for more families. We also recognize that the amount of support and guidance parents want from our school varies. Attending one day a week provides less support and guidance, allowing parents to have more freedom and flexibility as they educate their students. Attending two days a week provides more support and guidance, as most instructional content is taught at school.
* If you are deciding whether one or two days is the right choice for your family, please read our online article “Should I Send My Child to 3:17 for One Day or Two Days?”
*Please note that high school classes are run differently. Classes are offered two days a week, and students must attend both days of instruction time.
Engaged and Active Learning
We believe learning is best accomplished when children are active and engaged. While seat work does have its place, most often our students will be found crafting, completing
experiments, presenting information, or discussing content. Academically, we lean toward a classical approach, but we also incorporate various other educational philosophies.
Core Subjects
Our school focuses on teaching core subjects. From the beginning it has been a goal of ours to teach core subjects so that our students’ experience at 3:17 enhances and propels their home learning forward. The core subjects we offer are Science, History, and Literature, as well as Composition for older students and Phonics for younger students. While core subjects are our primary focus, we don’t limit ourselves to core subjects. We offer Chapel, Class Devotions, Music, Art, and PE, as well as a variety of electives that change from year to year but have included School Newspaper, Logic, Spanish, Apologetics, Home Ec, and Strategy Games. Additionally, we offer optional after-school programs, which may change from year to year but have included Extended Care with Arts & Crafts, Tae Kwan Do and Drama.
Community
We seek to create a welcoming environment for students where they can learn along with their peers and develop friendships. We appreciate how our learning approach of engaged and active learning by its very nature helps promote friendship and community within the classroom. Our extracurriculars, like drama class and field trips, nurture these friendships beyond the classroom. Our parents also have opportunities to meet each other at meetings and events, develop their own friendships, and receive support with their homeschooling journey.
Drop-Off Program
Homeschool parents are busy!!! We have built our school around being a 100% drop-off program. We require NO volunteering from parents at all. As homeschooling moms ourselves, we know how much you all are doing, and we don’t want to add one more task to your to-do lists. That said, if you WANT to volunteer, we have some needs you can meet such as organizing field trips or pre-screening possible literature selections for the classroom.
