Our year at Guardians Academy

Long post ahead! I want to tell our whole long story about Guardians Academy from the beginning back in August!

Due to Covid, there was so much uncertainty about what would be happening with our kids at their public schools. Doing school from home was HARD in the Spring and I knew it would not be a great fit for Piper or Brighton. I knew Deacon would do okay either way but I was especially concerned for Bright so I started looking at other options and found some information about Guardians. It was supposed to be an outdoor school at the Kuna Castle. My girls were thrilled at the idea of going to school at a castle and I asked a lot of questions about academics and was assured that it would be a good all-around education! This seemed like a really good option for us, even though some of my friends and family thought I was crazy! I kind of thought I was crazy too but in a way it just felt like the right thing to do.

My girls were excited about the idea of the castle.

Well.  A few DAYS before school was set to start, we got an email from the school notifying us that they weren't able to get the proper permits for the septic at the castle and school was actually going to start at a park in Eagle! (About 20 minutes away) The park was right on the greenbelt and had a lot of open space for the kids. It also only had one nasty park bathroom! The first several at the park were actually pretty fantastic except for the fact that we didn't know what would be happening next! We had a meeting going over options and some of them did not sound appealing! The other problem was they didn't seem to be doing much actual "school" besides a lot of science stuff. They were blacksmithing, doing ballistics type stuff, exploring nature a LOT, even finding edible plants. What they weren't doing was writing or math. When we signed up for the school we were told each student would be given a Kindle with a math program installed that they would work on each day and there would be help available for them with math. WELL- they got the Kindle for ONE day and then they were taken away. We were told they needed some kind of update but *spoiler we never got them back. They had math workbooks to work on but didn't do them every day and didn't have any math instruction time.  I kept trying to talk to the school owners about this and was usually dismissed or they said they would work on it, but nothing really happened. Writing was kind of the same thing. They did it occasionally but nothing like public school.

Here are some pics from their time at the Greenbelt.

Bright made these earrings.

Halloween parade!

Bright and Mr. Dan

SO. After the 8 weeks at the park (the last two being VERY cold and stressful) we were told they had acquired Linder Farms! This is a place that has run as a Halloween time pumpkin patch, entertainment farm. This was super cool because they had acres and acres to build and develop the school! We went on one weekend and helped them clean out the barn. There was a LOT of work to do and it seemed kind of crazy to be sending our kids there for school but we decided to keep taking the leaps of faith and go with it. To be honest, I was kind of on a week-by-week probation with the school in my mind. I kept thinking, the minute the kids aren't happy we can leave. However, there were a couple things that kept us there. #1 was a teacher named Mr. Dan that was amazing. He did so many cool things with the kids and related to them so well. Brighton loved being in his class! Piper also started liking her teacher Mr. Alex. Also, for Middle School they were only going 2 days a week in-person and Bright really did not want to do online. So we stayed! And you guys, it really was mostly an outdoor school! They used classrooms made of hay and tarps, sheds, and outbuildings for warmth! We spent HUNDREDS of dollars on warm clothing and outdoor gear and they bundled up for school every single day.

They were able to do a lot of cool things this year. Knife safety, blacksmithing, archery, bb guns, fort building, earth and animal science, learning Viking Runes, leather work, hiking and other field trips, cooking and sewing!

It really got me thinking about education in general. I've always thought education was one thing- what they taught in school. This year was a very different kind of education and it opened my mind to the possibilities that there is so much more to life and learning than traditional school and it was amazing how hands-on they got to be with EVERYTHING.  I wanted this for my girls and I wanted them to have a year where they just got to be kids and learn the way kids learn best! But- there was a problem. As idealistic as the idea of this school was, there was an element of traditional education that I just really felt like my girls NEEDED i.e Math and English/writing skills.
As the year came to a close and I was never satisfied about the academics at the school (and I was only looking for the basics!) I finally realized that the school hadn't been completely honest from the beginning about what it was- NOT a school. Due to zoning issues they actually weren't even ALLOWED to teach academics. They're allowed to do all the kinds of classes they were doing, but nothing actually academic. They weren't allowed to hire actual teachers or anyone certified to tutor in math. And the huge bummer is they really were NOT honest about that from the beginning and were not truthful about it when we met with them about enrolling next year. The owners of the school, unfortunately have other full time jobs so communication was very minimal and we rarely got clear answers from them. I think the "educators" at the school did their very best to teach around the limitations of not being a school but I knew my girls were falling behind academically. While some people would be okay with them having experiences over education, I just can't cut off my kids future like that. What if they want to be a nurse? An engineer? ANYTHING that requires a college degree? Giving my kids an open future is so important to me.

