North Star Scholar Association is a LEMI commonwealth school which is comprised of homeschool families, working together. We offer weekly classes and scholar projects, every Thursday in Roy, UT. Our classes reflect the Thomas Jefferson Education (TJED or Leadership Education) philosophy, and our community is Christ centered and multidenominational.
What is a Commonwealth school?
Our commonwealth school is based on the philosophy of Leadership Education Mentoring Institute (LEMI), and the book, “A Thomas Jefferson Education”, and is a community of up to 30 homeschooling families who all contribute to the teaching and work of the school. Our Scholar (teen) projects are based on LEMI curriculum.
What is the purpose of NSSA and how does it benefit families?
Our community benefits families by supporting (not replacing) teaching in the home, providing positive peer interaction opportunities and inspiring projects to help youth build scholar skills, knowledge, and abilities, and catch the vision of how they can bless the world around them through their education and development.
We also provide fun and educational classes to the younger children to support our commonwealth families. A parent from each participating family helps teach in the commonwealth.
In addition, we offer moms classes, mentor trainings, and retreats, to create unity, friendship, and support for one another, family campouts, dances, and activities, awards nights, teen socials, book clubs, service projects, movie nights, and other fun connection opportunities outside of our weekly classes.
Who is NSSA for?
We welcome families with at least one scholar age student (approx. 12-18), who are aligned with our mission and are interested in participating fully (including teaching or helping teach a class.).
Where and when do you meet?
We meet every Thursday from Sept - May, in the Roy, UT area.
What classes are offered?
For our 12-18 yr old scholars, we offer a variety of LEMI scholar projects.
We also have classes for all ages from nursery-junior scholar (0-11) as well as our family foundations class for moms. We meet every Thursday morning Sept-April. You can see all the classes we offer under 'Classes' in the menu.
How much does it cost?
Each family pays a $100 fee to cover the building use, plus tuition and fees for each class their children take (variable).
Parents help teach (and in some cases attend training to teach specific projects) at NSSA throughout the year. Each family also takes turns cleaning after classes.
( Programs such as Mytechhigh and Harmony may pay for classes and fees at NSSA for scholar projects - check with your program to verify for individual classes.)
Do I have to follow a certain curriculum or homeschool philosophy to join?
No. We will follow the philosophy and curriculum of the Leadership Education mentoring Institute (LEMI) in our scholar project curriculum and teaching methods at NSSA, but we do not seek to dictate what you do at home.
Is this a religious group?
We are multidenominational, Christ-centered families.
We are not geared toward a particular faith, we welcome families of any denomination, and we do not require a statement of faith or teach religion in our classes. We do include prayer to open and close our meetings and acknowledge God’s hand in our history, our learning, and our lives.
In addition to our weekly classes during the school year, we offer park days, field trips, a family campout, family dances, book groups, valentines parties, service projects, parents nights, trainings, and socials, and other fun get-togethers. We are making friendships to last a lifetime!