This is Our Story

We're the Sprayberrys and we moved to Los Angeles about four years ago to have our go at Hollywood. When we met the folks at Children In Film, they thought it would be a great idea if we documented our story. After all, our failures and successes (hopefully more the latter than the former) can be your lesson book.

So here you have it - Dylan and Ellery working through the ups and downs of being child actors - their mother and I working hard every day to ensure their success not only as actors, but also as well-adjusted members of society.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Balance - a word about homeschooling

Balance:
A condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions


Life-School-Acting



After weeks of discussion we finally agreed to home-school Ellery and Dylan and boy what a feat it was to home-school! We had no idea what we were doing and were very nervous once realizing we were taking on the responsibility of our children’s early education. In Houston Ellery had only attended one semester of Montessori School and Dylan was a first grader at the time, thus making us, for the most part, starting from scratch.

After reaching out to a professional school administrator who ultimately created a summer 2006 curriculum for Ellery & Dylan (Dad as the teacher) and who guided us to our K12 home-schooling journey we moved forward. K12 is an award-winning program funded by the state of California, an excellent teaching system it is. We worked with and enjoyed K12 for three challenging years; what an experience for all of us, good and at times, crazy! Then one day in the fall of 2009 Dana had it with home schooling; she was done with it and ready to get the kids into a new school system of some kind. Her final words to me were, "I’m their mother and as such I am not intended to be their teacher too." That was the end of it for Dana, and so again we moved on.

So the school search began. Dana looked into public and private schools then quickly decided on San Fernando Valley School For Professionals. SFVSFP came highly recommended to us for many reasons. We quickly gathered what an excellent school it was- a school designed to work with industry children- plus, its convenient location to Studio City and lastly, the Principle and staff made it a no-brainer decision.

We have figured out for us that the balance of school, work and everyday life for our family members should come with a break from each other. Ellery and Dylan are experiencing a busy life schedule that is topped off by an excellent education at San Fernando Valley School For Professionals. The school provides us with an outstanding team of teachers and principle that work very closely with our young child actors' educations while supporting their career dreams.

The Big Bonus is the many new friends Ellery and Dylan have enjoyed meeting through SFVSP and the friends of friends to even broaden their social life and activities.

The kids are so pleased to start a new year at SFVSFP... yes another year of educational success, fun and social fulfillment!

For more information on SFVSFP you may contact Angie Peiris at 818.985.9485 and please reach out to our family for any support we may offer you and yours.

Have a great school year and may 2010 be the beginning of many great HOLLYWOOD years to come.

Love your children first!
~CS

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