Well, guys, I have big news! I’ve wanted to share this for a while now, but I held my breath (and my typing) until everything was in place first. Maybe because I didn’t want to jinx it. Maybe because I didn’t want to get my own hopes up. And finally, maybe because it would have felt silly to bring it up and have nothing come from it… I don’t know. But now, I can finally share a bit of really good and exciting news happening in our world over here! Also, very exciting, because we all agreed, we haven’t had really good news in a while– and this is really great.

Marlowe is heading back to school next year! Marlowe has been accepted to a super small (8 kids in her entire grade!), creative focused school for advanced kids. And of course, it goes without saying, but I (we) couldn’t be more proud of her! You know, I love homeschooling her– I’m forever grateful that we’ve had the opportunity to educate her and watch her grow at home. And honestly, I’d happily homeschool her until the end (and maybe one day we will homeschool her again), but this was an opportunity that we really couldn’t pass up 🙂

I mean, if I’m being honest here, we all knew that she’d get in– that was never a concern for us (we put her through gifted testing in preschool), but if I’m being totally upfront, we weren’t sure if we could financially swing it. Well, with Marlowe’s rocketing scores (and her sweet curious personality I’m sure), financial aid was on our side– and so now: it’s totally happening! Again, mom brag, but I’m so very proud of her!

You guys know we chose to homeschool for a few reasons. Well, none of those reasons seem to be standing in our way now. Like, everything is in line with our current situation and this school– and it just makes sense to do this for her.

One of the primary reasons we chose to homeschool her was because we were going to move to Guatemala. But even in Guatemala, the plan was just to homeschool her for a bit and then send her to school there. (you guys know how Guatemala worked out– or didn’t work out). But we continued to homeschool her so that we could travel freely. I still, 100% believe that exposure to the world is SO incredibly important for young minds– showing them a multitude of different cultures and experiences is the greatest learning tool. Education really should start with a human understanding of how the world works, ya know? Well, with this school, travel isn’t a huge concern– there aren’t strict absentee guidelines in place. She can take the time off when she needs– as long as she is able to keep up. So if we decide to pick up and head out for a few weeks, it’s not a problem. Not that we plan to do that anytime since I really do need a break from all air travel. So again, this seems like perfect timing.

Our other main reason for homeschooling was Alex’s schedule. Being a chef and having a family are two things that don’t typically align too well. Well, we’ll see how this part of the equation goes, but it seems like in this coming winter season, Alex will have at least have one weekend day a week off, giving us at least one day a week for family time. And there is the possibility that he might be able to go in for an earlier day shift, where he might actually be able to see Marlowe for an hour or two each night. Again, we’ll see. But I think (and really hope) this should go well.

Our last reason for homeschooling Marlowe was the school options and the school system in Florida– it’s lacking, to say the least. With all the shootings and the overall low score ratings in public schools, I wasn’t convinced that Marlowe would be any better off in school instead of being home or traveling in the world. And to be honest, we didn’t bother to deeply look into too many private schools either. As someone who went to both private and public school, I definitely didn’t see much of a benefit in it. I was bored, underwhelmed, and feeling generally ‘whatever’ during my time in school. You know, it’s not that I think school is bad or wrong– it’s not. Education is EVERYTHING, it just made more sense to educate her ourselves so that we could educate her in ways that best fit her and our needs– not a government system.

 

So how did this all happen? Well, we saw the school Marlowe will be attending being built, but we never bothered to look into it, because we knew we’d be taking off to Guatemala a few months later. But recently, I thought, ‘let me look online, never hurts to give something a google right?’ Well, the school quickly perked my interest, and with Marlowe peeking over my shoulder, I could hear her tiny excited voice behind me say, “Omg, I need to go to this school! Can I go to this school?!” I told her it was out of our price range, but we could look into it. After some searching and reading a few articles about how they would be funding some of the children, I thought, okay, maybe this really is a possibility. I told her not to get her hopes up but we would take it one step at a time. A tour, another IQ test with a psychologist, some more math and reading tests, and a few shadow days at the school to get to know her– each item checked off the to-do list. The only thing she failed at? Being too much of a perfectionist in testing, haha. And not very long after, we received an email saying she was in. Again, we were happy, but no one celebrated yet. Even Marlowe was happy but knew better to get too excited until after we heard back about our financial paperwork. Not even another 24 hours later though?  We got the call, phone on speaker mode, and Marlowe cheering, “YAYYYYY!” in the background as we were told our price range was accepted.

