Connect with a Connections Academy Parent

About two years ago, our local elementary school went from a student population of about 700 to over 1,000! This happened right about the time when my youngest would have been going into kindergarten. The school was just too crowded for me to feel comfortable sending her off there on her own. Knowing the new elementary school would be built in two years, I decided to try the virtual-school route during our wait. I thought, “Surely I can do this for just two years.” After researching the options, we decided to go with INSPIRE Connections Academy, mostly due to the variety of electives that appealed to my children. One of the best things about this program is that I know exactly what each of my kids is learning in each subject. This allows me to use our everyday life for examples of skills being taught. The opportunity for a second language and the useful technology have also been wonderful. In addition, the teachers are very helpful and are just a phone call or email away.

I now have a sixth-, fourth-, and second-grader (with an 11-month-old to make it more interesting!). My second-grader is doing the third-grade curriculum and learning at her own pace. At first my two older kids were not thrilled with leaving their friends, but now after two years, they begged to keep learning from home. They have made new lifelong friends in the INSPIRE Connections Academy community, and they look forward to the LiveLesson® sessions and field trips where they meet up with them. I and my spouse—as well as our three students—recommend this school. You won’t regret becoming a part of this terrific community.

As with many families, our dynamics are complicated. Our children’s ages vary from 21 all the way down to 7. We have homeschooled and enrolled back and forth in public school. We have lived in Idaho for five years and love the area but found that budget cuts in the public school system have led to a lack of physical education, the arts, and in-depth core classes. This has forced our family to either homeschool again or else attend classes online. Due to the expense and our need for more structure, homeschooling was not an option to us anymore. We heard of INSPIRE Connections Academy and decided to investigate. To our great surprise, INSPIRE Connections Academy was the perfect combination of a public school and features similar to homeschooling. It allows stimulating and diverse learning for any age with virtually no cost to the family—while still maintaining boundaries through testing and teacher interaction. We have also found with our four children now at Connections Academy that each has different challenges, strengths, and weaknesses. Being at home allows us to address each child’s needs while still educating all of them with a comprehensive, public school curriculum. We feel our children’s education is going to be one of their greatest assets in life, and Connections Academy allows us the freedom to provide this for them.

Like most parents, I was looking for the perfect schooling situation to help my unique children. I have two children with dyslexia, which can be a challenge in a traditional school setting. We enrolled our children in private school for one year and tried another school-at-home program before we fell in love with INSPIRE, the Idaho Connections Academy.

The staff at INSPIRE is top notch. They are ready and willing to help you in any way. My kids are doing so much better, and their scores are rising.

We love having the time to do projects together, and my children have been encouraged to start projects on their own. I have plants and trees growing in my kitchen because they have decided to take the seeds from everything they eat and try to make them grow; surprisingly, they have gotten everything to grow.

My kids have become much more creative this year. They aren’t afraid to try different stuff or come up with their own ideas now that we are with INSPIRE. I feel like this program has opened a door to a whole new world for our kids and family.