New Life Christian Academy hosts summer enrichment program

Written by Tyler Spivey
Intern with The Messenger

New Life Christian Academy is a small school with a big goal during the summer – to help students succeed.

The school holds a summer-enrichment camp with topics and teaching methods geared toward a wide variety of interests and abilities.

“We help students [to] kind of keep fresh on information that they tend to forget in the summer,” said teacher Polly Laird.

According to Laird, the 25 students enrolled in the enrichment program are concentrating on language, math, phonics, art and music activities during the off-season school sessions.

Caylee Jones, 5, said she was happy to be back at school learning art and games on the computer.

Some of the students are attending the camp for remedial work to help them improve on skills that they struggled with during the previous school year.

And other students are there because they want to be better prepared for the upcoming school year.

Ciara Laird, 6, a student and also Polly Laird’s daughter, was working hard on Wednesday studying “plusses and minuses” in her math lessons.

Jheran Tuner, 8, said he has been working on language, mostly. But like most boys his age, Turner admits “going outside and getting to play” is his favorite part of the day.

“We get some students here in the summer time that are not enrolled for our regular school year,” Laird said. “They may have had struggles in the public school, but when they get here we’re able to kind of assist the public school system.”

Laird usually teaches juniors and seniors in high school, but also works with children ages two to 12 during the enrichment camp.

The teacher said she enjoys working with the younger kids because she gets to play with them and read stories.

The camp is being held on weekdays from 7:20 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and ends on July 31.