​The following is an excerpt taken from “Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children” by Angela J. Hanscom

A day in the life of a typical modern kid- imagine this. 

Sarah, a sweet nine-year-old, gets up and dresses quickly in the morning, keeping in mind that if she eats fast enough her mother will let her watch cartoons before leaving for school. As soon as she finishes her last bite, she watches reruns of “Looney Tunes.” Twenty minutes goes by in a flash.

Sarah lives in the country, so it takes about twenty-five minutes to drive to school. Her mom feels guilty about the long drive, so she lets Sarah play on the iPad until they arrive. “Everyone, please take your seats!” the teacher shouts as Sarah approaches her desk, where she sits most of the day, except for a brief snack, quick lunch and a twenty-minute recess. Then it is time to go home.

After another twenty-five minute commute home, Sarah is feeling energetic after a long day of sitting. She instantly heads toward the swing set in the backyard. “Not yet,” Mom catches her. “Homework first”. Sarah groans, shuffles to the dining-room table, and pulls out her assignment.

“Argh…” Sarah is literally trying to pull her hair out. “I hate this! I can’t do this!” It takes about ninety minutes to complete the homework on a good day. By the end, she is exhausted. After two bouts of crying, she feels angry and spent. “Can I play on the iPad for a little bit?” She asks her mother. Her mother, thinking Sarah has definitely earned it this time, says, “Sure. But remember, we need to leave for Girl Scouts in thirty minutes.”

After Girl Scouts, Sarah and her family use the drive-through on their way home since it is already a late night. When they get home, Sarah grabs her Harry Potter book and readies for thirty minutes before it is time for lights out. Tomorrow, she’ll do this routine all over again. Only instead of Girl Scouts, she has basketball practice. 

​If you’re anything like me, you finished reading this excerpt feeling empty, exhausted, overwhelmed and sad. Sad because while this may not be your family, we all know that family or families that live this exact life. When I think about these children, children begging for time, for play, for life to just SLOW down it truly breaks my heart. 

​I came upon this book on my Kindle months ago. I started reading it, life got busy with the Holidays and so I set it aside and just days ago started back at the beginning. Two weeks ago I came upon an Instagram account called “1,000 hours outside”. It was pretty easy to see that I was being pointed in a strong, straight line towards the simple concept that our children thrive when we allow them outdoor, active, FREE play without adult interference.

I don’t use the term “called to” lightly. But this, there was no denying. Maybe it’s our current climate, the craziness that was 2020, I’m not sure -but when I came upon “1,000 hours outside” on Instagram I fell in love with her message, her content, her challenge and I didn’t hesitate- 2021 would be the year that the Harsin family committed to 1,000 hours outdoors.

Are we currently behind our (my goal) hours? We are. Do I enjoy being outdoors in the cold? I do not. Is it a fight (with LOTS of whining involved) to get everyone in boots and coats and hats and out the door? 100%.

But, here’s what I already know...after just 12 days: Once we get outdoors and find our adventure- our big girls don’t want it to end. This past Sunday we spent almost 3 hours at Mahoney State Park sledding, hiking, having a picnic and even after all that time- they didn’t want to be done! I’ve noticed that the girls are already asking for less screen time- when we come in from outdoor time they’re so content to just settle in and PLAY. Bedtime is a breeze, nothing wears a kid out more than moving their bodies in the fresh air. Our girls are falling asleep immediately and for the most part, not making a peep for 11-12 hours. If nothing else, these things make it ALL worth it.

The things that I love most about the 1,000 hour challenge (outside of what it can bring to our children): you can begin this challenge whenever you choose, you set your own rules and even if you fall short of the 1,000 hour goal...you still WIN.

If one word of this resonates with you- I challenge you to dig into either of these resources, or the many others that you can find on this very topic and explore. We owe it to ourselves, our families and our children to simply do that...explore.

I am excited for our journey and hope you will follow ours here, while simultaneously finding the inspiration to start your own outdoor journey. 

​Our education journey started with the public school system.  Kindergarten year we had a good year and a great teacher.  As we entered first grade I could slowly see the rigid structure weighing heavily on Peyton.  It was a struggle to get her to want to go to school.  I began researching other options in the area and did not have anything 100% resonate with my desires for Peyton’s education. I explored the homeschooling option; however, since I work full time I would not be able to give Peyton the guidance she would need or be able to connect with other homeschooling families in the community due to my work schedule. 
 
We continued into her second-grade year and her not wanting to go to school only intensified.  She was miserable and I was miserable sending her every day.  I honestly understood why she was not happy.  A lot of what I saw in her is what I felt growing up going through a system that was very rigid and put me in a one size fits all approach that did not align with how I learned at all.  We went to our second scheduled parent-teacher conferences in February 2020 and I left knowing I had to figure out a change.  Tests and metrics that we had been told in previous years to not put much weight into all of the sudden in the second grade were a big deal and the ability to explain those to the parents and help guide the student on the best path to enhance their learning was non-existent.  One month later COVID hit and school was remote the remainder of the year.  I was dealing with a very different child via remote learning.  She wanted to learn, and she could explore her interests as well as develop in core skill areas.  ​Ironically several of the programs we used at home were the same ones she was using at school, so she was getting some of the same content but with the ability to work at her level and solidify her understanding instead of having to keep at a pace to get through the year worth of content to meet standards and most likely only solidify a fraction of the understanding.  This showed me kids are missing the valuable building blocks they need in education.

