What do pirates, knights, queens and goats have in common? They will all be making appearances at The New Classical Academy summer day camp. That's right, for four weeks this summer your child can live out all of their play-acting fantasies as we explore four fun themes. Unlike other rigidly structured day camps, ours mimics a good old fashioned summer day. Kids go home from our camp dirty, tired and happy, and that is just the way we like it. So if you dread the boredom and constant media requests that summer can bring, but don't want every minute of your child's life to be scheduled, send them to us. We guarantee smiling faces at pick up time!

Many people ask about cut off dates for kindergarten and whether their child is ready to begin school as a young five year old. At our school, we do not have a strict cut off date, but we do have some guidelines which should help. Rather than typical kindergarten readiness skills (able to use scissors, for example) we look to benchmarks which are developmental. Does your child enjoy looking at books? How about drawing? Is she able to separate from you during the school day? These are more important to us than whether or not the child can write his name or recognize shapes. These skills can be easily taught when the child is ready, and that may or may not be when the child is five. If you have any questions about your child's readiness for kindergarten, please feel free to make an appointment with the directors of our school. We are happy to assist you in making this important decision and have recommendations for excellent preschool programs if your child is not ready to start kindergarten.

Our latest musical play, "The Incredible Westward Movement" was a resounding success with several parents commenting that it was the best school play they had ever seen (of course, their kids were the stars!) The students have also enjoyed creating a life-size covered wagon, doing African arts and crafts, and creating diorama style farming villages for their study of agriculture. The teen club had a great day skiing at Sugar Mountain. Our middle school Odyssey of the Mind team won the Ranatra Fusca Award for teams who exhibit "exceptional creativity" and is meant to encourage "creative thinking and risk-taking" which is very impressive because it was their first time ever in competition. Our middle and high school students all took the National Latin Exam this week. At The New Classical Academy we have the happiest and best educated kids around!