We love the programs STAA advises us to use. They bring excitement to learning, especially for the subjects which are not are our greatest ones. The advice given is suitable to our family and our lifestyle; it helps us bond. We appreciate the advice given for it is individually given for our children for certain subjects like religion, reading, math, and group given for unit studies in history, science, math, music, and geography. This year, my 13th year, I will officially be teaching five children--kindergarten, fourth grade, seventh grade, tenth grade, and twelfth grade. Wow! I have been given the confidence I need. Now I need to pray and teach and let them learn. This past year the two oldest children had difficulty with their algebra. I called in mid term to report our difficulties. Right away I was advised on an easier algebra program to use temporarily. What a difference that program made. No more tears, anger, and avoidance of math! What a relief! As our children tend to learn differently, I appreciate the individualized instructions on how to make learning more exciting or how to change the pace or what to do to make a difference. Our dyslexic child, a tenth grader, learns best by listening. I was always searching for ways, but no longer. I have been guided to many ways of helping him learn as this child is very intelligent and gifted. I would not have seen this if I had continued to do schooling for him in the ways I had been. We have tried a catholic homeschool school for eight years who instructed us to use generalized books by the grade level. This way not good for the dyslexic child or our oldest child. I tried to teach with no guidance for a couple of years. I knew I needed guidance. We have been with STAA for four or five years now. It is the way to go. I knew it in my heart right away. I look forward to our yearly interview and to the monthly newsletters that encourage and educate me. Homeschooling is a sacrifice and I want to do what is best for our children. I want them to love to learn and learn how to find the answers. I want them to use these skills in the adulthood. I highly suggest STAA to anyone who homeschools. It is the way to go for us. Thank you STAA!
Two years ago, after putting together my own curriculum for 6 years, I switched to STAA. It was the best decision I've made in 8 years of homeschooling! The STAA curriculum is wonderful, with excellent selections in all the subjects. Their choices - especially in history, grammar, math, and the fine arts - are often texts that I may�never have come across on my own. Having such a well-thought-out curriculum means that a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders; I no longer have to worry if we're "covering the right things", or "doing enough". I'm confident that by following the STAA program, we are doing just what we should be. At the same time, the program is flexible. When we a have a particular text that we really like, and that's working well for the kids, that's fine with STAA; they're not at all rigid, and always are respectful of each child's individuality and the parents' wishes. They also understand that when you have children of different ages, you need to be able to adapt the program accordingly, which works out beautifully for my children (ages 13, 11, 6, and 4). Another benefit is that record-keeping is far easier now. I used to wonder what I should keep each year, so I ended up keeping almost everything, but without a very good system for it. Now I follow STAA's quarterly reporting system, and at the end of each year I have a complete and succinct portfolio of accomplishments for each child. Finally, the STAA advisors are outstanding. Their insights into my children have been extremely helpful; they really know what it's like to homeschool day in and day out; they are encouraging and supportive, confident that parents can educate their children (even on days when the parent might not be so sure!); they are always professional and courteous. My husband and I are both so thankful for STAA. We couldn't be happier with the program, and would encourage any Catholic homeschool family to give it a try.
We contacted STAA because a friend of ours was using the program and when we decided to bring our 3rd grader home after 1 month of our parish school we were scared! I was comfortable with doing my son's Kindergarten, but I wasn't sure where my daughter was in terms of grade levels/ability. The assessment testing was quick and easy to do, so I didn't expect much valuable feedback. Boy, was I wrong!!! It was like my advisor had met my kids and spent hours/days with them. She was able to clearly identify problems I had only begun to suspect, and show me strengths she had that I had not fully appreciated. The books she suggested were ones I didn't even know existed! My kids were plodding along with curricula I had gathered for them while I waited for the test results, but once the new materials arrived things began to move so much more smoothly. The especially loved the Math U See DVDs and the Catholic Heritage Curriculum spellers and grammar books. Our advisor was able to reassure us that we were spending enough time in school for the 3rd grader and see that we were pushing the K son too much. This year we have prepared for school with such peace - we know that our plans and program choices are time-tested and that if we have problems STAA will help us solve them quickly and efficiently. Our book costs are less this year too!!!!! STAA has been a real blessing to me as a mom, too, because they have constantly reminded me that the Lord and Our Lady are eager to help and guide us on this journey if I will only let them. I can never be reminded of that too often!!! :) Bless you all on your journey!