​The stage was set. It was parents vs heroes. Who would win? Conventional wisdom said the parents should have easily beat the heroes. It turns out the exact opposite was true!

The challenge, if you don’t know it, is a fun and instructive design exercise that encourages teams to experience simple but profound lessons in collaboration, innovation and creativity.

The challenge seems simple enough: small teams have to build a structure in 18 minutes using 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string and 1 marshmallow. The winning team is the one that can construct the tallest freestanding structure with the marshmallow on top within the time allowed. The point of the exercise is to collaborate very quickly in order to respond to the task. It reveals some surprising lessons about the nature of collaboration.

I had the the prior knowledge that our youngest group of heroes (age 5-7) had time and again proven they would beat CEOs of fortune 500 companies, so it was extra special to watch this play out in front of our eyes.

The challenge has been done hundreds of times across the country and the results are intriguing.

Who performs poorly?
Recent business school graduates. Why? They cheat and get distracted. They try to find the single correct plan and then attempt to execute that. They run out of time and when they put the marshmallow on top, it’s a crisis. Sound familiar?

Who performs well?
Kindergarten kids. Why? First of all, none of the kids spend time trying to become CEO of Spaghetti Inc.! More importantly, they start with the marshmallow and then build successive prototypes, all the time keeping the marshmallow on top until they find a solution that works.

The lesson learned from all this fun? The capacity to experiment and prototype is essential to success. (aka trial and error)

What a week! From our launch party last Saturday with our founding families to completing our lip dub challenge. What a full amazing week as we launched our brand new alternative school in Lincoln, Nebraska!

This included the Acton tradition of the “Threshold Ceremony” where founding families symbolically choose Acton and to embark on a Hero’s Journey as they cross the threshold from the ordinary world into an extraordinary one.

​After letting our heroes explore their new space we then completed a second Acton tradition of palm painting. Here we invited our founding heroes and their parents to leave their mark on the space.

Our heroes worked hard in their first full week. They took on many challenges and drank information from a firehose!
​
One of their team-building challenges was to create a lip dub video, after some initial failures they adapted their plan and put together this fun version of a Frozen song.

IEPs. This term has always bothered me; it never made sense why only children with learning differences have an IEP. After all, the term stands for Individualized Education Plan (or Program). Shouldn’t every child’s educational journey be individualized?

Individual Is Not Practical in Traditional Education
The problem is that in society, we sometimes do what is more convenient rather than what is right. It’s not practical in traditional education, i.e., the factory model, to individualize each learner’s educational plan. In traditional education, everyone learns the same thing at the same time for the purpose of efficiency. But, if you’ve ever met 2 people even with the same parents, living under the same roof (heck, even identical twins for that matter), you know just how different each individual is. So why do we insist on educating young people in the same way?

Individual Education for Each & Every Learner
At Acton, we believe in individualized education plans 100%, but for each and every learner! This is not to say that everyone won’t learn some of the same material, but the timeline of when that happens is based on who that learner is as an individual. We have learners of the same age in vastly different spots, but no one is ahead or behind, they are all exactly where they need to be for them because everyone’s development is unique. We work towards improvement and progress for each individual with an understanding that there is never such thing as “done” because learning and education is a life-long journey.

Learners Discover and Lean Into Their Passions
And what about passions? At Acton, we let our learners lean into their passions by first exposing them to a wide variety of trades and crafts and then letting them try out what fits for them with apprenticeships each year (starting around the age of 11). This allows them to try out a passion to see if it’s something they would like to pursue (as a hobby or career). Because again, we believe that each child’s educational journey should be, first and foremost…individualized.

Kori Stack, M.Ed.
​Acton Academy Kennebunkport

Long before I ever had kids, I had spent 2 years working toward a degree in childhood education (I wanted to be a 3rd or 4th-grade teacher). As part of the degree program, I spent 80 hours assisting in a 4th-grade classroom. What I learned during that time, was that the public education system is designed to keep the ‘average’ kid moving forward while the above or below average are forced to simply comply with the status quo. I could go on and on about my opinions as to why I think the system is flawed, but ultimately I just concluded that it wasn’t a good fit for me and likely wouldn’t be a good fit for my children. 

Once Kash was born, I started looking into local private schools, but frankly, I didn’t feel that Lincoln had very strong alternatives. This left me feeling a little defeated, and I started mentally preparing myself to send Kash to LPS. I actually went as far as enrolling him. Then COVID hit. Which made public education feel even more constrained than before. I decided to register as a homeschool parent at about the same time that my friend told me about Acton Academy. I watched the videos on the website, scheduled a meeting with Zach, and then read The Courage to Grow. I finally found what I didn’t know I was looking for. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Albert Einstein: “Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”. This clearly aligns with Acton’s belief system.

