The Northwood: An Acton Academy

The Northwood: An Acton Academy A learner-driven microschool in Evansville, Indiana. 🌲Ages 5-12 📚Acton Academy⬇️Join Interest List

09/08/2026

Today, The Northwood became a school. 🌲

Not because the studio was finished.

Not because the books were on the shelves or the schedules were made.

But because this morning, our learners walked through the door.

They explored.
They played.
They worked.
They asked questions.
They solved problems.
They laughed.
They began figuring out what it means to be part of this little community.

For months, I’ve imagined what this day would feel like. And somehow the real thing was messier, louder, sweeter, and better than anything I could have planned.

There is so much these learners will build this year—skills, friendships, confidence, independence, character.

But today we simply began.

Day one of The Northwood.
Day one of the adventure.

I can’t wait to see who we become together. 🌲

09/04/2026

For months, we’ve been building.

Painting walls. Moving furniture. Choosing books. Building a rock wall. Clearing trails. Gathering materials. Creating challenges. Asking big questions.

And through all of it, we’ve tried to imagine the children who would eventually fill these spaces.

In four days, we don’t have to imagine anymore.

There will be muddy shoes by the door.

Books left open.

Ideas being debated.

Things built that we never would have thought to build.

Problems to solve.

Laughter. Frustration. Friendship. Growth.

And probably a fair amount of chaos. 😂

The adults have spent months building The Northwood.

But beginning Monday, the learners begin building something much more important:

their Northwood.

Their traditions.
Their promises.
Their community.
Their adventure.

We’ve prepared the space.

Now it’s their turn to bring it to life. 🌲

09/03/2026

I have met so many parents who are drawn to homeschooling.

Not necessarily because they want to be homeschoolers—but because they want what homeschooling seems to offer.

More freedom. More childhood. More time outdoors. More individualized learning. Less sitting at a desk while everyone moves through the same material at the same pace.

But homeschooling asks a lot of a family. And for many parents, taking responsibility for their child’s entire education at home simply isn’t what they want.

I think there should be another option.

The Northwood is a small, learner-driven school where children have room to move at their own pace, pursue meaningful challenges, spend time outside, and take increasing ownership of their education.

And they get to do it alongside a community of other learners.

It isn’t traditional school.

It isn’t homeschool.

Maybe there’s room for something in between. 🌲

08/29/2026

There are a hundred reasons not to try something new.

What if it doesn’t work?
What if we get it wrong?
What if the dream looks different in real life than it did in our heads?

Starting The Northwood has required us to step into a lot of unknowns.

But at some point, you have to decide whether the possibility of failing is worth never finding out what could happen if you tried.

And now, after months of dreaming, planning, building, learning, and taking one scary step after another…these studios are almost ready for our first learners.

We talk a lot about the Hero’s Journey at The Northwood—answering the call, stepping into the unknown, facing challenges, and becoming someone different along the way.

I suppose we’re on one too.

Here’s to getting in the game. 🌲

The Northwood opens September 8.

08/27/2026

Give children some cardboard, duct tape, a patch of woods, and a challenge:

Build a civilization.

What needs to exist? Who decides? Who leads? What happens when people have different ideas? What does each person contribute?

We could have taught a lesson about community.

Instead, we gave them a chance to try building one.

Because this year at The Northwood, we’re wrestling with one big question:

Do you join a community—or do you build one? 🌲

08/25/2026

What if the goal of education isn’t to show children exactly which path to take?

In the Hero’s Journey, the hero has to answer the call.

They step into the unknown.
They encounter challenges.
They make mistakes.
They find mentors.
They discover what they’re capable of.

No one else can take the journey for them.

We think childhood should work a little more like that.

Adults still matter enormously. We create boundaries. We offer tools. We ask questions. We encourage. We challenge.

But ultimately, the learner has to do the walking.

Because our goal isn’t to raise children who are really good at following someone else’s path.

It’s to equip them with the courage, character, and curiosity to find their own. 🌲

Every child deserves to be the hero of their own journey.

08/20/2026

A friend recently sent me an article in BYU Magazine called “Family Work.” One idea has stayed with me: the ordinary work required to care for a home and family can actually help bind people together.

It made me wonder—what if the same is true for children in a school community?

Weeding a garden.
Cleaning a chicken coop.
Scrubbing a floor.

None of these things look particularly impressive. And it would certainly be faster for an adult to do them.

But efficiency isn’t always the goal.

There is something powerful about being able to look around a community and know:

I helped take care of this.
My work mattered.
People were counting on me.
I belong here.

We don’t want to build The Northwood for our learners and then invite them into it.

We want them to help build it.

Because children don’t just need communities that care for them.

They need communities that need them. 🌲

Inspired by “Family Work” by Kathleen Slaugh Bahr and Cheri A. Loveless, BYU Magazine.

08/17/2026

The goal wasn’t to cross the river.

The learners were given a handful of “marshmallows,” a Hot Chocolate River, and one challenge: get everyone across.

No step-by-step instructions.
No adult showing them the best way.

So they had to do the work that really mattered—listen to each other, share ideas, make a plan, discover it didn’t work, adjust, and try again.

Because the goal wasn’t really to cross the river.

The goal was to discover what they could figure out together.

This is what learning can look like: playful on the outside, deeply meaningful underneath. 🌲

08/15/2026

We talk a lot about raising independent children.

But independence isn’t the same as doing everything alone.

Sometimes you lead.

Sometimes you follow.

Sometimes you have to slow down because someone beside you is struggling.

Sometimes you’re the one struggling—and someone else adjusts their pace for you.

And sometimes you both fall down and have to figure out how to get back up together. 😂

Children need opportunities to practice all of it.

At The Northwood, we want learners to become capable, independent people—but we also want them to discover what it means to belong to a community that needs them.

That’s why our first Quest this year is Build the Tribe.

Before the academics. Before the big projects. Before all the adventures ahead…

we build a community worth showing up for. 🌲

08/13/2026

What does a school built for childhood look like?

We’ve been asking ourselves that question a lot lately.

We think it looks like room to move.

Places to curl up with a book.

Woods to explore.

Things to build, take apart, create and wonder about.

Big challenges. Real responsibilities. Meaningful work.

A community where children are known, needed and trusted.

And adults nearby who believe children are capable of figuring out far more than we sometimes allow them to.

We’re still building. Still rearranging. Still imagining what these spaces might become in the hands of our learners.

Because ultimately, this won’t be our school to fill.

It will be theirs to bring to life. 🌲

The Northwood: An Acton Academy
Evansville, Indiana

Address

900 Timberland Lane
Evansville, IN
47710

Telephone

+18125502172

Website

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