10 Ideas To Name Your Homeschool In Kansas

For people looking into homeschooling, the requirement in Kansas to name your homeschool may sound ludicrous.

What exactly should a homeschool be named? Comprehensive Learning Center? My Homeschool Rocks? Amazing Alicia’s Academy? Or maybe a mixture of all the above? 🙂

In all seriousness, however, every homeschool in Kansas (learn how to start yours here) is treated as a non-accredited private school. Therefore, you must register with the Kansas Department of Education and name your homeschool.

Just before you decide to go wild with names, keep in mind that the school name can appear on official documents like high school transcripts. So it makes sense to name your homeschool something that won’t haunt your children for the rest of their lives.

If you’ve already registered under a wildly improbable name, take heart – you can change the name of your original homeschool!

Just go to the Kansas Department of Education’s website where you originally signed up, and under the “Registration Type” category, specify “Update” instead of “New.”

So now, what are some ideas to name your homeschool? Here are some popular suggestions from real-life homeschool families in the Kansas City area:

“Academy” and “Preparatory” as fillers.

Instead of “school” or “learning center,” try popping “academy” at the end of your homeschool name or even “preparatory academy” if you’re going all fancy.

Place names.

Do you like the name of your street, a town or city where you grow up, or even a mythical location like Rivendell or Edoras from Lord of the Rings? It’s amazing how creative one can be when finding names and words that everyone in your family will like.

Family names.

Sometimes parents will choose a surname or middle name from their extended relatives. Say, for example, that you had a line of “Ravensbury” ancestors in your family genealogy. Or perhaps your grandfather’s middle name means a lot to you.

It’s not uncommon to find a homeschool named something like “Kingston Academy,” for example, or “Beckett Evansdale Academy.”

Bible verses.

Perhaps your family has a Bible verse that sums up your school’s goals, such as Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Or even 1 Corinthians 14:40, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (Except on snow days, of course… 😉 )

And voila! Instant name: “Proverbs 22:6 Academy” or “One Corinthians Fourteen-Forty Academy.”

Note: It’s important to remember that a Bible verse or even the word “Christian” to your homeschool name can have repercussions. If your child decides to travel to a country that restricts missionary activity, for example, your homeschool name could draw unwanted attention.

Acronyms.

So maybe your children refuse to name your homeschool anything other than “Awesomest Family Ever Around.” While that may be true, whoever’s reading their high school transcript may hurt themselves laughing.

Why not just use an acronym  – AFEA Academy – and never explain what the acronym stands for?

Geographical placeholders.

Ever noticed how public and private schools tend to have generic words like “River,” “Valley,” “Hill” and “Mountain” in their names? If you’re ever short on ideas, adding one of these almost always helps!

Directions.

Have you also noticed that some schools will add “East,” “Central,” “North,” “South” and “West” to their names? To sound really big and pretentious, pretend you have multiple homeschools going on in your immediate vicinity – say, “Highland Valley East” or “Rocky Mountain West.”

Learning styles or specific values.

Some homeschool families choose to include the homeschool style or “flavor” that they’re using in their school name. For example, if a homeschool includes the Classical or Charlotte Mason approach, the family might decide on names like “Whitewater Classical School” or “Living Books Academy.”

Likewise, if a family wants to explain some of their educational values such as integrity, honesty, faith, or courage, those values can go into the school’s name as well. After all, “Braveheart Preparatory School” or “Abundant Joy Academy” sound innocuous enough for anyone to attend … or at least visit!

Colors.

Speaking of generic and innocuous, a color or two can also serve you well. Who wouldn’t want to attend “Green Valley Academy,” for example, or “Blue River North?”

If you have little girls in your homeschool, however, proceed with caution. Somehow “Pinky-Magenta Unicorn Academy” doesn’t have quite the same ring.

Pets.

This probably won’t work if your family dog is “Rover” or “Poodle-Noodle,” but if your family pet’s name is something more ambiguous like “Griffin” or “Ray,” maybe it’s just the thing to tie your impressive homeschool name together!

In closing, many parents will just put something like “Homeschooled” on academic transcripts and not mention their official homeschool name at all. So the name may not be the huge deal you may think it is.

Regardless, we hope you still have fun with it. Within reason, of course. 🙂

This post was originally published in October 2014. We have updated it for timeliness and detail.

Are you interested in homeschooling in Kansas, but don’t know where to start? See our complete step-by-step guide here.