When finally learning all of the information about what the school hasn't been honest about we knew we couldn't enroll next year. My kids were actually SO sad. I realized this year was a really good experience for them and allowed them a year to be free-spirited little hippies! :) haha

Picking up litter along Linder Rd.

Another cool thing this spring was that Brighton and her new BFF Maximus got to do a business. They found an old shed on the property, spent HOURS cleaning it out, painting it, tiling it and decorating it and turned it into a baked goods stand. They spent hours baking and sold their stuff every day at lunch and after school! 

More pics from the year at the farm and field trips.

Piper's classroom

Pros from this year:

1.Another year of "childhood" where they got to be a lot more carefree than a typical year.

2. Bright and Piper seriously bonded! Being in school together gave the girls such a huge bond! They knew each other's friends and got to see each other all the time at school. 

3. Lots of stories! Every day they'd get in the car and fight to tell me all the stories of the day!

4. New friends. Bright made a best friend Max and Piper made lots of good friends like Jaqueline that she'll hopefully continue a friendship with! And we got to meet some amazing teachers, parents and families from the school.

5. Learning resiliency! Going to an outdoor school in an Idaho winter makes you tough! I don't know whether to be proud or embarrassed that we made it through the whole year. Let me tell you a LOT of people dropped out along the way.

Cons from this year:

1. The obvious is that they both fell behind in math and Piper fell behind in writing. Bright is a fantastic writer and a veracious reader so that was easy to keep up on her own.

2. Halfway through the year Bright got separated from Mr. Dan (her previous advisor) and her class got split up so she got a little distanced from other friends like Amy and Isaiah. She also got an advisor who did NOT relate well to teens and that made the math situation much worse. 

3. Some of the female employees at the school were pretty sexist and did NOT relate well to the teens. There was one in particular, who was actually a grandma of a student who got a job as a "monitor" and she basically just yelled at everyone. ugh.

4. A lot of wasted time. There was a LOT of unsupervised downtime where the students literally had nothing to do. I wasn't a fan of that at all. I felt like if we were paying for this school they should at least have some structured plans every single day. 

5. Limited friendships. Piper only had one other girl in her class.

6. Sometimes we had no clue what was going on! Communication was lacking, to say the least!

7. Lack of open dialogue. The "not-school" had a Facebook group for us all to communicate but they started blocking people who raised valid questions, deleted posts, deleted comments and eventually didn't allow posts that weren't approved. That left a lot of people feeling censored and in the dark. Communication from the school was often hard to come by which left me feeling really uneasy sometimes. People who "questioned" were told they needed to get on board with the vision. Odd.

Overall, I have NO regrets about sending the kids to Guardians this year, mostly because it was kind of an "off year" for everyone, including traditional education. If there had to be a year to miss school, this was it! I'm a little worried about next year, but I think they'll catch up just fine. We loved the experiences and it kept us on our toes every day not knowing what was going to happen! LOL I'm glad the year ended well- with tears about not going back. We'll always have good memories of this crazy school year!

 

Brighton is 14!

 Brighton has sort of started the tradition of being with her friends Autumn and Elle for her birthday! They make her feel comfortable and happy and they feel like family to her! This year I took the girls to the Nampa Rollerdrome and then to Messenger pizza for her 14th birthday and then back to our house for a movie and chilling!

Brighton is a total hippie spirit! She loves crystals, plants, making moon water, etc. She likes making things and making her room just the way she likes it. She doesn't love skiing but tried to go this winter and tried to like it! Even though she has started to not like the family outings we want to go on, she tries hard to have a good attitude and make it fun for everyone. She kind of sets the mood in the family and when she's happy, all the kids are happy!

She got her braces off!

She's made a new best friend this year, Maximus. Her other friends at school are Amy, Jack, and Isaiah. She is also friends with all the little kids at school and they love her! She's doing cooking club with Max on Fridays.

Some of her plants in her room! She's obsessed with plants!