Five Oaks Academy is extremely proud of our Afterschool Teachers, Kate Black and Kirstyn Turner, who are this year’s student body Co-Presidents for Mauldin High School! They are leading the school’s Spirit Week events and fundraisers that will benefit A Child’s Haven.

Check out the MHS Spirit Week 2019 page to see all of the great work they are doing to raise money for A Child’s Haven this year.

Great Job Kate and Kirstyn!

In this seemingly competitive world that at times may feel like an achievement arms race, it is tempting to do everything in your power to make sure your child succeeds. Many parents jump in to solve problems for their children, schedule every waking hour of the day,  over supervise daily activities and academic work, and offer an abundance of praise all along the way.  But is that really what will make your child become a successful adult? How will the real world feel to a young adult who has grown up having their problems solved for them, having all obstacles moved out of their way, and accustomed to praise at every turn?

Join us on January 18 at 8:30 am for a Montessori Parents in Action (MPIA) group discussion on Julie Lythcott-Haims book, How to Raise an Adult.

We hope you will join in on this important discussion. Don’t worry if you haven’t read the book. This event is open to the public but we do ask that you call the main office to RSVP. We will have great information to take with you!  To find out more about the author, visit her website at https://www.julielythcotthaims.com/videos.

Please join us on Thursday, January 17 at 6:00 pm for one of our favorite events of the year! We are thrilled to welcome back Five Oaks Academy Alumni and invite them to participate in a panel discussion about their transition to high school and beyond.

If you would like to attend, kindly respond by clicking on this Eventbrite link to register – https://2019AlumniWorkshop.eventbrite.com.

We are always excited to have our alumni back “home” on campus! We can’t wait for you to meet them, listen to their life stories, and hear how they feel prepared for their future thanks to their experience at Five Oaks Academy!

We all want our children to be successful but what exactly does that mean and how do we guide our children towards success? Humans generally feel successful when they know they excel at something. Certified Gallup Strengths Coaches Chandra White and Renee Anderson from WellSmart Solutions recently spoke to the FOA community on the topic of “Strengths”. They provided us with insight on how parents can start on the journey to guiding their children in discovering and developing their unique strengths while focusing on their own as well.  

Chandra and Renee began their session with the definition of talent and the relationship between talent and strengths. They explained that talents are naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior. Strengths are simply talents that are developed and can be productively applied. It is our job as parents to help our children “lean into” and develop their natural talents so they become strengths, thus leading them towards excellence or success. They stressed that while guiding your child toward success you want to look at what is right, not wrong, with them. This starts with recognizing your child’s unique talents and simultaneously letting go of pushing them to be who they are not. Begin by noticing what they are naturally good at doing as well as what they gravitate towards automatically. Another indicator of a strength is when an activity leaves a child energized.

Furthermore, Chandra and Renee explained that when parents focus on using their child’s natural talents and develop them into strengths, they can use the child’s strengths to manage their weakness much better. One example given was if a child hates math facts but is “competitive”, a parent can use their child’s competitive strength to create a math game to practice their math facts, thus making it about winning the game and not about the math facts. Another example was if a child struggles in reading and has “determination” as a strength, a parent could emphasize the child’s determination to push through difficult work. Shifting the focus makes it no longer about reading, but about the child’s determined spirit. It is important to note that the research indicates that a weakness will never become a talent or strength so it is best to point your child towards the management of their weakness versus expecting excellence.

Renee walked us through what it means to be mindful versus “mind full”. She emphasized how adding a mindful practice of only 8-10 minutes a day can help the mind by improving the working memory, focus, concentration as well as reducing anxiety and depression and the body by increasing energy, improved stamina, and reducing pain and inflammation. Yoga and meditation are two types of formal mindful practices that are beneficial. She also encouraged informal practices such as self-awarenesses where you are deliberately paying attention while driving, showering, or washing the dog.

As parents seek to develop talents into strengths, it is important to notice the natural talents, encourage them to develop in their child and then help the child share them with the world. It is then that the child will feel truly successful. Pairing a child’s strengths with a mindful practice will enable them to not only feel successful but live a healthy and purposeful life.

We look forward to having Chandra and Renee back for future parenting workshops! They have amazing knowledge and a passion for helping people discover their strengths so they can live the best life possible!

Five Oaks Academy was honored to welcome Thandi Tutu-Gxashe, CEO of Desmond Tutu Tutudesk Campaign “Tutudesk Campaign 2020”, on Monday, November 26. Ms. Tutu-Gxashe is the daughter of Desmond Tutu, a highly influential leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. She has lived, worked and been educated in the UK, Swaziland, Botswana and the USA. Ms. Tutu-Gxashe echoes her parent’s vision of equality and the importance of education. Her sincere, warm, and gentle nature instantly captivated her audience of FOA elementary and middle school students.  She shared her passion for education and her drive to address the issue of the vast shortage of desks in sub-Saharan Africa. Our students were stunned to learn there are over 90 million students who had no hard surface to write on and who are literally working on the floor of a classroom or under a tree.

