How to Transition Your Child to Faith-Based Learning

If your child is coming from a public school or secular learning environment, you may be curious about the best ways to transition your child to faith-based learning. Certainly there are subtle differences, but none are so major that your child won’t adjust quickly. For many families, the choice to transition to a faith-based program comes after years of questioning or disapproving of elements of the public school curriculum. However, it is important to remember that faith-based learning still fosters critical thinking skills and helps your child to grow into a productive member of society.

In this brief article, experts from a Christian middle school in Clearwater, FL with Lakeside Christian School share a few tips to help transition your child to faith-based learning.

Tip 1: Encourage Building Friendships

Building friendships with other students will help your child more seamlessly transition to the faith-based environment. This will help them understand the connection between fellowship and learning, while also helping them build meaningful friendships for life.

Tip 2: Be Supportive of Your Child’s Interests

In many cases, the transition from public to faith-based learning comes with a shift in your child’s interests. If your child is showing new interests in their faith-based program, try to be supportive of these interests while giving them space to explore and grow.

Tip 3: Offer to Answer Your Child’s Questions and Have an Open Dialogue

Your child may have questions about faith-based education and how it differs from public school curriculums. For example, a public high school may have a more liberal sexual education program than a private Christian high school in Clearwater, FL. That might create questions about why the programs are different and what this means, or if they must share the same faith as their school. In some cases, faith-based learning might push students to investigate and fully understand scripture in a way that makes them have questions. This is all healthy, and having an open dialogue with your kids about these differences is important in transitioning from public to private schooling.

Tip 4: Be Positive and Proactive

Your child, no matter their age, is looking to you to figure out how they should behave and interact, especially in a faith-based environment that is new to them. Keep a positive attitude — even when your teen is moody about the change — and be proactive in getting them involved in getting to know their new school.

Tip 5: Prepare Your Child for the Added Bible Lessons

A major element of faith-based learning is, well, faith. This seems obvious, but for some children, it comes as a surprise when they are expected to begin learning Bible lessons and parables. Preparing your child for the added curriculum elements can help them adjust more easily, as they will understand that school isn’t just for studying Math, Science, English, and History.

Tip 6: Prepare for Prayer

Just as your child will get the opportunity to be included in Bible lessons, your child will also be given the opportunity to participate in prayer on a daily basis. If your child is comfortable with prayer and it is a part of your home, you are one step closer to making the transition easier. If your family doesn’t often discuss prayer, before your child’s first day in a private middle school in Clearwater, FL, like Lakeside Christian School, practice praying together. This can help ease some of the discomfort your son or daughter might feel when others are praying if it is not something they are used to.

Tip 7: Talk About Class Sizes

Especially if they’re coming from an environment where they are in a classroom with 30-40 other students on a daily basis, the smaller class sizes of a private school can be a culture shock. It’s important to discuss with your teen the differences in class size and what that means on every level: social, educational, and emotional. Your teen might even admit that they feel vulnerable in a smaller class size, but that is totally normal. Without a large crowd to blend into, it’s easier to stand out — but for some kids this takes a bit of adjusting.

Above all else, in order to transition your child to faith-based learning you must choose the right school for your individual child. Lakeside Christian School is a private, faith-based school with skilled teachers who can help your child or teen transition into their new environment with little disruption to their lives.

Lakeside Christian School is among the best private high schools in Clearwater, FL, and uses a tailored approach to your child’s education. If you’re interested in learning more about how we challenge all of our students to achieve their academic and personal goals, give us a call.

If you would like to learn more about Lakeside Christian School, one of the best private schools in Clearwater, FL, please give us a call at (727) 239-7808 or schedule a tour of our campus.

Mentoring Month

January is Mentoring Month. At Lakeside Christian School, we’re big believers in mentoring. We believe it allows older believers to share wisdom with younger people, which encourages them in their search for or relationship with God. Many of our teachers serve in either the church’s AWANA program or the Lakeside Community Chapel youth group. When students attend these, they have the opportunity for mentoring with one of our teachers. We interviewed our own Mrs. Thayer and the student she mentors- Heather. Read below about how their mentoring relationship has affected them!

Kayla: “I desired to mentor a student because I myself had a mentorship relationship when I was in high school. However, the relationship with my mentor was nowhere near the depth and regularity that I have with Heather. I wanted an opportunity to give godly advice to someone in this way because I’ve been in their shoes. High school can have some real challenges and I felt God leading me this way as a form of ministry. My relationship with Heather has grown tremendously and much of that comes from consistency and the Lord. He has helped shape our relationship and has helped me use my own experiences to give sound, godly advice.”