Thank you for your prayers, time and guidance. We are grateful to have you as part of our homeschooling adventures.
My advisor helps me to understand what needs to be done and how to make it really fun for the kids.� What I really like are the tips she gives me for dealing with the little ones while trying to school the older ones.
God bless you for the job you are doing -- the peace you have helped us find as a family is priceless!
I just have to tell you how much I have enjoyed this school year. This is our fifth year homeschooling and this is the FIRST YEAR I have not chucked half our curriculum during the Christmas break doldrums. I usually go through a big bout of self-doubt about my curriculum choices and worry we are not covering all we needed to. But this year I can�tell we are all making great progress (even me!). We have really enjoyed "The Gift of the River" and the "Little Angel Readers". And I am much more organized, thanks to the binder system. Thanks for all the recommendations. I am already looking forward to next year!
We received our welcome packet promptly and my first conversation with someone about enrollment is what convinced me you all were the best choice of all the schools we were looking at.
Since we are just now beginning, I don't know how much we could offer. I could share about how easy it is to use your website, to contact you all, and the overall professionalism and friendliness of the staff. Other than that, I'm not sure I could say anything further until we get this year underway. Again, I so much enjoyed speaking with you and�am grateful for the recommendations you gave me.
It was great speaking with you yesterday. Thank you so much for your advice and encouragement. I entered our meeting feeling discouraged and “wilted”, but felt refreshed and strengthened afterward.
The assessment testing was quick and easy to do, so I didn't expect much valuable feedback.� Boy was I wrong!!!� It was like my advisor had met my kids and spent hours/days with them.
When we first decided to homeschool, we'd been told our son (who has auditory processing issues) should repeat preschool since he had a difficult time absorbing material and because he couldn't print his name "small enough for kindergarten". What we saw was a bright boy who would need one-on-one instruction. We knew we�wanted a homeschool program that would reinforce and nurture our Catholic faith, yet also be flexible enough to work well for a child who didn't fit the cookie-cutter mold traditional schools prefer. After prayer and much internet searching, we discovered the website of the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy. It looked good. Very, very good. I called and spoke with the director, Mrs. Deborah Yonan. By the time our conversation ended, I not only felt as if I knew her, but also that she knew our son quite well and would be a wise and experienced guiding hand. We signed up. Curriculum suggestions included books and programs I'd never heard of, yet they suited our son perfectly. Math-U-See made mathematics his favorite subject; the activity book that accompanied his Faith & Life religion book helped create a fascination with the Old Testament stories. Handwriting Without Tears---could the title be any more appropriate? Yet, few of these ideal matches would have materialized if it hadn't been for the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy's experience and patient understanding of what was needed to help our son, not just reach grade level, but thrive. By 2nd grade, our son had scored in the 93rd percentile for overall math scores in the CAT test. Language Arts, always his roughest area, was slightly above average. In 4th grade, his composition abilities suddenly soared and writing became an activity that brought pleasure to him. As we look forward to beginning 5th grade with the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy, we look back on our intriguing studies of Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome and the classical education that neither my husband nor I had been exposed to in elementary school. Ahead are Norse myths, medieval heroes and a new level of mathematics with Horizons Math among other programs this year. I firmly believe that the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy has contributed greatly to our homeschooling success and would not hesitate to recommend them to other homeschooling families, both newcomers as well as those exhausted by programs weighted down with busywork. They truly are a unique and thoughtful resource.
