Naming Our Homeschool

It's a requirement that you name your homeschool... I research every major decision I have to make, and what I found was interesting. I learned that most people often name their school by sticking their last name in front of academy or homeschool. However, Davis Academy or Davis Homeschool didn't suite my fancy. Other people get creative and come up with really unique names for their homeschool. Yet, some people choose to name their school after a president or some other famous person, place, or thing. After reading a few articles, I found that there are a lot of reasons people should really think about what they are naming their homeschool. Three main reasons that stuck out to me are... Number 1 - It's the name that will be listed on your child's transcripts, their permanent school records. So if you homeschool until graduation, your homeschool name will be on their college application. Not saying I'm going to be homeschooling that long, but still... Number 2 - When someone asks your child what school they go too, they can give a name. Then all the "homeschool haters" don't have to curl their nose up & make an arrogant face at your child when they're told quote "I'm homeschooled". This way, it saves a lot of explanations & dirty looks. Not that we ever had that problem to begin with, but I know there are people out there that don't think homeschool is good enough. Number 3 - You get to pick your own name, mascot, school colors or whatever else you can think of!!! HELLO!!! Does that not sound like fun, or what???

So, I began writing my ideas down! I knew that I wanted something that would look professional on paper, and something that was meaningful. We are from a rural area. Most people call it the country, a small town, one of those places where if you blink while driving through you'll miss it, etc... I thought about some things that are associated with the country. We all love the big oak trees, and the forest/woods. We love the ponds, and all the wildlife. Hmmmm, I guess I'm off to a good start??? Immediately, I thought the oak tree would look really nice on some stationary with our homeschool name. I played around with the word oak for a bit. I came up with Oak Grove Academy, and several other names too. But... would you believe that every name I thought of, someone else had already used it? Yep there's a Seven Oaks Shopping Center, and a White Oak Middle School, and so many others. I wanted something unique, and a name that wasn't already taken. Then it hit me... GIVE UP! So, I did... And then I thought, what about naming it after a swamp??? I have always been fascinated with swamps, and love walking through one every chance I get. I used to live on Willow Swamp Road, and thought Willow Swamp Academy would be a great name for our homeschool. But since I research everything... I found out that Willow Swamp is not even a swamp. Willow Swamp is actually a stream. And you won't find any willow trees growing in a swamp, instead you'll find giant cypress & tupelo trees growing there. I was determined that if I was going to name our homeschool after a swamp, it would have to be an actual swamp.

After searching and searching, I finally decided to name our homeschool Four Holes Swamp Academy. Four Holes Swamp is located in Francis Beidler Forest, and is a major tributary of the Edisto River. And as you know, the Edisto River flows through the Edisto Gardens in Orangeburg!!! I have spent a lot of time sitting beside the Edisto River, and that's where some major thinking time was spent. Four Holes Swamp was definitely the swamp I wanted to name my homeschool after. So, there you have it... Our homeschool is named... FOUR HOLES SWAMP ACADEMY. We are still trying to decide on a mascot. Addie wants us to be the Alligators, while Imagen wants us to be the Owls. Come to think of it, when I was in elementary school... we were the OWLS. Our school colors are black & dark green. Oh yeah, I'm still working on a mission statement. Please leave a comment below to let us know what you think of the name we came up with!!!