Threads of Ames

Threads Vision


Threads of Ames is a non-profit organization that operates as a hybrid school, and is dedicated to enriching, enhancing, and empowering home education in Ames and the surrounding areas. Threads’ hybrid schooling is the perfect mix of a private academy and homeschooling. Once a week, we offer in-person educational programs (the academy part) for students in pre-kindergarten through grade twelve in a nurturing Christian-run environment. Students spend the rest of the week reviewing material, doing homework (upper levels), and getting assistance from parents (the homeschooling part.) Each program offers classes organized by grade-level that are extremely flexible based on the needs of each family.

Our mission is to:
  • encourage students to achieve academically through classes and programs
  • provide extra-curricular activities to extend experiences beyond the classroom
  • empower parents to be on the frontline of their child’s education through monthly seminars
  • provide safe, social opportunities for both parents and children
  • facilitate connection between like-minded home educating families
  • further the advancement and support of home education

Please note: Threads is NOT patterned or leveled like the public school system. Classroom behavior, class material, teaching, and homework will be more in line with the classical education style that shapes, encourages, and challenges students to give their best effort at each developmental stage.

Our goals are:
  • to meet the different educational needs, desires, and goals of local homeschool families with kindness and grace
Like the threads of a cord, we can help each other grow our children in character and wisdom by contributing our own unique strengths.
  • Ecclesiastes 4:12: “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

Like the triple-braided cord spoken of in Ecclesiastes, our programs come in three stages:
  • The 1st stage, sometimes called the grammar stage, is the time when we start collecting threads of information. (PreK-5th grade)
    • Children in this stage of development can naturally and easily absorb large amounts of information in a short time.
    • Our Threads Juniors and Primary programs have curriculums that focus on introducing information, using games, songs, and repetition to help store it in the brain.
    • Like in cord making, the materials we use and how thoroughly we build our threads will later affect the strength and usefulness of the cord.
  • The 2nd stage, sometimes called the logic or dialectic stage, is the time when we start braiding our threads together. (6th-8th grade)
    • Children in this stage of development naturally ask questions and add details and understanding to the information they already know.
    • Our Threads Connections, T7, & T8 programs are designed to build upon each thread of information, helping students orderly connect them to deepen understanding and knowledge.
    • Like in cord making, how tightly and in what order we weave the threads together affects the durability and quality of the cord.
  • The 3rd stage, sometimes called the rhetoric stage, is the time when we start using the threaded cord we’ve made. (9th-12th grade)
    • Students in this stage of development naturally apply what they’ve learned to the world around them and to teach others.
    • Our Threads College Prep program is designed to mature students as they apply the knowledge they’ve built over the years to the real world, and prepare them for college.
    • The cord that was made is now being used, but this isn’t the end! Teenagers and adults alike are constantly making new threads, weaving them together, and using them in life.
Board of Directors:
  • Holly Anderson, Chairman of the Board
  • Sarita Smeenk, President of the Board
  • Jennifer Swanson, Vice Chair of the Board & Treasurer
  • Laura Kibbe, Secretary