I have been homeschooling with STAA since 2003 and loved it. My questions are answered quickly and personally - I am a Mom and Family member, not just a "case number."��What is the single best thing about your experience with STAA?��My first thought was "flexibility." Then it was that it is so Catholic and universal to each person. Then it was that it was so specific for each person....there are a lot of positives about STAA! :)
We are new to STAA, and we love it already! We were impressed by the initial evaluation process; it was as if our adviser knew our kids, just by evaluating their work. She was able to help us find the material that was a right fit for our kids. We had the flexibility to choose what works for our family, and each individual child, and not be limited by a boxed curriculum. We are excited to learn History, Science, and Religion together with each child doing work at their own level. Our kids are looking forward to it so much, they have already read through most of their literature, just for fun. We do feel finding this program has been a blessing for our family. Our advisor is wonderful; it's nice to know she is available if we need her.
Thanks for all you do on your end to help make our homeschooling academically, intellectually, spiritually, and morally enriching!!
Our family has been enrolled with St. Thomas Aquinas Academy for five years and we love their program. We currently have children in the 9th, 3rd, and 1st grade. Their advisors are excellent in helping place your children in the appropriate course work for their abilities, interests, and grade level. I have found it especially invaluable how they integrate courses to include multiple children in the same subject. They are always willing to assist when we encounter difficulties. The annual evaluations are also extremely useful in understanding my children's progress and next teaching points for the following year. With a program like STAA, any parent can successfully teach their children with confidence.
We are starting our seventh year with STAA. First, the reason we use STAA is because of Divine Providence. Our family had been considering home education for quite a while when in the mail we received information regarding STAA, to this day we do not know how they got our name. We have been very pleased with their program and counseling. There are five children in our family. Six years ago when we started I was pregnant with our fourth child with a son in 3rd and a daughter in 1st. Our son has special need issues and was the main reason we pulled children out of parochial school. These past six years have allowed us to adapt our children's educational needs to individual challenges. Our oldest son (age 14) is planning on attending the Legionaries of Christ Apostolic summer program in New Hampshire in just a couple of weeks. He wouldn't be doing this without the extra time we have had together these past years of home schooling. The STAA curriculum and counselors helped us adapt materials to [our son's] ADHD needs and my teaching "quirks". As a result we were able to meet Mike's emotional challenges and adapt academically so that now he is becoming a very faith-filled young man who is now more mature academically and is ready to meet the academic challenge! . (All without medication!) Our second oldest a daughter, [age 12] is a highly motivated and independent learner who likes the challenge of school and the fact that it is set up to do on her own when mom is busy. The third child is a boy age 9 and is not as independent as his sister but more independent than his older brother. Through annual evaluations STAA helped me to meet his particular needs also. This was my first child that I taught to read by myself, yes, he is reading at his own pace (a little slower than the older two but picking up speed every day.) Our fourth child is a 5-year-old girl. I have not done any formal work with her and am totally amazed at how much she has picked up just by being in the same room as the rest of us when we're "schooling". She is very anxious to get started doing "formal" school shortly. Our fifth child is a 2 year old boy who is adored by the whole family and is just absorbing everything we do. STAA has helped us through a special challenge. During the 2000-2001 school year the oldest in sixth grade developed a rare illness called Sydenham's Chorea. He had a strep throat infection where his antibodies to the strep bacteria not only attacked the bacteria but his nervous system also. He had uncontrolled movement in this arms, legs, hands , feet and tongue, making it virtually impossible to do school work and other things (writing, tying shoes, and eating, etc.). This was an ongoing condition from Sept to Mar or so with the symptoms roller coastering (good and bad) days until March. We were told that he would have had to have been pulled out of "regular school" and were thrilled to home school through this. STAA helped us adapt to his most special needs at this time by being available for counseling with suggestions on how to adapt. For example, we got a tape recorder to do school on the days he could talk and they had suggestions on games to play to keep his mind going when he couldn't hold a book still to read. Overall we have been extremely pleased with how the curriculum and counselors at St. Thomas Aquinas Academy have been a great fit for us. These past six years have been a time of much spiritual growth and all of us are thankful for the huge role STAA has played in our lives. It has helped me to be able to bounce ideas off of them when school is challenging or I am feeling overwhelmed and lack self-confidence. Thank you for everything. We are looking forward to our seventh year.