The “Tutudesk Campaign 2020” aims to address the shortage of 90 million desks in sub-Saharan Africa, by providing 20 million Tutudesks to 20 million children by 2020. The Tutudesk is an environmentally friendly, light, portable desk that children can use at school or at home, in regular classrooms or under a tree. The organization’s goal is to improve the lives of African children, their communities and countries, and to make Africa a more globally competitive continent by impacting education and literacy. Ms. Tutu-Gxashe gifted FOA with 3 Tutudesks for our Five Oaks students to use. For more information and to make a donation, please visit http://www.tutudesk.org. In addition to education, Ms. Tutu-Gxashe is passionate about many public health issues, especially in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

We are so appreciative of the time Thandi Tutu-Gxashe extended to our students. Her dedication and drive are such an inspiration to us all!  A special thank you to Upper Elementary student, Charles A., for contacting Ms. Tutu-Gxashe and coordinating her to visit FOA.

Please join us for Montessori Parents in Action (MPIA)  this Friday, November 16 from 8:30am-10: 00 am at Five Oaks Academy for a workshop on “Mindfulness-Based Strength Development”.

Renee Anderson and Chandra White of Wellsmart Solutions will be at FOA to discuss how to strengthen the foundation of family and ensure your child’s positive, successful growth by developing mindfulness-based strengths. This event is open to the community! Grab a friend and join us for coffee, a lite breakfast treat, and learning about our strengths as parents and those of our children.

Five Oaks Academy invites you to “Make Your Mark”, a Synergy event, featuring international consultant, trainer, and author, Jonathan Wolff, in an exploration of the life skills needed for success in today’s world and tomorrow’s. This event will be held on Wednesday, October 24 at 6:00 p.m. at the Five Forks Library Meeting Room.

The students of today need more skills beyond facts, figures, and formulas. Jonathan Wolff will examine the types of abilities needed in a world with increasing demands in higher order thinking, social intelligence, and self-organization. He will discuss how to not only produce outstanding scholars, but more importantly, empower young people to think for themselves, think of others, and think outside-of-the-box.

Please register for this event by visiting www.fiveoaksacademy.com/empower.

We welcome you to the Five Oaks Academy campus the following morning, Thursday, October 25, at 8:30 a.m. for a Montessori Parents in Action  (MPIA) meeting as we continue the discussion with Jonathan Wolff on the skills needed for young people to feel successful, happy, healthy, and productive.

FOA held the first Community Day of the school year on Friday, September 21. As a small school, it is hard to get everything done around campus and in the classroom. Our community members of students, parents, and faculty members came together and GOT IT DONE!!!  It was such a wonderful day of hard work, sweat, laughter, and, community building!

We would like to thank all of the volunteers who spent their valuable time with us on this fun and crazy day! We accomplished so much more than we ever could have on our own. It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a village to keep a small school looking good!

An additional thank you to the following business for your generous donations that helped make this event a complete success:

Jet’s Pizza for donating pizza to all of our hardworking volunteers at lunchtime, Flatrock Family Dentistry for providing popsicles to our hot student, parent and teacher volunteers, Charlene Panek, C. Dan Joyner Real Estate for keeping our volunteers hydrated with cold waters, Arbor Master Tree Care (Stephen Swafford and team) for bringing your awesome truck to our campus, Lowe’s Home Improvement for 50% off of everything we purchased from them, The Home Depot for donating the supplies to build the Gaga Ball pit, and Felicity’s Flowers & Design for donating donated flowers for our students to plant and make our campus beautiful

We would like to thank our 2018-2019 Title Partners for their support of all our school events!

Every year at our International Tea we celebrate the unique cultural differences and backgrounds we have at Five Oaks Academy (FOA). Our community is very diverse with approximately 30 different countries and areas of the world represented within our student body and their families. On Friday, September 7, we gathered together to share our heritage and the stories of how we ended up in Simpsonville, SC while tasting yummy treats from all over the world.

In addition to the International Tea, we also hold an International Festival in May each year. This year, we will celebrate FOA’s cultural richness by creating an international cookbook. We are asking all FOA families and friends to participate by contributing their favorite recipes. The cookbooks will be available for purchase before the holidays and would make a wonderful present for family and friends. Please contact the school for details on how to submit a recipe or how to purchase a cookbook.

Thank you to our 2018-2019 Title Partners for their support of our community events and especially Monica Parkkonen of Monica Parkkonen Photography for taking these beautiful pictures for us to remember this special day.

 Africa and Asia were the two continents that the Lower Elementry program focused on during their cultural and historical studies last year. For the final project of the year, Lower Elementary students were asked to pick one African or Asian country to research, create a visual to share, and finally present to the other students. FOA student, Alex McCall, knew his family had planned a trip for early August to go to Kenya to witness the Great Migration in hopes of seeing hundreds of thousands of wildebeest cross the Mara River. Knowing about his trip at the end of the summer, naturally, Alex picked Kenya for his project.

The project was the perfect way for Alex to learn about the country he would be visiting. He learned some phrases and important words in Swahili. He learned about the geography and different animals that call Kenya home. He also learned about the current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the son of a former president of Kenya and well-liked by his countrymen.

Imagine the McCalls surprise when they met President Kenyatta while waiting for their flight at a tiny airport near Mt. Kenya! Alex recognized President Kenyatta from his project research and was able to greet him by name as he approached. The president was quite taken with this young American boy bursting with excitement at the prospect of meeting him. He stopped and shook hands with Alex and his sister, Maddie. President Kenyatta proceeded to ask them questions about their visit to Kenya, the animals they had seen, and about their favorite part of their trip so far.

Upon returning to the US, Maddie and Alex shared photos, souvenirs, and even African candy with their classmates allowing them to share in their amazing experience.