How Live Oak Academy Collaborates with Homeschooling Families

Live Oak Academy is a Christian, classical, collaborative educational service for homeschool families. Its collaboration model is a division of labor: parents remain the primary supervisors of their children's schooling, while the academy provides part-time assistance by selecting and directing the scope and sequence of study, the curriculum, and the assignments. If you are a homeschooling family looking for outside structure and teaching without handing over full responsibility for your child's education, this is the arrangement Live Oak Academy describes.

Who does what

The key word in the academy's own description is part-time. It does not present itself as a full-time school replacing the parent, but as support to a schooling process that parents continue to oversee.

What "collaborative" means in practice

According to the academy, collaboration means it "provides part-time assistance to the schooling process which is primarily supervised by parents." At the same time, it does not leave the academic content to each family: it "selects and directs the scope and sequence of study, the curriculum, and the assignments."

So the split is not simply "parents teach, academy supports." The academy sets the academic framework — what is studied, in what order, with what materials, and what work is assigned — while parents carry the day-to-day supervisory role. Families considering this model should expect to follow the academy's curriculum and assignment structure rather than design their own.

The educational approach behind the collaboration

The academy describes its offering as "a holistic, well-integrated, education that aims to shape excellence in academics, faith, and virtue." Three commitments shape how it works with families:

• Christian. The academy states that its Christian faith is "of first, formative, and final importance," that it is founded in prayer, operates according to Christian principles, and seeks to further the purposes of Jesus Christ, especially in the lives of the students it teaches. It aims to raise "a generation of ambassadors for Christ."
• Classical. It draws on the Trivium and Quadrivium as adapted and interpreted by Christians of the Middle Ages. The curriculum rests on a language-intensive foundation, a rigorous science and math program, and history and literature taught within the classical tradition, with special programs in Latin, logic, apologetics, art, and choir.
• Collaborative. As described above, it assists rather than replaces the parent-supervised schooling process.

Is this model a fit for your family?

It is likely a good fit if you want to keep primary supervision of your child's education at home but want an academy to define the curriculum, sequence, and assignments, and you share the Christian and classical framing described above.

It is likely a poor fit if you want to design your own curriculum and course sequence, or if you are looking for a full-time school that takes over the supervisory role.

Next step

The academy invites families to contact it to learn more about how it can assist them, and it offers an "An Introduction to Live Oak Academy" video for those unfamiliar with the model. If the classical approach is new to you, the academy also points to its educational philosophy and classical education materials as a starting place.