A homeschooling center is coming to the Blue Water Area

Parents looking for an alternative to traditional schooling will soon have a new option with an upcoming homeschool center.

The Huron Academic Endeavors Cooperation Center is expected to open for instruction this fall. President Kelly Oldford said the center is currently taking students that are pre-school through second grade. She said the center will act as a hybrid homeschool, which will give parents more flexibility in teaching their children.

Oldford said she wanted to provide another option for homeschooling in the Blue Water Area.

"I thought that there's other homeschool families that don't even know this option exists," she said.

Oldford said the location of the center is still being determined. The three options for location include the Harrison Center, located at 55 15th St. in Port Huron; Blue Water Christian Academy, located at 1620 Wadhams Road in Kimball Township and Living Faith Lutheran Church, located at 310 South Parker St. in Marine City.

Oldford became interested in homeschooling two years ago when she started teaching her 4-year-old daughter some pre-school level lessons, such as colors, the alphabet and shapes. She said she didn't realize it was homeschooling at the time, and thought it was just a productive use of time with her child.

Oldford said seeing how creative her daughter's learning was becoming made her wonder if other parents in the area were doing something similar.

"There's something very creative about this way of learning," she said. "I thought, 'If my kid can learn this way, are there other families who are the same way?'"

Oldford then started researching different homeschool options, which landed her at hybrid homeschools. She said she found some in the Detroit Area, but there were none near the Blue Water Area. This inspired her to create her own center.

Classes will start after Labor Day and run until Memorial Day. Oldford said she wants to move into classrooms by August to set everything up. Registration is available on the center's website at www.huroncooperative.org.

Oldford said she is looking at grants and sponsorships for the center for when it is opened.

Oldford said the center is a hybrid homeschool. This type of instruction will see students being taught by their parents for most of the week, but then taught by teachers for two days of the week. Parents and teachers are expected to communicate on a regular basis to ensure the students are keeping up with instruction.

"Parents are fully aware of everything going on in the classroom," Oldford said.

Parents will have the ability to do extra readings or lessons during days their students is not in the center. However, they need to make sure their child is up to date on what will be discussed in class on center days.

Oldford said students will be in the center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Additionally, the center will be hiring teachers for instruction.

Huron Academic Endeavors Cooperation Center will use the learning company Savvas for its curriculum. Oldford said its curriculum is very similar to those found in brick-and-mortar schools.

"So, for any students coming out of the traditional school systems, (the curriculum) will translate very easy for them," she said. "Even for students going into the school system from homeschool, this will make the transition easy."

Yearly tuition for pre-school aged students will be $1,400 a year, while tuition for students between kindergarten and second grade will be $2,000. Parents will have the option of paying tuition in full or breaking it up into monthly payments.

Contact McKenna Golat at mgolat@gannett.com or (810) 292-0122.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Huron Academic Endeavors Cooperation Center expected to open in Fall