Back at it!
Aaaand we’re back!
After a much-needed break for the summer holidays, we have returned to our bi-weekly co-op gatherings - and what a blessing that is, indeed. Heavenly King Orthodox Academy is in our third year now and our community continues to steadily grow. So much so, in fact, that out of necessity we are now dividing the children into three groups for our lesson time: 2-5 year olds, 6-11 year olds, and 12 year olds and up.
This younger age group is a rather new and exciting development! Since HKOA started, we have always had toddlers joining along with their older siblings, but in past years they have just come in and out of the lesson room with their parents as needed. This year, Ms Clare has offered her Montessori training in setting up an exploration room for the toddlers and pre-schoolers during lesson time. The time is still led by parents, but they can guide their children through different stations of Orthodox play. This means that our co-op is now more accessible to young families who have children that aren’t yet school age, but are perhaps curious about homeschooling, or about the “cottage school” model we are aiming towards, or who just want to connect with other families with young children.
We of course also want to encourage time where all of the children, regardless of age, have time to be together and foster friendships. One of the beauties of homeschooling is that age matters a whole lot less, and that’s a wonderful thing! Our morning prayers are held as one group, we gather all together for lunch and fellowship, and also for physical activity near the end of the day. This year, Ms Natalia is empowering our pre-teens and teens to guide the younger ones through the games and activities. It will be so fun to see their confidence and teaching skills grow through the year.
Ms Stephanie is continuing her excellent work of putting together field trip opportunities this year! We will be having at least one per month. For the fall, interested families will be visiting Fort Whyte in September, going bowling in November, and heading to the Science Gallery at the Manitoba Museum in December. We have so much more planned for the winter and spring, so stay tuned!
Glory to God, Heavenly King received a grant from St Emmelia ministries in the States to put towards a pan-Orthodox family choir! To that end, we will begin by offering music/voice education to our co-op families, led by none another than Tamara Maclennan of St George Orthodox Church. These lessons will be held for children ages 6 years old and up, after *most* of our bi-weekly gatherings. We are still ironing out details, but please keep an eye on our website’s event calendar for more announcements.
You have no doubt already heard (at least I hope so!!!), but we are pleased as punch to present Dr Jeannie Constantinou at our first HKOA speaker’s event this fall. We will be hosting a “Day with Dr Jeannie” at St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church on Saturday, October 21st, from 9:30am-3:30pm, followed by a Vespers service at 4pm. Tickets are available now on Eventbrite.ca! The link is below, but you can also head to our Events page on www.heavenlykingacademy.ca and click on the event poster to get your tickets.
I know many of us are already fangirling over having DR JEANNIE in our midst, but for those of you who don’t know Dr Jeannie, she is an incredibly well-educated biblical scholar, author and podcast host. We would LOVE to fill the hall with attendees and show her how serious this pan-Orthodox community is about growing in their knowledge of the faith!
Please don’t delay in purchasing your tickets. My little heart can’t take the stress of not knowing who will come… just joking. In all seriousness, it will help in planning and preparation to know how many attendees we can expect – so get those tickets today!!!
If you’d like to stay in the loop in between our seasonal newsletters, the HKOA school calendar is on our Events page on our website, which also lists the upcoming field trips and HKOA sponsored events. If you are interested in joining us for our bi-weekly gatherings, please email me for more information at admin@heavenlykingacademy.ca.
With love in Christ,
Elissa and the HKOA Team