She’s officially in and next September she’s back in a uniform and in a classroom again. But this time in a classroom with two teachers and less than ten kids. She’ll be taking engineering, reading, math, mindfulness, art, yoga, theatre, Spanish, and so much more. The only thing this school is missing for me? I wish it was taking place outdoors on a permaculture farm (you know I’m half-joking– but let’s be real, I’m totally serious too). Other than the missing sustainable farming bit, I’m looking forward to this adventure for her. She truly deserves this and so much more.

I’m holding back so many more mom-brags– so I’m totally going to start closing up this blog post here. We’re so proud of her bright little mind and her skills in the world. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how she thrives in a small community with intentions to cultivate mindful, smart, growing kids. Also, I want you to know that  Marlowe is so excited that she asked me to post this. She said, I’m so excited, who can I tell the good news to?” and I told her, “well I’m hoping to share on the blog.” Her response? “Well, that’s a lot of people to tell then! Can you do it today?!” So, guys, not only am I very happy to share our bit of amazing news, but Marlowe couldn’t wait to share with you guys either 🙂 It’s been a good month indeed! I can’t wait for her new adventure!  Now we just need to make it through summer 😉

*these photos were taken by our favorite lady Celia D. Luna at an animal rehabilitation center Honduras. I didn’t have any other more current photos of Marlowe to share and these popped up in one of my “use one-day” photo folders. Seemed like a good match 🙂

22 Comments

  1. Meghan Campbell

    Thank you for sharing your wonderful news, Marlowe! We’re so happy for you! Congrats to the whole family, you deserve this happy news. Much love from Canada ❤️

  2. Doing the happy dance for you over here, Marlowe!!! Congratulations! You’re such an incredible girl and have so much to offer the great big world that you are exploring. Good job, Mom and Dad!

  3. Congrats to Marlowe and mommy too!!! Hope you have a great adventure in school!! Wishing all the best😀

  4. Katerina

    Yay, congratulations to all of you and especially Marlowe! Really excited for your news 🙂
    Good luck with your new adventures Marlowe, I hope the best for you!!!

  5. Gabriela

    Oh my! Congratulations Marlowe! We are so happy and excited to read the news!. Thank you for wanting to share them with us. You are such a wonderful kid and this is going to be one beautiful, fun and interesting adventure. Can’t wait to hear (read) about all the amazing things you are going to learn. Have fun!.

    Congratulations Mom and Dad, you’re doing a very nice job.

  6. Congratulations Marlowe!
    We homeschool too, but we don’t have any options nearby to consider that are anything close to as nice as that school sounds. I hope it will be fantastic for her! 🙂

    • Thank you! Yeah, if this wasn’t an option, we’d totally just homeschool her, but we’re excited to give this a try!

      • How exciting for y’all and Marlow! I had to comment and tell you that my husband and I are the directors of a small private school in Asheville that sounds so similar, The New Classical Academy . 8 kids per class 2 teachers each, individualized curriculums, hands on, tons of outside time etc. I would love to know which school this is as I would love to connect with them if you felt comfortable letting me know (totally get it if you don’t) If you want to hear any more about how ours goes I’d be happy to talk more. All 3 of our kids go there and we’ve been doing it 13 years (I can talk alllllll day about this type of education) ekkk I am so excited for you guys. We get so many kids who were homeschooled for all those reasons and come to us for all those reason too. Xoxo

  7. Catherine

    Congrats to Marlowe! Sounds like a perfect fit for her and for you your whole family. No doubt she will thrive there as well. <3

  8. Hi,
    that school on which method / teaching methodology is based?

    • As far as I know, the school doesn’t follow a specific method (like, Waldorf or Montessori, or anything like that. They’re just doing their own thing. They focused mostly on the whole student and hands-on learning. But there is a good amount of tech as well as the practice of mindfulness or creative classes like theatre or art.

      🙂

  9. Congratulations to Marlowe!! That is so exciting for her and a dream come true, really 🙂