Overview
Deer Run Academy is a private homeschool academy that offers preschool through high school courses. Our overarching goal is to approach formal studies in a way that fosters not only a love of learning, but also focuses on challenging our students to learn and apply the tenets of their faith in their daily lives. With this aim, we seek to provide an education where students grow in character, responsibility, and leadership skills.
We want to provide a comprehensive and diverse education that allows the students the time they need to think critically and to truly understand the concepts underlying their coursework. In addition to core subjects, we include topics and courses of special interest to our students, such as American history and politics.
Philosophy
While we approach education from a Christian worldview, we seek to expose our students to a variety of perspectives, encourage them to ask questions, and apply their own reasoning so that their understanding is ultimately their own. In addition to a broad range of studies, we work to incorporate real-life experiences, such as extensive travels to historical and significant locations within the United States, local field trips, music lessons and performances, and jobs and volunteer work outside of the home.
We believe this helps to solidify and encourage a greater avidity in their learning, as well as prepare them to understand and contribute to the world in which they live. Our instructional approach to homeschooling is eclectic. We find the educational methods and curricula that work best for the student at a given time and for a given subject. Our educational methods include self-study, in-person, and online (live and self-paced) courses. We also encourage our students to pursue their areas of interest both inside and outside of school, for example, by joining academic clubs.
Curriculum
For secondary education, Deer Run Academy partners with excellent private institutions to offer rigorous coursework with professional educators in addition to home-based classes. We work with an educational homeschool cooperative to provide core subject classes that are difficult to teach as home-based courses, as well as opportunities for collaborative projects and social interaction. We use dual credit college courses to provide the opportunity to explore more subjects, raise the level of academic challenge, and deepen the student's personal study habits and responsibilities.
Graduation Requirements
Deer Run Academy 2027 graduation requirements are higher than the minimum requirements outlined by the Kansas State Department of Education.
We chose to follow and exceed the guidelines outlined by the Kansas Board of Regents for the Kansas Scholars Curriculum, aiming for higher than the 21 minimum unit credits required by the state of Kansas and the 24 minimum unit credits required by our local district.
Grading Scale
Deer Run Academy's high school coursework is predominantly from schools that give formal grades. Teacher grade reports from the Southland Academy homeschool cooperative are included in the student's transcript. Grades for courses taken at or through Colorado Christian University also appear on this transcript, as well as the official college transcript.
Homeschool course grades are determined based on assignments, projects, discussions, demonstrations, quizzes, and exams. They represent the student's mastery of the home-based work. Deer Run Academy's official transcript grades are assigned using an unweighted 4.0 GPA scale.
Educational Partners
- Homeschool Christian Academy K-8 Enrichment Program, Overland Park, KS
- Southland Academy Cooperative, Lenexa, KS
- Colorado Christian University Lakewood, CO
- Spurgeon College Kansas City, MO
- TeenPact Leadership Schools Kansas State Capitol, Topeka, KS
- Volz Writing Classes Bucyrus, KS
- Demme Learning (Math-U-See) Standardized Curriculum
Contact Us
Instructors
Terra Roper, BA
Ryan Roper, BA, MBA