Now Enrolling for Second Semester!

It's time for a new experience in Christian education!  January is a great time to start fresh in your child's educational journey!  Info session, Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 7:00 pm!  Hope to see you there!

Merry Christmas from the

Living Water School!

A Practical Field Trip

For our Christmas celebration, the students voted to spend the day at National Harbor. I owed them a field trip (all field trips are earned), so I agreed. Students had to bring their own money. They got to choose their chaperones (groups could roam freely but had to stay with their chaperones at all times). When I told people about this "field trip" people asked me how this was educational. I will tell you in the words of one of my 4th graders (a discussion we had as we walked to Elevation Burger):
student: Ms. Anika I think I know why you took us on this field trip.
me: (grinning) Really? Why?
student: Because you wanted us to learn how to count and manage money
me: (smiling) yep.

So that little girl was in my group. She wanted to shop and eat, but she was determined to have some money left over. She had only $20. All day she would want me to help her add up her purchases. Eventually she was doing it on her own. She was looking at prices, counting her money on her own. When we got back on the bus she wanted me to see her wallet. She smiled as she said, "Ms. Anika I still have $2 left!" This girl bought a teddy bear on sale at Build A Bear, 2 Peeps, and had a grilled chicken sandwich with water (I shared my fries with her). I love how the math tutor (teachers are called tutors) was standing at the register as kids made purchases and taught a lesson on math and then she said, "Ok, folks this is Practical Math right here!" LOVE IT! 

A Close-Up

Imagine walking into a school and seeing kids hanging out.  Eating, resting on a couch, sitting at a table, playing, talking, laughing, listening to music.  Well that's what it may seem like when you walk into our school, but if you look closely something amazing is actually  going on.  Here's a close-up look at today:
A student bought a locker (with his fake money salary) and rented it out to another student who wanted to move to a new locker. He wrote up a contract and everything and the other student had to sign it. He typed the contract on the computer. A group of girls decided to clean out our storage room and turn it into a sewing room. They created laws for how the sewing room should function. 2 little girls picked up a phonics work book and quietly sat at a table to see how many pages they could do by themselves. A boy organized The Crystal Club and a field trip to the Crystal/gemstone store. He wrote up the sign up sheet and posted it at the student mailboxes. 2 girls decided to do a language lesson on Rosetta Stone (one took Filipino and the other took French), a group of kids made an indoor "neighborhood" out of tables, chairs and blankets. The Judicial Committee met and sentenced a boy to writing a letter of apology for kicking a girl on her shoes. And the boy cried and said, "I wish I can just be punished by a teacher!" A girl cleaned the kitchen so good it shined and smelled so good. Some kids got together and re-wrote a Christmas play script to be more relevant to themselves. They want to perform it before school gets out for Christmas (keep your fingers crossed). A group of girls (and a staff member) talked about crushes, and friendships and trusting and being bullied at other schools and learning to trust again. Some boys went outside to play basketball. A group of little people did an art project with a staff member...they made snowflakes and painted them. A staff member did a math lesson with some students. A girl decided to do a research project on CoCo Chanel on the computer. I could go on and on. When you come in you would probably see something a little chaotic...but if you look closely, you will see some amazing things happening.