Academy Supplements Home Schooling

Sat., Aug. 17, 1996

Marny Lombard Staff Writer

A part-time school to help home-schooling families is starting its second year in the Spokane Valley.

The Benjamin Franklin Academy, 20 S. Union, offers classes four hours a day, three days a week. The school operates Tuesday through Thursday.

“We allow God to enter the classroom,” said administrator Marcia Anglesey, adding that the academy is multi-denominational. She expects 50 to 60 students this year.

Three age groupings include 6 to 8 year olds, 9 to 12 year olds and 13 year olds to graduates.

Juniors, the youngest group, learn phonics, reading, math and - using the Children’s Book of Virtues - literature.

Intermediates are taught history, grammar, writing, science and math.

Seniors, the older students, learn American history, biology, Old Testament and world history, Middle Eastern and European history, math up to and including calculus; literature and grammar.

“We diagram sentences here and they love it,” Anglesey said.

The state categorizes the academy as a learning resource center and does not accredit it as a school. That is because it teaches only 12 hours a week.

“But we get right down to business. We don’t have the discipline problems that public schools do,” Anglesey said. The academy program is meant to be added to further family-directed education.

Tuition is $125 a month, with discounts for families with more than one student. Benjamin Franklin is headquartered in Salt Lake City.

For more information, call Anglesey at 926-7534 or 922-7694.

, DataTimes

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