Heather:

“My desire to grow in my relationship with the Lord made me want a mentor. I wanted to have someone that I could meet with on a regular basis who could help keep me accountable. Her mentoring has helped me greatly to grow in my relationship with the Lord. The book we have been going through has been very helpful in learning how to become a more godly woman. Meeting with Kayla on a regular basis has allowed for her help keeping me accountable on things that I need to work on in my life. Her mentoring has also provided a wonderful relationship between us where I know I can go to her with anything and she would be more than willing to provide godly advice.”

At Lakeside Christian School, we believe that mentoring relationships such as these greatly enrich the lives of those involved and impact them for eternity, which is, after all, what we care about most. Please contact us today and set up a tour. Find out why Lakeside Christian School is so different!

30 Days of Thankfulness

We’re about to enter the month of November, the month containing Thanksgiving. We’ve created two graphics for you to print out and keep handy so you can join us in a spirit of thankfulness throughout the month. Consider taking the time to thank God for the items/people listed, and pray for them, too! We hope you’ll join us.

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Worldview

Nothing defines a school as much as worldview. Worldview is essentially the lens through which one views the world. It is from this worldview that all decisions are made, and it is behind every purpose and action.

At Lakeside Christian School, while we place tremendous importance on academics and preparing each student for college, we place greater value on the principles on which we base our worldview: God’s inspired Word as found in the Bible.

Here are just some of the beliefs that shape our worldview at Lakeside Christian School:

Each student has value: Each person is made in God’s image and therefore has value. God has created each person individually, with strengths and weaknesses unique to them. At Lakeside Christian School, we strive to amplify strengths and improve weaknesses (Eph. 2:10, Gen. 1:27)
Each student is in need of the Savior: Everyone is born a sinner and desperately in need of a Savior. God is Holy and Just, demanding that all who sin pay the ultimate penalty. Our sin is a spiritual crime against God’s Holy law which requires our absolute perfection to it’s standards. But God offers us forgiveness through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died as a substitute in our place to pay the price for our sins, a cost beyond our ability to pay. That’s the gospel, and we want each of our students to understand it and trust that through the perfect sinless life, substitutionary death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has provided a way for all to receive eternal life. We daily pray that many of our students would turn to Jesus for everlasting life (Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23, 1 Cor. 15:3, Eph. 2:8-9).
It is our responsibility to teach and train our students: God’s Word is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. We strive to use the Word as the foundation of all of our teaching (2 Tim. 3:16. Deut. 11:19).
We must always do our best: God has created us with massive potential and has a plan for each person. We must not grow weary in doing good (Gal. 6:9,2 Tim. 2:15).
We do all we do for the glory of God: We love because He first loved us, and we strive for excellence that He might be honored (1 Cor. 10:31, 1 John 4:19, John 3:30).

Because of our worldview, science is taught from the understanding that God created the world in six literal days. Math is taught with the knowledge that God is orderly and has created his world to be orderly. Language Arts is taught with an understanding that God gave use the ability to communicate so that we could communicate His love to others. History is taught with the realization that there is nothing new under the sun, and man will follow the same patterns again and again. While many points of view are taught, we emphasize that the biblical view is truth.

In a world where so few believe in absolute truth, we provide an anchor for our students: the truth of the Word of God.

Whether or not you believe in the Word of God, you can trust that a worldview anchored in God’s Word will ensure that we treat your child with respect, teach them with love, and strive for excellence. If you’d like to read more about our worldview, read our statement of faith, philosophy of education, and value & mission statement here. Call Lakeside Christian School today to schedule your free tour and find out more about what we believe!

Leap Year

What would you do with an extra 24 hours?

Sleep? Run errands? Work?

This year is a leap year. We get a whole extra 24 hours more than we do in a normal year. Sure, most of us have to go about our daily routine on February 29th. But the fact remains that we are given an extra day.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”– Psalm 90:12

Can you make those extra 24 hours count for something? Consider doing, in those hours, what you might do if they were your last 24 hours.

Tell your children you love them and hold them tight.

Share the gospel with those who need to hear the good news.

Listen carefully to those who confide in you.

Laugh and smile.

Tell stories.

Appreciate the little things.

Watch the sunrise and sunset.

Eat good food.

Write letters to the ones you love.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. What important, meaningful thing could you do with your 24 hours? Be inspired to do it. Number your days and make them count… and make the most of your bonus day.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

“We love because he first loved us.”– I John 4:19

This is what drives our mission at Lakeside Christian School.

We know what love is because God is love, and God’s character is revealed in His Word, the Bible. In all that we do as believers, educators, and administrators, we seek to imitate God’s character, for His glory.

I Corinthians 13:1-7 paints a beautiful picture of true, biblical, godly love:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

As we approach Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to the idea of love, we hope you will meditate on the One who loved so well that He gave His life.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”– John 15:13

This is real, true love. While the hearts, romance, chocolate, and flowers are lovely, this is what real love is. We pray you’ll know it and feel it on this Valentine’s Day.