FAQs

General Info

Q:	What is Shining Light Commonwealth?
A:	Shining Light Commonwealth is a group of 30 homeschooling families who create an amazing homeschool community. We offer classes, activities, trainings, and more. We are a family school meaning everyone in that family can participate - parents, youths, & younger children.

What is Shining Light Commonwealth homeschool group?

Shining Light Commonwealth homeschool group is a group of families who form an organization to help educate their youth and children. We meet weekly for scholar projects and juniors classes which are mentored by parents. Our goal is to inspire our youth and children to get a great leadership education. Each student has stewardship over what they learn through scholar projects. We use topics such as Shakespeare and the U.S. Constitution to teach Vision, Mission, Abilities, and Skills. All classes are mentored by the parents of their homeschooled peers, and so the mentors strive to be second witnesses to the students’ parental teaching. For an in-depth discussion of commonwealth schools, please see Aneladee Milne's book, The New Commonwealth School.

What are the benefits of joining Shining Light Commonwealth?

Being a part of a commonwealth community provides a much-needed support group for homeschooling families. Having a positive peer group for scholar age youth is vital for the youth to embrace this phase of their life and do the hard work necessary to get a great liberal arts education. When families pool their talents, time and energy to educate one another's children, all benefit.

Our parent-run organization means that parents of the enrolled students participate in debate and vote on items that affect the commonwealth, mentor scholar projects and juniors classes and serve on the governing board. Parent volunteers also make our yearly large events, such as our Shakespeare production and Youth Conference, run smoothly and effectively for the benefit of all. As you can see, parent involvement is essential to keeping the school running and thriving.

An important part of Shining Light is the feeling of a “tribal community.” With so many families devoid of the traditional roles of “aunt," “uncle," “cousin," etc., this community can provide support in your homeschooling endeavors. Not only do we as parents gain so much from the associations within the commonwealth, but our children's experience is enhanced as well as we unite entire families in a common goal of enriching, life-long education.
For a great explanation of a “tribal community," please see Brenda Haws’ article: "Creating Your Tribal Community"

The curricula for these classes include reading and discussing great works, writing down thoughts and ideas, and working together with other like-minded scholars to gain a great liberal arts education. Parent mentors are trained and use the materials produced by the Leadership Education Mentoring Institute (LEMI) for our core curriculum.

What is required of me if I join Shining Light Commonwealth?

Membership in any organization comes with both privileges and responsibilities. Although not required, we highly encourage members to be involved in a way that makes use of their unique genius! That can range from mentoring a scholar project, mentoring a Juniors class, being on a committee to plan events, serving as an Officer on the Executive Board.

Voting Members are responsible to meet the requirements of membership which include:
1) Read A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille,
2) Attend or listen to the LEMI Philosophy Seminar,
3) Attend at least 4 Member Meetings during the school year and
4) Pay annual membership dues
5) Pay tuition for the scholar projects or junior classes in which their youth or children are enrolled.

One of our most popular scholar projects is Shakespeare Conquest. The culminating activity for this project is a full-length Shakespeare production, with full costuming, props, and several performances for a live audience. To give the students this amazing opportunity, the parents of youth in Shakespeare are required to volunteer significantly during the 8 weeks of rehearsals and performances. This can be anything from volunteering during rehearsals, to costuming, from gathering props to being in charge of sound or lights during performances. It really does require the efforts of all parents and students. But it is an amazing opportunity for the parents, too, to build community and come together to create something outstanding.

Our mentors are completely volunteer, and often go to great sacrifice to mentor these wonderful scholar projects. There are many times that mentors have requested parents helping in the class and outside the class. Although we all live busy lives with other children and responsibilities, the time and effort you give is well spent and can give back to you and your children, more than you put in. Please understand that fulfilling the mentor's requests of help from parents is part of participating in the commonwealth.

What is the vision of the monthly Member Meeting? Why are they so important?

A key piece of our community culture is the monthly Member Meeting. During these meetings we conduct Commonwealth business, have an inspiring presentation from a member, and have time to build relationships with each other. These meetings provide extra opportunities for fathers to be involved with the Commonwealth, which greatly strengthens the commonwealth and the family unity and support at home. The time spent together forging friendships, provide fantastic networking and a supportive environment where we work together for the good of all. Membership requirements are common in formally organized societies, as our group is. These minimal requirements keep the organization stay strong, unified and long-lasting. We have found great benefit to the commonwealth community as many members attend regularly.