While waiting for Acton Lincoln to open I was forced to figure out a homeschool ‘program’ that would fill the gap. In the beginning, it was a total nightmare for both Kash and I. Why? Because I was doing exactly what I was trying to protect him from. I had put up a copy of the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution on the wall behind his desk, and I was trying to force him to follow along the Hooked on Phonics program at a pace that I had pre-determined, rather than letting him work at his own pace. We were both miserable. And I was teaching him that learning is a negative experience. It was the opposite of what I wanted for him. So, I reflected back on “The Courage to Grow”, and decided to reframe things based on that book. 

By this time, you might have the impression that Acton Academies are really different from traditional schools. Like, REALLY different.

You’re right. Acton Academies are off-the-charts different. On purpose.

But if you think Acton students have limited options after graduation, think again! In their years at Acton, students learn to be independent thinkers and self-starters. They launch real businesses. They learn practical, marketable skills. They find their calling.

Acton graduates, from around the world, who apply to college are attractive candidates, displaying responsibility, maturity and a diversity of experiences that is rare among their peers.

Graduates who start their own businesses have a leg up on the competition because, by the time they turned 18, they’d already started and ran several businesses and completed dozens of internships.

There are no limits for Acton graduates – they are ready to follow whatever path they choose.

Acton Academy graduates who do intend to apply for college have a choice:

1. Translate badges into a diploma and transcript identical to those issued by top college prep high schools, a strategy most effective for second tier state universities with more bureaucratic admission hurdles; 
​
2. Present a rich portfolio of work and a fistful of reference letters from apprenticeships, an approach favored by alternative schoolers and homeschoolers for more selective universities like Stanford or Harvard.

Increasingly universities like Harvard and Stanford covet self-directed, focused graduates like ours and offer large discounts on tuition.

This story is from KOLN - 1011 News in Lincoln. Read the full article on 1011now.com

Soon, there will be a new school opening in Lincoln.

It’s called Acton Academy and is an alternative for parents who don’t want their kids to follow traditional K-12 learning.

The room it will be in is going through renovations right now but soon it will be a place for nearly a dozen kids to learn.

“Our families are really excited to join, and build this with us as we learn too,” said co-founder, Zach Harsin.

Kids who would be in grades K-5 will all be in one room learning together. Right now, there’s ten enrolled.

“They’re learning how to be students in the 21st century and that requires problem-solving skills, that requires interpersonal skills, that requires communication and interviews and how to go out and solicit to get a job,” said Harsin.

Read the full article at 1011now.com

We are excited to announce our new launch date of November 16th, 2020 to meet the needs of our founding families in this current moment.

My wife and I originally envisioned opening in the Fall of 2021. This aligned well with our daughter starting Kindergarten next fall and as busy working parents of three little kiddos, the idea of 18 months of planning sure seemed much less daunting. 

As we started speaking with our founding families, we quickly realized of all the years for these families to sit and wait for their dream school, this was NOT the year. 

We decided to see how we could speed up our time table and meet their needs. We immediately began a hiring search while also looking for the perfect location. Within weeks we had hired our rock star guide and found our ideal location, but it still wasn't how we envisioned launching.

We still needed a handful more families to join us on this journey and there was still about six months of prep, planning, and training to fit into the next few months.

​Yes, we want to deliver on all our promises, yes we want all the pieces to be planned exactly right, but we also realized, we wouldn't be true to the Acton spirit if we waited until the timing was perfect and all our ducks were in a row. This is our own hero's journey after-all!

Curious to learn more about the Hero's Journey and how it fits into the bigger picture at Acton Academy Lincoln? Read More...

We couldn't be more excited to welcome her and her family to our growing Acton tribe! We can't wait for her journey to begin here at Acton Academy Lincoln.

Hi! ​My name is Karla Fitz, my students call me Miss Karla.
​
I am originally from Venezuela, where I lived until 2007 when I moved to Hastings, NE to learn English as an exchange student.

I then had the opportunity to pursue my passion of Vocal Music & Studio Art
at Hasting College. I have since earned my Masters in Music and English as a Second Language.

I then pursued a calling to become a teacher as a lead preschool teacher, before moving on to teach Spanish for Saint Joseph Catholic School here in Lincoln, Nebraska for the last three years.

My husband Jeremy and I have two beautiful little girls, a 4-year-old and a 1 year-old.  The girls were the reason we decided I would try staying home. However, education has always been a great part of me, and the calling never left.

Ever since I was a little girl, I remember my dad saying, “Studying is your one and only job” and we always did our job well. My mom was a music teacher and I followed in her footsteps.

It was while missing my students, that I saw an ad for the Acton Academy Lincoln Guide. The idea of children learning independently, promoting freedom, and encouraging challenges excited me and I knew I had to apply. Once the interview process started, I quickly understood this was not just another school, it was a safe environment for children to develop their interests, their curiosity, and experiment with different subjects at their own pace. Acton is a place where answers aren’t given to the students by the teacher, rather each hero is a teacher at Acton as each of them get to discover answers themselves or better yet, with the help of fellow learners.

I knew this was my place to be.

Today, I am assigned with the task of guiding and helping these learners grow as they develop their own Hero’s Journey. I cannot wait to start this journey alongside them!