Community & News

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Kalos Christian Academy family to yours.

Christian School Kansas City Christmas Greeting
For unto you is born a child in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

Celebrating the Advent season, reading through Luke two with our students highlights the beginning of cherished school traditions.

Before Christmas break each of our grammar school students painted figures of the Nativity. They used those painted wooden figures to retell the story of Jesus’s birth in class. They displayed creativity with their painting and presentations. We encouraged them to share the merry Christmas story with their families over break.

Equipping students to know and share the Gospel is just one benefit of choosing a Christian school for your child. This fall semester we have seen the mission of Kalos Christian Academy unfold in such beautiful way. We have been blessed that the school’s humble beginnings have already been so impactful in the hearts of our students.

Praying for many more Merry Christmases at Kalos.

Launching a Community at Kalos Christian Academy

Kalos Christian Academy and the Herzog SchoolBox

This time last year, launching Kalos Christian Academy (KCA) was just a dream.  As more families prioritized Christian education over public education, parents encountered long wait lists for many Christian schools in the Kansas City Northland.  Consequently, the demand for quality private Christian education was rising, and there weren’t enough seats to fill the need. That is when founder Amber Kaspar partnered with the Herzog SchoolBox to start Kalos Christian Academy.  Kaspar knew it would take a lot of time and energy and planned to open KCA’s doors in August 2024.  The SchoolBox proved to be an incredible resource, and after just a few months, KCA was ready to open its doors to its founding families.

Kalos Christian Academy was one of sixty-eight Herzog Foundation SchoolBox schools launched this year. In an article by the Herzog Foundation, Kaspar states,  “I can’t imagine starting a school without SchoolBox. The experience and wealth of information from those who have gone before us helped accelerate the process of starting Kalos Christian Academy. The SchoolBox courses helped create a structure to execute our school’s mission and vision, while the mentor shared wisdom to help refine each stage of the school launch process.”

Kalos Christian Academy’s Community

Kalos Christian Academy student leadership begins early.

“We knew that keeping our enrollment small this first year would help us refine our policies and procedures. Our goal is to serve families at the highest level, which meant implementing the ideal school on a small scale before a hard launch in September of 2024.”

Kalos Christian Academy had a soft opening in September of 2023 with six founding families enrolling students ranging from kindergarten to eleventh grade. “Our community is small but mighty, dedicated to praying for each other,  studying God’s Word together, and supporting each other.”  Kaspar continues, “My favorite part of this year is seeing discipleship in action, even at the kindergarten level.”

The design of the classrooms is intended to promote community. Students and teachers sit around tables, sing, discuss ideas, and much more. Kaspar explains, “Everything at Kalos is intentional; the atmosphere and the teachers play a huge part in the students’ experience. They must embody what is True, Good, and Beautiful just as much as the living educational content we present.”

Kalos Christian Academy is now accepting applications for transfer students for the second semester. Transfer students will need ot email office@kaloskc.com to begin the admission process. Applications for new students for the 2024 – 2025 school year, Apply Today! .  If you want more information, call the office at 816.888.0839 or email office@kaloskc.com.

Kindergarten at KCA

Kindergarten Readiness

Kindergarten is a fantastic milestone for your child, and Kalos Christian Academy (KCA) wants to help set your child up for success. KCA aims to nurture your child’s love for learning and grow his or her character. Kindergarten readiness encompasses your child’s intellectual, emotional, physical, and social development. KCA’s kindergarten program lays the foundation for academic success by nurturing the students’ hearts and minds. KCA utilizes Charlotte Mason’s principles to introduce rich content and provide an atmosphere where the love for learning is natural and developmentally appropriate. 

KCA builds on your child’s strengths and encourages your child where he or she is challenged. The classical Christian pedagogy at KCA cultivates a child’s character and fosters his or her love for learning. Kindergartners are presented with a feast of curriculum in Bible, history, geography, math, reading, and writing. The integration of classical music, fine art, poetry, living stories, nature study, Spanish, and habit training is vital to the KCA kindergarten program, encouraging your child to know and enjoy God through His creation.

Is your child ready for kindergarten? You can start by reviewing the list of skills below to help identify if your child is ready to begin kindergarten. This list is neither an exhaustive list nor a list of mandatory requirements for admission. KCA recognizes some students will be stronger in some areas and need more assistance in others. Kindergarten is a great time to grow in all areas of development.

