The call for Christian education is for all people, all the time, in all places. We see this especially commanded in Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6, and in the Great Commission. We are to continually grow in knowledge throughout our lives, and as we are learning, we should be learning in such a way that the incoming information is checked for accuracy according to God’s definition of truth (2 Cor. 10:5). Christian education, then, is not a choice. Parents must carefully inspect the type of education they are giving their children, whether it be at school or home.
Understanding the command for Christian education, why then, are so many Christians in public schools where the education mandated by law is not Christian? What are the barriers to families choosing Christian education? These are the age-old restraints of time, money, and energy.
It is our goal to lessen each of these barriers with the start of our Home/School Hybrid program. We hope this option will particularly help families who are coming to the realization of the command for Christian education and desire to walk in obedience out of the public schools.
What is the hybrid program and how can it help? The Home/School Hybrid is a wonderful alternative to five-day schooling. Students in the hybrid program will attend classes at Agape Christi two days of the week and then complete the remainder of their assignments under the tutelage of their parents the other three days. The lesson plans, assignments, and comprehensive curriculum are all prepared in advance for the family by the school teacher, thereby reducing the barrier of time. Of course, the most obvious reduction to time is the two days of the week that the parent (usually mother) can have the freedom to do other things.
Hybrid students meet on the following days:
Grades 1&2 attend: Tuesdays and Fridays
Grades 3&4 attend: Tuesdays and Thursdays
Grade 5 attends: Wednesdays and Fridays
Some early feedback we have gotten from families with multiple school-age children is the question of hybrid students attending on separate days. “Why can’t our 3rd grader and 5th grader meet on the same days? This will require driving to school four times a week! I will never get a day completely off!” In short, the staggered schedule helps with the barrier of energy. How so?
To pull off the high quality Agape Christi academic program at home is an enormous task. In fact, it is this reason that the founding families are starting Agape Christi. We thought homeschooling would simply be impossible to pull off as thoroughly as we desired for our kids. We are taking great pains to create an integrated curriculum following the timeline of history for each grade. We do not want students to think only in terms of compartmentalized subjects of math, science, history, literature, and music. Rather, we want students to think whole-mindedly about God’s creation and love the story of Creation, Fall, and Redemption as it unfolds in history and all aspects of academics. To do this, history is also taught in math class, math is also taught in music class, music is also taught in science class and so on and so forth. We feel families would struggle to homeschool multiple children on the same day with this curriculum. In a staggered schedule, families can still maintain a high quality program with the added bonus of individual instruction for each child. Those times of individual attention for children are rare in large families; how special it will be for that child to look forward to a particular day as, “my time with mom!”
Finally, the barrier of money. To put it simply, going to school two days a week costs less than going five days a week. We hope you can see the value of what we are offering to homeschool families at Agape Christi. As a reminder, the Recruitment Discount applies to Home/School Hyrbid families too. You could potentially pay as little as $400 per child! We are enrolling now for the Fall 2013, so apply today!