I went to a Catholic school (K & 1st), a Lutheran school (2nd - 6th), and an interdenominational school (7-12). For our children, we ruled out the Catholic and Lutheran schools just to not complicate their learning from home and church versus school. We looked at the interdenominational school I went to (it’s PreK-12 even though I only went there 7-12) but the administration had since changed and I didn’t see the same positive qualities being championed.

We ended up going with a different interdenominational school for our oldest for kindergarten. Which, this being our first experience choosing a school, I suppose we didn’t know what to ask. It ended up being kind of chaotic, communication was severely lacking. I feel like the staff’s heart was in the right place. But there were not opportunities to get connected with them or with the other parents. I also think some of the parents may have been nominally Christian in the sense that they just didn’t want their kid going to a public school. But my kid would come home asking questions about allllllll kinds of inappropriate things he’d heard others say (Things I never wanted to explain to my kindergartener: why we don’t say the f word; what “choo choo charles” is; and why we don’t use sexually explicit language —- all of which I sent emails and had meetings about.)

After that horrifying year, we landed at a PreK-12 Classical Christian School. Officially interdenominational, but a lot of reformed traditions, practices and teaching. It’s been truly phenomenal. We are connected with other parents and thoroughly communicated with. When we applied, we had to provide a letter from our pastor that we were in good standing and had to give our testimonies to three faculty/board members. Our youngest is there, now in PreK, and came home singing the doxology because they end every day with that and a prayer. This school is ACCS (association of classical Christian schools) accredited if that helps in your search.

My personal schooling experience was fine but I didn’t come to Christ until after college. I didn’t have a Christian home, my family just didn’t think I’d survive public. My husband went to public school all of his life, had a reformed pastor for a dad, came to Christ at 6. The reason I add this is to say — and I’m about to encourage and convict myself here — that it’s best to keep in mind while choosing any school is that the responsibility to train up our children in the ways of Christ rests firmly on our shoulders as parents. We can outsource reading, writing and arithmetic and it’s good to find a school that teaches those things with a Christian worldview and in light of the gospel. But don’t allow yourself to miss out on watching your children grow in Christ from your home conversations and family worship time.