What makes our approach unique for South Bend?
Education for the Whole Child
At The Willows, we believe education is about more than academics – it’s about nurturing the whole child.
Our Classical Christian approach, shaped by the ideas of Charlotte Mason, nurtures the whole child – heart, mind, and soul. We believe children are born persons, created by God with a natural capacity for wonder, wisdom, and virtue. Through rich ideas, enduring stories, and beautiful works, students learn not just what to think, but how to think. They grow in love, truth, lifelong habits, and grace, learning to recognize both the goodness and the brokenness of the world and to love what is good, true, and beautiful.
3 Key Elements of Classical Christian Education
Learning for Life
Rather than scores or achievements for the sake of a test, we pursue academic excellence by cultivating a genuine love for learning. Strong foundations in language arts and mathematics equip children with the tools to become lifelong learners.
We value diligence over pressure and believe children flourish when there is a healthy rhythm of challenge and rest – space to work hard, think deeply and grow with joy.
Great Works-Based Learning
Great Works are the stories, ideas, and works of beauty that have shaped humanity across generations. Through classic literature, history, and art, students encounter enduring truths and wrestle with the same questions people have faced for centuries.
These “living ideas” help children develop attention, imagination and wisdom – skills that prepare them to thoughtfully engage today’s complex world.
Growing the Whole Child
Education at The Willows goes beyond desks and books. We help children grow in character, virtue, and relationships, understanding that learning involves the mind, heart, and body.
Art, music, time outdoors, and gym are essential parts of our curriculum. These experiences reinforce habits of faith, joy, discipline, and wonder – integrating learning into the whole life.
What are we pursuing?
Habit Formation as the Key to Learning
“Excellence is not an act but a habit.”
– Marva Collins
At The Willows, we approach learning as deeply connected. Across mathematics, science, the humanities, and the arts, students discover how all things relate to one another and to God. We help children form a living relationship with what they learn—through studying Scripture, observing nature, and practicing math fluency, they begin to see the connections between ideas and understand that every discipline is meaningfully linked. Everything they study becomes an avenue for worship and a way of knowing and engaging with the world as God has made it.
Enjoying the Feast of Education
When we approach the world and the feast of education as a worshipful encounter, we become more like Christ as He gives us eyes, ears, minds, and hearts, that seek Him more in the every day and are filled with more of Him in all we pursue and live out – every moment, an awakening of curiosity to be filled more with Him and to worship Him as a result.
Seeking the true, the good, the beautiful
The habits and rhythms we live out as parents and caregivers, in our families, in our places of work and gathering, in our everyday lives, communicate a way of life, both informing and forming the values that the next generation will live out. How we live and love, the character and values we embody, and the habits we practice are the primary means we communicate what is the good life and how do I walk in the good way? to our children.
At The Willows Academy, habit formation is a key foundation of our educational pursuit, helping children to grow to know, love, and act on what is Good, True, and Beautiful.
– Dr. Christopher Perrin