Hello! I thought you would appreciate this: [My son] has mentioned a few times in the past months that he was glad he was homeschooled. He even said he was glad he had to write so many papers. He has noticed that many students are unable to write. Also, he was able to write a 4-page paper with citations in 1.5 hrs. Both [of my sons] are excelling in college. They said homeschool was much harder. :) Thank you!
Thanks for a great year, as always, we love all the materials we have used and look forward to another year!
We have recently enrolled as a new family, and just today, have sent back our completed assessments. I can say, up to this point, our experiences have all been consistently wonderful�just as we thought they would be! We are looking forward to our first school year with STAA!
I was just clearing out old papers and ended up looking through my son's high school folders. [He is] STAA class of 2003. I wanted to thank you so much for your understanding and help during his school years. Your knowledge of educational materials geared toward his learning strengths and the fact you knew what he needed to succeed from evaluating his educational assessment and listening to me about what I thought his issues were went way beyond the educational system here in our county. I learned right along with him as we journeyed through your Catholic classical curriculum. THANK YOU!
Thanks for your genuine interest in my children. I never imagined that you could become so in tune with them from just a paper and pencil evaluation. I am amazed by the amount of information I learned about my girls and can't tell you how much it is appreciated! We are super excited to get started.
We have all enjoyed the way STAA ties the courses together for the whole family.
We started homeschooling when our oldest was in Kindergarten. We started with a very traditional homeschooling curriculum with all the lesson plans and texts sent to us. My oldest son and I struggled through the first two years of his schooling battling over completing exactly what the lesson plans suggested. It was a very difficult and trying experience for both my son and me. After completing his first grade lessons, I did a learning styles test through Mercy Academy with my son and my daughter, who was to be starting Kindergarten. I came to the conclusion that the traditional curriculum was not the way I wanted to teach and not the best method for my children to learn. I looked into alternative schools and methods. I came across St. Thomas Aquinas Academy and the classical approach to education and thought it would be more appropriate for my children. After the initial assessment, I was very impressed with the information that my advisor gathered from such a simple assessment. Yet, I was still not willing to follow all of her suggestions and chose to do some classes based on my own understanding of the children. I followed the procedures for a home generated course plan and began the year. I sensed that my advisor did not agree that this was the best option (for math) that year, but she left it up to me. Half way through the year, I realized that I had not chosen the most appropriate text for my children. I changed again and taught the class free-style making sure I covered all the necessary bases for both children. They both did well, not only in math, but also in all their courses. This year I decided to follow all of my advisors suggestions for all of their classes. I am not adding anything, 'officially' to their studies until the requirements are well on their way to completion. I realized after having a bit of a meltdown last year and sending an email to St. Thomas saying that I was ready to load the kids into the van and drop them off at the nearest school, that I was trying to do too much. The guidance that I received from my advisor helped me to put the school year into perspective and helped me to understand that my children are not perfect because they are homeschooled and they do not have to outshine every public schooled child out there. The beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility with which we can educate our children. They don't have to be concerned with whether they are working "at, below, or ahead" of grade level. They can learn at their own pace without judgment and without fear. The most rewarding event that has come out of following the curriculum at St. Thomas Aquinas is the fact that my husband has seen the tremendous results of the children enjoying school work, not even realizing that it is school work. My husband had not supported my decision to homeschool and his feelings were confirmed with the struggles of the first two years. This past year, he became an integral part of the homeschooling. He began talking to the children about what they learned that day, he took on the teaching of their science course and discussed what they were learning in history with them. I am so excited about this coming year because we are studying Ancient Egypt for history and my husband has already decided that he will teach it. Also, science is the human body and the books that we are using have already excited the children. What little boy would not be excited about a book titled: "Blood and Guts." This is probably too much information, but I am very pleased with the changes that have occurred in my children and my family because of the change to St. Thomas. I am impressed with the level of support when needed and the lack of interference when not. Thank you for all that you do.
