To God Be The Glory!

Our CC St.Pete campus held our Foundations & Essentials Orientations yesterday.  It was filled to overflowing with HIS presence, tender love, and precious fellowship.



Families were able to meet their tutors and vice versa.  It was a day filled with anticipation and excitement.  

From left to right:  Anastasia, Mattie, Gabi, Jennifer, Danielle, and Angela.  

Moms had  wonderful dialectic discussion as we talked briefly about bringing CC to life in practical ways at home.  My very favorite part of the morning was when the new moms were asking the veteran homeschool moms questions and idea's began to flow.  You could see peace take root as HE connected our hearts first to HIM and then to each other.  



For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord.  Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a HOPE and a FUTURE!



The purpose of orientation is to paint the picture of expectations and goals.  Anastasia walked us through the true Classical purpose of the fine arts portion of our program.  She breathed understanding and clarity into why we do what we do.

Gabi walked us through geography and how to work on blobbing the countries at home with our children.  Blobbing is something Leigh Bortin's teaches us in her book, "The Core".  We also brought in and talked about the Classical Conversations teaching tools such as the laminated geography trivium table map, flash cards, etc...


Above Marilou (middle) is our facility coordinator and next to her Debbie over sees the office management.  (I love these women)

We were so honored to celebrate the wonderful Faith Covenant leadership team who so graciously cares for us each and every week.  I did not get a shot of Pastor Rick and Jim, but they were there and encouraged us to use the building without fear of dents and scrapes. Their humble hearts of humility breathed peace into our experience.  It's always about the relationship!  




One of the things I loved (and had not planned) was having Mrs. Doto's class visit our orientation.  It was a God moment.  I  began the day by reviewing the three stages of Classical Christian Education and how Classical Conversations help us to walk those stages out.  God's timing was perfect in having Mrs. Doto's Challenge IV class stop by towards the end to introduce themselves and welcome our new moms.   



We were so honored to have Linda Wooldridge stop by from the Pinellas Parent Educators Association.  She shared the blessing of membership into the oldest and largest support group in Pinellas County and whet our appetite for upcoming events.  Her humor and genuine heart to help homeschooling moms breath a sigh of relief into any situation.  i

Angela Sackett came to orientation to introduce our CC Families to her incredible photography at Legacy Seven Studio's.  They will be doing our school pictures for our entire community.  What I love about her is that though we will have a portrait style staging area, she never does boring or simple.  God has gifted her with the ability to help each persons personality come alive and shine through in her pictures.  



Dee Dee Larreau graciously shared the fab three Thirty-One products that many of our CC families use to help them organize their homeschools and simply community day.  She sweetly offered all of our families a 10% discount on any orders we place together this next week.  We really are Better Together!

Terri Ulrich stopped by to talk about the power of storing God's Word up in our hearts.  She shared her love for a very specific bible program called, "Picture This"!  She graciously has offered to mentor moms through a workshop who would like to learn more.

Once we finished the orientation portion of our program we encouraged our families to check out their children's classes and to personally meet and greet with each of their tutors.  As I walked through the hallways I heard laughter and watched moms lay hands on one another in prayer.  

THIS IS WHAT I LOVE ABOUT WALKING IN COMMUNITY!

 
Some of our dads

A time of fellowship

Gabi meeting her mama's

Moms connecting


ESSENTIALS PROGRAM ORIENTATION



After a short lunch our afternoon Essentials program moms met to get ready for an exciting year of writing, grammar, and math drill.  These students are 9 years old and up

 Mrs. Mullins will be our girls Essentials tutor this year and did a wonderful job introducing us to our Essentials Of English Language program.

Tonya (On my right) is our boys Essentials tutor and did an incredible job showing us how to walk out the IEW portion of our writing program. (I couldn't find a picture of Tonya yesterday so I had to go back to my archives)

Our moms walked through the manuels and asked lots of wonderful questions. 

It's going to be a great year!