Q:	How can my family join Shining Light Commonwealth?
A:	We have a maximum of 30 families in our commonwealth. Our Interest List opens January 1st and closes the last day of February each year. Please refer to Interest List page for more information on our admissions process.

Q:	What is Leadership Education Mentoring Institute or LEMI?
A:	LEMI's Mission: Build Families and Communities through training parent mentors, training leadership mentors and inspiring them to mentor youth and adults through scholar phase.

What is Leadership Education?

Leadership Education is not just an educational philosophy but rather it is a family and community culture. When you choose a Leadership Education for your family, there are many new principles that it incorporates, including:

A Core Book - A book(s) that contain your values.
Leadership – Both in the Home and Community
Virtue – Both private and public
Education in phases – Including your own
Actively Mentoring your children through their education.
Family involvement- parents taking responsibility with their children to guide, direct, and own the education of the family members.

These principles are part of a culture that is not found in every neighborhood. So when people sense their value, they immediately start trying to find others to join with them in their culture, for themselves and especially for their adolescent youth.
One pattern that we see is that homeschooling families are pretty comfortable with the pre-school through elementary ages. The very idea of these two ages is liberating to most people because it is refreshing to be able to do what seems natural. However, the Scholar Phase does not have the same natural feel because most people who are educated in public education today did not experience a scholar phase themselves. Scholar Phase is the phase of education where a student puts in thousands of hours studying the classics of all-time, learning how to think, shaping their hearts and minds, and obtaining the kind of education that is required for freedom. It is also where the Scholarship Ladders become essential.

What is Scholar Phase?

Scholar Phase can be broken down into four parts:

Practice: when a student begins to gain scholar skills in reading, writing, thinking, computing, etc. to such a degree that they become independent thinkers. At first it takes a lot of practice and looks inconsistent, in time it becomes easier and easier and the student’s ability to focus increases.
Apprentice: study hours are doubled once again, from four to eight. This is the bottleneck of scholar phase, where many, many scholar skills are learned so that the student’s time can be used effectively.
Self-Directed: this is “The Bar” where a student has proven that they have the skills and abilities to read anything, speak persuasively, write persuasively, obtain the mentors they desire, work with mentors, and think.
Mentored: this is usually done at college.

Although there are many ways to accomplish scholar phase, LEMI has provided methods, tools, and mentoring to assist both parents and youth to progress through the various levels of scholar phase as they prepare for a broad, deep study of the classics.

Q:	What are the Scholarship Ladders?
A:	We have found that there are 5 things, vision, mission, abilities, skills & knowledge, which if met, pull a student through Scholar Phase. We call these 5 things, The Scholarship Ladders. If each Scholarship Ladder is used correctly then teenagers and adults alike will willingly do the hard work of obtaining an education for sovereignty.

What are LEMI Scholar Projects?

The LEMI Scholar Projects were designed with this in mind. We have Scholar Projects for adults, and we have Scholar Projects for Youth. After extensive study, we found that everyone throughout history who had obtained a Scholar Phase had something in common – The Scholarship Ladders. In other words, no one obtains a Scholar Phase without thrm, and with them, Scholar Phase is natural. That is how and why we created the Scholar Projects.

Scholar Projects are freedom enriching thematic units that take students through The Scholarship Ladders. The goal of each Scholar Project is to expose students to a specific body of knowledge (such as Shakespeare or the U.S. Constitution) and instill within them a greater vision of themselves by incorporating six environments of learning. This ultimately entices them to ask the question, “What is the purpose of my life?”

As students gain a greater vision and love for freedom and see themselves as contributors to the cause of freedom worldwide, they become motivated to seek and develop their latent vital abilities. They gain the skills they need to make real impact.

Each of the Scholar Projects incorporates five skill-based elements:

Thinking – (To think like a Philosopher)
Speaking – (To speak Like an Orator)
Writing – (To write like an Author)
Computing – (To compute like a mathematician)
Reading – (To read like a lawyer)

Each Scholar Projects invites the students to examine their own character by exposing them to great men and women in history.