Kindergarten Readiness Checklist

Social Skills
  Plays well with others
  Can take turns
  Can ask for help
  Listens attentively for at least five minutes
  Confidently separate from parents at drop-off
  Follows two-step instructions
  Can take responsibility for his or her belongings
  Shows respect to peers and adults
  Communicates thoughts and feelings with words
  Can follow class rules
  Can follow routines
Reading Readiness Skills
  Shows interest in reading
  Listens attentively to stories
  Recognizes letters
  Recognizes own name
   
Math Skills
  Can count from one to ten (or higher)
  Can identify common shapes
  Can sort similar/different objects
Language Skills
  Speaks clearly in simple sentences
  Speaks Mannerly – please, thank you, and excuse me
  Recognizes familiar symbols
  Can retell a story
  Communicates needs and wants with words
Self-care Skills
  Can use the toilet independently
  Uses healthy hygiene habits such as hand washing
  Can dress self
Fine Motor Skills
  Can correctly grip a pencil, marker, or crayon
  Can use a pair of scissors to cut
  Able to build a tower with blocks
  Able to generally copy basic shapes
  Can thread beads on a string
   
Gross Motor Skills
  Can run
  Able to jump on one foot at a time
  Able to jump with both feet together
  Can climb stairs
  Can throw and kick a ball

Click here for a printable PDF of the Kindergarten Readiness Checklist.

Would you like to know more about KCA or to schedule a private tour? Please email office@kaloskc.com or call 816-888-0839. 

Kalos Christian Academy desires to attract and serve a diverse group of Christian families, employees, and students to build a community that lives in agreement with our core values and statement of faith. Kalos Christian Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity and operates in agreement with the ACCS Statement on Ethnic Harmony.

Wonder Under the Microscope

Kansas City Classical Christian School second-grade science
Students at KCA explore God’s creation through a microscope.

Albert Einstein once said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

Biblical Integration

KCA’s Biblically integrated curriculum points to the creator through the beauty of His creation. Science is not just a subject at KCA. It catalyzes the student’s imagination to explore the divine order of creation and grow in the knowledge of God the Creator.

At KCA, we believe every child is created in the image of God. That God has provided His Word and His creation to make Himself known to man. We take a holistic approach, looking at each subject as part of a grand design Students explore interrelated lessons in history, language arts, geography, math, science, and more from a Biblical worldview. God is the creator of all such subjects and the ultimate authority; everything in creation points to Him. Our aim is to encourage the wonder of our Creator through His creation.

Recommended Reading: The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers

The Lost Tools of Learning

Dorothy Sayers writes in her 1947 essay, The Lost Tools of Learning, “If we are to produce a society of educated people, fitted to preserve their intellectual freedom amid the complex pressures of our modern society, we must turn back the wheel of progress some four or five hundred years, to the point at which education began to lose sight of its true object, towards the end of the Middle Age.” Sayers outlines a liberal education that has inspired the Classical Christian movement across America with the founding of the Association of Classical Christian Schools.  Sayer’s essay is recommended for every parent interested in classical Christian education.  

Click here to read The Lost Tools of Learning

“The whole of the Trivium was in fact intended to teach the pupil the proper use of the tools of learning, before he began to apply them to “subjects” at all. First, he learned a language: not just how to order a meal in a foreign language, but the structure of language—a language–and hence of language itself—what it was, how it was put together and how it worked. Secondly, he learned how to use language: how to define his terms and make accurate statements; how to construct an argument and how to detect fallacies in argument (his own arguments and other people’s). Dialectic, that is to say, embraced Logic and Disputation. Thirdly, he learned to express himself in language: how to say what he had to say elegantly and persuasively. At this point, any tendency to express himself windily or to use his eloquence so as to make the worse appear the better reason would, no doubt, be restrained by his previous teaching in Dialectic. If not, his teacher and his fellow-pupils, trained along the same lines, would be quick to point out where he was wrong; for it was they whom he had to seek to persuade. At the end of his course, he was required to compose a thesis upon some theme set by his masters or chosen by himself, and afterwards to defend his thesis against the criticism of the faculty. By this time he would have learned—or woe betide him—not merely to write an essay on paper, but to speak audibly and intelligibly from a platform, and to use his wits quickly when heckled. The heckling, moreover, would not consist solely of offensive personalities or of irrelevant queries about what Julius Caesar said in 55 B.C.—though no doubt medieval dialectic was enlivened in practice by plenty of such primitive repartee.” Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning

Recover the Lost Tools with a Classical Christian Education at Kalos Christian Academy

Kalos Christian Academy is a member of the Association of Classical Christian Schools and aims to make classical Christian education more accessible in Kansas City, Missouri. KCA provides a robust classical Christian pedagogy inspired by Dorothy Sayer’s essay.

KCA focuses on the grammar stage of the Trivium in grades K-6, the Logic stage in grades 7-8, and the Rhetoric stage in grades 9-12.  If you want more information about classical Christian education in Kansas City, email us at office@kaloskc.com.

 

 

Lost Tools of Learning,