For This Day - Vol. 9, Iss. 1 - Coram Deo Academy An Intentional Choice (The Storms Family)

August, 2021

Vol. 9, Issue 1

FOR THIS DAY

From left in the front: Caleb and Nolan Storms In the back: Emy and Mark Storms.

Coram Deo Academy An intentional choice When it comes to a child’s education, parents have an abundance of school options available to them.

They can choose public or private, Christian or secular, university model or full-time. Coram Deo Academy offers a unique educational environment, combining a university model schedule with classical curriculum presented with a Biblical world-view. Parents who choose CDA for their kids do so intentionally and with purpose. Mark and Emy Storms are starting their 11th year of partnering with CDA in the education of their sons, Nolan (10th) and Caleb (6th). In this issue of For This Day, Mark explains why CDA continues to be their intentional choice.

Nolan and Caleb with Senora Rowland Coram Deo Academy

www.coramdeoacademy.org

1

Why CDA for Our Educational Choice From the beginning, we have loved Coram Deo. Just the name itself, meaning “in the presence of God”, portrays how we wanted our two boys’ education and life to be. We have a unique situation. For eleven years, I have homeschooled the boys on Monday while my wife is at work, and Emy homeschools them on Wednesday. This allows her to work part time, and it has worked marvelously for our family.

The collaborative nature of the school has made this possible, and it is a blessing. The home days have given us more time to spend with our boys. Not many dads get to spend an extra entire day with their boys each week. I have greatly treasured this additional day with them. Although, we all know the home days are not always, let’s say, peaceful. Sometimes they are crazy; the work seems impossible, arguments arise, tempers flare, and the day is not great.

However, a tough day with my family is better than a day away from them. We will always be grateful that the CDA education model has given us time with the boys, time that challenges our intellect, time that gives us pause to wonder at the wonderful world God has created, and how we can Caleb with Mr. Ea enjoy every aspect of it, time to grow and learn new things, or in some cases, have my boys teach me (usually Latin)!

The teachers and administration really are co-educators. They are gifted and have always been responsive and supportive, with great ideas to help us in many ways for home days and through the difficulties we have experienced. They are excellent at what they do and extremely inspiring.

During orientation I have frequently become excited for classes and wanted to take them myself! When you can make Algebra sound thrilling to me, you can really teach. That actually happened - true story.

The rigorous classical curriculum is a blessing and a challenge, but we have seen our boys wrestle with their work, begin to learn how to manage their time, be self-motivated, and take responsibility for their schedule and workload. Not only are they learning the greatest literature, science, and history, but they are also learning how to work, how to think, with a biblical worldview. The CDA model naturally encourages and enables students to learn these great qualities.

From the beginning our boys have taken advantage of the Friday classes and electives. CDA allows our kids to be involved in so many activities and enjoy a variety of experiences. We have enjoyed theater performances, basketball Caleb with Mrs. Kline

2

www.coramdeoacademy.org

Coram Deo Academy

games, nights of art, band concerts, “making music that glorifies” with Mrs Bowen, and jazz concerts. In fact, after this year our oldest will have had the opportunity to try and experience all of the fine arts at CDA. We realize opportunities to attempt new endeavors do not present themselves at every school. Students here at CDA can become very well-rounded and have the ability to try new things, which is a skill all its own.

Lastly, we have found that the administration and teachers, coaches and directors, truly honor the Lord Jesus in all they do. There exists genuine devotion to God. They exemplify all you could possibly want or expect from a Christian school. God’s Word is seen as authoritative, and a biblical worldview is incorporated in many ways though the school days. We want to say ‘thank you” to all the teachers for not only being co-educators, but also co-laborers in Christ with us in teaching and modeling Christ to our boys. We truly appreciate them for that.

May the Lord bless your family through-out this academic year.

Nolan with Dr. Connell

Mark Storms - CDA Father

Parent Resources

PTF (Parent Teacher Fellowship) - partnering with CDA FM making our school a great community PTF President: Nicole Hofley **To volunteer, please contact Nicole Hofley Moms in Prayer - meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays after drop-off Contact: Kandis Autrey

“...but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

P2P - mentoring new families Contact: Jacque Younger

Romans 5:8

Idea Exchange - for families for grades Pre-K to 4th Contact: Jennifer Jaetzold Straight Talk - for families of grades 5th to 12th Contact: Jacque Younger Staff Liaison: Kristan Williams

Coram Deo Academy

www.coramdeoacademy.org

3