The beginning of our Veritas Scholars Academy journey began at an unlikely and surprising place: the end and completion of someone else’s journey.
While living in Germany as a U.S. Army family, we began to research and contemplate what higher education would look like for our two daughters. Both my husband and I were educated in the traditional mode of public high school and state university. However, when our oldest daughter was entering 1st grade, we began to consider what homeschooling could look like for our family. Because military members and their families typically move every 3-4 years, we were uncertain where the future might take us. The idea of uprooting our daughters from a school, a curriculum, and educators every 3 years wasn’t appealing for us. Plus, my husband was departing for a year long deployment during that 1st grade year, and we knew we wanted to provide stability for our six and four year old daughters during that separation. We quickly realized that homeschooling would provide the stability we were seeking. We poured over teaching styles, educational methods, and curriculum. By God’s providence, we were led to Veritas Press.
Residing outside of the United States, we found our options for an English-speaking church to be limited. Our main option for corporate worship was the on-post chapel staffed by military chaplains. By God’s will, we were placed into a home group with a homeschooling family, the Lopez family. Every Sunday evening, the Lopez family opened their home to our family and others within the chapel. We shared a meal, studied God’s Word, and created a home-away-from-home, extended family. A striking part of the Lopez home were the wall-lined book shelves overflowing with literature and theology, homeschool curricula, and resources. In military life, where your possessions are weighed and only a certain weight is allowed to be transported to out-of-the-US duty locations, it was evident that faith, education, and learning were held in high regard. We marveled over textbook titles, like Omnibus I, II, III, Jacobs Geometry, and Our Mother Tongue, and literature from a great books list with authors, such as Dante, Lewis, Tolkien, Austen, Augustine, Luther, Sproul, Bunyan, and Virgil. Added to the books were a collection of back issues of glossy, beautiful catalogs by Veritas Press.
More striking than the rows of books were the oldest Lopez children. Their daughter, Micaiah, who was graduating the year we became acquainted, was well-spoken, eloquent, thoughtful, and mature far beyond her seventeen years. Isaac, their oldest son, was respectful, spoke apt words, and had big ideas to contribute to conversations. My husband and I asked exactly what homeschool method they were using. It was easy to see that the curricula they employed was bearing fruit. Their simple explanation was prayer, reliance on God and His Word, and Veritas Press, specifically Omnibus in the Secondary years. We left one Sunday evening feeling joyful, and with anxious expectation of what the high school years would hold for our family. The Lopez family’s Veritas end destination for Micaiah and Isaac became our starting point.
We fell in love with Omnibus and the anticipation of what the high school years would hold for our girls, but along the way Veritas Press grammar curricula picks won our true affections. Self-paced history was the delight of our girls’ elementary school years. There were days that Self-paced history lessons served as a treat to inspire diligent work on other subjects. Many days I would hear, “Just one more lesson, pleeeease.” The literature selections at each grade level have became some of our favorite, family read aloud memories from elementary school. Using Legends and Leagues in the summer months was a fun way to journey around the globe in the heat of those dog days of summer. Also, as an addition to our family’s morning time, the History of Art made the study of artists and their great works easy to implement. We appreciated the simple, open and close aspect to art each day.
Having the goal of a VSA diploma at graduation, our oldest daughter began live courses in 6th grade, and these live classes have cemented our adoration and appreciation to VSA. Her first live classes included History Survey and Transition, as well as Latin Transition. Our younger daughter followed suit in her 6th grade year. I tell many parents, who are inquiring about what can be done to prepare for the rigors of Omnibus, to take History Survey and Transition. It was a fantastic primer for Omnibus and helped my girls to incrementally level up in their reading speed and comprehension. The transition level classes are often over looked in the catalog, but they are a fantastic prep for the dialectic stage of courses. We have found that Live Course teachers are experts in their subject area, have a love for the subjects they teach, and genuinely seek for the students they teach to excel and joyfully take hold of the subject being taught.
When we enrolled our girls as diploma students, our consultant became another surprising bright light in our Veritas story. We expected to be guided annually in the enrollment process, but what we’ve found is that our consultant is guiding us in each step of high school. Initially, she sat with each of our students and asked what their long-term plans might hold. Then, with that knowledge, she has guided our daughters into the diploma track best for them and their interests. The assurance and peace of mind that comes from having a diploma-level, academic advisor helps us to know that we are doing all we can to prepare for higher learning. Additionally, having the assurance of an accredited diploma, eases any anxiety we have if our geographic location changes. We rest assured that the diploma track preps our family for most future academic pursuits regardless of our state of residence.
Life is a journey, not a destination. The same can be said for our Veritas story. We sought the destination but found the journey to be where our affections lay.
Click here to learn more about the Live Online classes mentioned in the Motes' story! Or, if you are interested in taking the next steps to make Veritas Press part of your family's story, call (800.922.5082) or email Veritas to schedule your free consultation!
