The Horizon Prep Lioncast: Classical Education in San Diego and Rancho Santa Fe, California

Matt Davis joined us to talk about what's going on in the Schools of Logic and Rhetoric. Matt is the director for all the HP students in 6th-8th grade and 9th-12th.

One of the things Matt talks about is establishing traditions for the high school age students. Each year the incoming 9th Grade class buys an Orange tree, fertilizer, and any needed supplies and plants the tree in a planter that sits outside the Hub area. As they go through the next four years of school they're responsible for the care and upkeep of that tree until they graduate. So as they progress through school the students see the tree grow along with them.

If you'd like to hear more from Matt Davis on the School of Logic you can listen to Episode 002. If you'd like to hear more from Matt about the School of Rhetoric, check out episode 007.

Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Send us an email at [email protected] or leave us a review on iTunes.

This is part two of Heather Dalton's talk at our most recent PTF meeting. To hear part one check out Episode 041: Conflict is good for our kids.

In this episode we get the final five of Heather's parenting tips, including:

6. Eat family dinner together several times a week. No phones allowed.

7. Respect your child's authority figures. When we criticize them in front of our kids, we have ensured our kids will not respect that authority in the future.

8. Do not rescue your kids. We have to train our kids that there are consequences for their lack of responsibility.

9. Suck it up buttercup. Not everyone gets a trophy.

10. Be intentional. Our schedules get so full that we don't have time for what's important unless we are intentional about making that time.

Heather ended her talk with a list of five books she recommends for parents. Those books are:

The Well Behaved Child by John Rosemond

Parenting By The Book by John Rosemond

Loving Your Kids On Purpose by Danny Silk

Hands Free Momma by Rachel Macy Stafford

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala

Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Send us an email at [email protected] or let us know in a review on iTunes.

Heather Dalton joined us as the speaker at the last PTF meeting. Heather was an administrator at Horizon Prep for years before leaving to start her own family. Now she's a mom at HP with a two, four, and six year old.

Heather shared 10 tips on parenting that she says she stole from the very best minds. Tips one through five are on this episode, with six through ten on next week's episode Monday morning. Here are her first five tips.

1. Keep your kids at Horizon Prep. Train your children in righteousness instead of "exposing them to evil".
2. Be who you want your kids to be. 90 percent of parenting is being the kind of person you want your kids to be.
3. Accept that conflict is good for our kids. We believe that our trials are helping to make us better people, but it's hard to believe that for our own children. We need to take a step back and say "What is the Lord trying to teach our kids through this?"
4. Praise effort over ability. Foster an environment where all that matters is they do your best. Research shows the more effort we put into something, the more we will achieve.
5. Be very aware of your child's friendships. "Bad company corrupts good character".

Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Send us an email at [email protected] or let us know in a review on iTunes.

Melissa Smith talked with staff and teachers from all over the campus for our final holiday edition of the podcast.

Melissa talked with Susan Ferrari, Matt Berg, Heather Downing, Stacy Schaefer, Mary Mitchell, Matt Davis, Abby Mayall, Laiah Blue, Rebecca Gonzalez, Jeff Pratt, Lisa Schrift, Kelly Hendrickson, Jenn Preske, Erin Rose, and Kaitlyn Cook. 15 guests!

Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Send us an email at [email protected] or let us know in a review on iTunes.

The students are still on Christmas break so Melissa and Will take this episode to talk about their New Year's Eve and New Years Day traditions and memories.

We'll be back next Monday with regular programming.

The students are out of school this week. We'll return to regular episodes when class resumes in January.

This week Melissa and Will talk about their Christmas traditions and memories from when they were kids and new traditions with their families and kids now.

Merry Christmas!

Melissa Smith snuck the microphone out of the studio this week to ask the Horizon Prep faculty and students a few questions about Christmas.

She ended up interviewing more than 20 people for this episode. Here are the students Melissa talked with.

Olivia Crosbie, Kylin Toro, Marlaina Kent, Daniel Richardson, Jacob Richardson, Shelby Sutton, Ellie Smith, Sam Hicks, Haidyn Lorenzen, Finley Lorenzen, Harper Dalton, and Jake Martin.

And here are the faculty.

Coach Matt Roy, Gregory Bobrinskoy, Alicia Ferreira, Bridgette Salas, Chris Maiocca, Lisa Schrift, Matt Berg, Liezl-marie Watt, Ken Kush.

Does your family have a favorite Christmas tradition? What is your favorite Christmas memory? Let us know at [email protected] and we might share it on a future episode.

The Horizon Prep Christmas Boutique was this week and Melissa took the microphone on the floor to talk to vendors, customers, and teachers looking for great presents for their loved ones.

This episode will set the HP record for most guests on a podcast with 14. The people you'll hear from on this episode are (in order): Shawn Kush, Vanessa Roy, Annie Simmons, Robin Maiocca, Eva Deiters and Joy Toro, Rashae Taylor, Yvette Williams, Clark Smith and Ryan Gianni, Susan Hargif, Jasmine Pattynama, Laura Prince, and Khara Serrato.

The Christmas Boutique was a great success. If you missed it, make sure to plan on coming next year.

Carly Gammel was interviewed by Will Hicks at the most recent PTF meeting.

Carly is the first graduating senior from the Horizon Prep School of Rhetoric. She started at HP in Preschool and will complete 12th Grade at the end of this school year.

She talks about the good parts of the School of Rhetoric and some of the challenges she had over her four years. Her Ninth Grade class was small and her Twelfth Grade class is even smaller: Just her.

Carly talks about her college preparation and how her admission applications have gone so far. She also talks about what advice she would give an Eighth Grade student thinking about their plans for next year.

All the students have the week off from school for Thanksgiving break. Will and Melissa took the week off from regular programming to talk about Thanksgiving plans and their family's Thanksgiving traditions.

Share your family's holiday traditions in a review on iTunes and we'll share it on a future episode of the podcast.