As Christian educators, we strive to provide high-quality learning experiences, safe social interactions, and support for the well-being of our students. That is why at Enlightium Academy, we are proud to be accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International and Cognia, as well as being a member of multiple academic institutions. Accreditation not only confirms the promises we make to our students and families, but it also sets us apart from other online schools. In this blog, I will discuss the importance of accreditation and the various organizations that have recognized Enlightium Academy for its excellence in education.

Getting to Know Enlightium Academy’s Executive Director – Part 2

In my article entitled “The Formative Years: Education and Family”, I briefly shared my early dream of starting a school with Christian values. Growing up in Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet Union republic, I longed to be able to learn about God in school.

Adapting to America

Spokane, Washington is known for being a family-friendly city with many parks and lakes. The climate is very similar to Kyrgyzstan, where we lived before moving to the United States of America. Our family came to Spokane in August of 1991. Within ten years, more than 20,000 Slavic refugees immigrated from the former Soviet Union and made Spokane their home.

Since the dawn of the 21st century, various alternatives to K-12 public education have become more common. One of the rising school choice options available to parents, which reflects the reality of how students learn nowadays, is online education. Online education (1) is designed around the learner, allowing for self-paced learning that provides students with opportunities to speed up or slow down as necessary; (2) provides the flexibility offered by online technologies to support the needs of diverse learners; and (3) opens a wide array of options to all learners¹. 

In a post-pandemic world, online education has drawn more attention not only from the media but also from academia and health organizations. In the fall of 2020, many public and private schools switched from in-person to remote learning. A decrease in teachers and students’ physical presence in the classroom resulted in an increase in interest in online learning. This is why parents wanted to enroll their students in an online school such as Enlightium Academy: to prevent gaps in education in times of crisis. One parent reported that they enrolled their child “due to COVID and that their public school was not fully equipped for remote learning” (Parent of a 6th-grade student, WA).

Ken Robinson², an international advisor on innovative education, noted that a solution to the downsides of public education is individualized learning through the use of technology. Using technology in education allows students to discover their individual talents, puts students in an environment where they want to learn, and helps them naturally discover their true passions.

Family Foundation - Part 1

As far back as I can remember, I had a deep desire for education. I was the seventh of nine kids in my family. My dad valued education and spent evenings with all of us. I remember having a big round table in the living room where all my siblings would complete homework under my dad’s supervision. Sadly, he passed away when I was only eight years old.

With the recent worldwide pandemic, many parents are more concerned than ever about their children’s health and welfare while attending school in person. Enlightium Academy, a private Christian online school, has gained valuable experience in teaching online courses since 2003 and was able to seamlessly support many students during the pandemic and other crises. Partnering with Enlightium in educating your student can be easier than you think!

Online Homeschooling is a Great Solution for Busy Parents

The main benefit of online learning is the teachers. Research indicates that teachers have more genuine relationships with students in online settings since they provide one-on-one interactions with their students, and teachers have a better chance to learn about each student in comparison to the classroom setting.¹ 

Online education is designed around the learner. It allows for self-paced learning that provides students with opportunities to speed up or slow down in their assignments as necessary. Online education also utilizes cutting-edge technologies to support the needs of diverse learners. For example, gifted and talented students can maximize their perceived gifts and talents and progress in their schooling at a quicker rate.²

Parents often start off the year with lots of ideas, plans, and momentum, confident that they will keep that momentum through the year. But as the weeks pass by, parents may be finding themselves slipping into a rut, and they might find their child staring longingly out the window and letting out long sighs of boredom. If this is you, you are not alone! Many parents struggle to keep their children engaged as the routine starts to drag and the excitement from the beginning of the year drains away.

Take a deep breath and start with some of the following tips to help re-engage your child to learn while at home!

For parents looking for an accredited online Christian homeschool program, Enlightium Academy is a perfect choice. With an extensive selection of core and elective courses, Enlightium Academy offers students the opportunity to thrive in their faith while they gain an excellent education. From personalized learning plans to high-quality coursework and extracurricular activities, the Enlightium Academy experience can help students reach their academic goals while deepening their understanding of what it means to be a Christian.

In addition to providing an excellent academic foundation, Enlightium Academy helps students grow spiritually and socially. Enlightium hosts an extensive selection of electives and extracurricular activities such as Bible studies, spelling bees, drawing contests, and the Pen Pal Program!

As a parent, you have the important task of providing your children with an education that will prepare them for life. Nowadays, one of the most popular ways to educate your children is via online homeschooling, where parents collaborate with academic experts on educating them. Not only parents can provide their children with quality education and opportunities to develop their life passion, but parents also have access to accredited courses from a biblical perspective, teacher support, and grading. 

In this blog, you will learn how to find the best online homeschool program for your children in PreK-12 grades. Also, you will find out why it's important for the program to be faith-based and accredited by a Christian organization such as the Association of Christian Schools International.

Parents often consider homeschooling their children when concerns arise in local public or private brick-and-mortar schools. For example, when children are in elementary school, parents might want to influence their academic and spiritual development which can be done more easily when the child is learning from home. In middle school, parents might discuss the possibility of pulling their teens out of public schools due to negative influences or peer pressure. In high school, parents might want to provide more academic opportunities for their adolescents and prepare them for college. However, parents often don’t know what it means to homeschool. Therefore, it is worth answering the following questions:

Today, the online model of K12 education impacts students on an individual level.¹ Studies show that the effectiveness of education appears to have more to do with who is teaching the student than any other factor.² Technology opens the door to new methods of learning! Yet, while the technology itself is a powerful tool, knowing how to use it well requires wisdom, knowledge, experience, and the professional judgment of teachers. 

Technology allows students to have more teacher interaction since teachers can focus their attention on one learner instead of a classroom of students. Online teachers can also address student questions individually which allows students to be open and inquisitive with much less anxiety than if they had to ask the same questions in a classroom setting. 

No two kids learn the same way. The “one-size-fits-all” approach in education does not cover the needs of every child. Children have different learning styles, work at different paces, and have unique strengths and weaknesses. However, many brick-and-mortar schools are struggling to meet each child's individual needs in the following areas:

• Learning accommodations
• Special needs
• Gifted and talented programs
• Flexibility to accommodate chronic illness, injury, or difficult life circumstances

An individualized approach to learning has been used for decades in K-12 schools as it addresses students who need to proceed through a curriculum more slowly or immerse in a certain topic or principle to really “get” it. 

Personalized learning goes beyond individualization; it seeks to understand the personality of the learner which includes the student’s preferences, interests, and aspirations. In personalized learning, instruction is tailored to each student’s interests, innate curiosity, strengths, and needs. It includes enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when, and where they learn - to provide flexibility and support to ensure mastery at the highest standards possible. 

As you experience the differences of schooling with Enlightium Academy compared to your child’s previous school, you may feel the need to celebrate your journey with family and friends. Since you likely share stories with your friends and family about important milestones and events in your child’s life, along with the joys of watching them grow, we would like to empower you with this guide on how to share your educational achievements and the fruit of a sound Christian education through Enlightium. To help you celebrate your story with your friends and family, our Referral Program allows you to gift a tuition credit or Amazon gift card to anyone who enrolls and receive a tuition credit or gift card for your family per referral.

Some of the most important developments in education have happened since the launch of the Internet - online learning.

In online school settings, the online teacher and student are separated from one another by distance and often by time, so knowing and understanding online students is an important factor in building teacher-student relationships.¹ Research suggests that online students are successful if they respond to three different types of learner interactions: (1) learner-to-content (appropriateness of the course material and delivery), (2) learner-to-instructor (access and support), and (3) learner-to-learner (procedures for dialogue).² Watson et al. (2014)³ noted that practical consideration of the role of a teacher in an online classroom similar to those of traditional face-to-face classroom is important to ensure student success.

The right of parents to choose an education for their children was declared at the United Nations General Assembly in 1948: “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”¹ The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture and direct his or her destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare the child for life. The state may require that all children of proper age attend school, that teachers would be of good moral character and patriotic disposition, that certain studies essential to good citizenship must be taught, and that nothing be taught which is manifestly inimical to the public welfare.²

For parents, homeschooling has been an alternative to Brick-and-Mortar schools for decades, since home education provides parents the opportunity to teach moral and religious principles to their children.¹ The first families to choose to homeschool their children dealt with backlash from numerous groups including family members, educators, politicians, and neighbors who felt they were doing their children an injustice. However, proponents of homeschooling held fast and helped to establish the laws and regulations that recognized that teaching one’s children is a right.² In the 1970’s, only 10,000 children were homeschooled, and by 2010, about 2,000,000 students were part of homeschool options.³  There are more than 3.76 million students in the U.S. who were homeschooled in 2020 and by 2022, there were 4.3 million students who were homeschooled.⁴

Online schooling provides flexibility, an individual approach to learning, and innovation; however, attendance might become an issue if not managed properly. In traditional school settings, attendance means that students are in school for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for a minimum of 180 school days. This adds up to about 1,050 instructional hours per academic year. In online school settings, the attendance policy simply requires that students log on, complete lessons, and “attend classes” by progressing in their school work.

E-learning reflects the reality of how people learn in the 21st century. As more and more parents are choosing e-learning for their children, there is a need to respond to the following questions: (1) What is e-learning? (2) What are the benefits of e-learning? (3) What are the challenges of e-learning? (4) How does my child apply his/her personal strengths to e-learning? (5) What is the future of e-learning?