Last June, Micayla Strickland and her family piled into their truck, headed south, to compete against top archers in the United States. “Going to Daytona was stressful. It was just me—one kid in a bright red shirt and all those people,” she says. Over 5,000 top contenders attended the National Archery in the Schools (NASP) 2024 Championship. Micayla mastered her nerves and scored a personal best, placing fourth in her age division. The sixth grader at Harvest Community School (HCS) joined the archery team four years ago on a whim. “I thought it was going to be a one-year thing because I didn’t think I was going to be good at it,” Micayla laughs. A growing trophy collection inspired her to stick with the ancient sport. She hopes to win scholarship money some day. Kristie Anderson founded the team many years ago to give her son, and later her daughter, a sport. Archery is perfect for small schools like Harvest because boys and girls train and compete together. For arrows to fly true, archers must hone their attention, self-control, and patience—habits fostered at school. Sure shooting requires solid coaching, so Coach Kristie and, three years later, Coach Tina Proffit became certified instructors. On Wednesdays, thirty archers practice under their direction in downtown Summerton. The coaches have spent many long hours practicing, fundraising, and driving to tournaments. Micayla’s teammate Sera McCoon is a junior at Harvest. Last year, she qualified for state as a first-year archer but did not make nationals. Instead, she competed at Centershot, an alternate tournament for those who missed the cut-off. Competing at a national level inspired Sera to work harder this year. At the end of February, she and six Harvest archers went to the fairgrounds in Columbia for the state competition. Sera was nursing a shoulder injury from dance class and still placed fifth, one point shy of tying for third place. She was the only one to qualify for Eastern Nationals in Louisville. Like Sera, sixth grader Leon Bullard went to state in his first year. “Archery is what I should be doing. I had tried multiple other sports beforehand and none of them came easily to me.” Leon caught on so quickly that he shot a 213 at his first tournament. At state, he got his personal best. Because Sera is going to nationals, her teammates are eligible for Centershot this year. Micayla, Leon, and Chris Buck are going to get more experience at this Christian ministry that builds community in the great outdoors through archery. Chris, a tenth grader, is one of several homeschoolers on the team. Arrows take a beating, and he has mastered the art of putting the fletchings back on the shaft. He knows all the tricks that keep arrows crisp and pristine. When asked how they prepare for tournaments, the archers gave different answers. “A hundred arrows a day will keep you where you are. Two hundred will show improvement, ” Sera quotes Coach Kristie. Since she juggles dual enrollment classes with extra-curricular activities, Sera shoots four hundred arrows at a time when she can. Leon recounts, “I gradually increased how much I practiced to allow me to get used to it, instead of shooting 200 arrows at first.” Micayla admits that she doesn’t practice much and adds, “Leon comes to my house and bugs me.”
Sophomore Blake Proffit has been on the team since third grade. Besides the coaches, he appreciates two people. Charlie Broadway, owner of Summerton Hardware, allows them to practice in an empty lot near the store. Before that, the team set up and took down the range on the playground every week. A few years ago, competitive archer and instructor Lawrence Scott moved to Summerton. Blake says that he is a big name in NASP circles. Mr. Scotty contacted the team and volunteered to help coach. Not only does he keep the bows in shape, but he trained Chris to take over arrow maintenance. Sera credits her growth to his encouragement and coaching. “Mr. Scotty helps me to finesse my technique and tells me when I’m off.” Community is what Harvest values a lot. School and homeschool families, local businesses and volunteers, and national organizations and ministries united to mentor young archers in making memories this weekend and learning life-long skills.
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![]() Many adults today are grappling to limit screen time. Schools that went high tech are dumping tablets. Doctors are concerned about what MRIs reveal about screen time and the development of parts of the brain linked to language development and reading skills. Families with anxious teens wonder if technology is the trigger. Most intriguing of all, the tech titans who made this all possible are raising their own children to be gadget-free. When some families try to put the genie back into the bottle, they realize addiction to screens is real. Putting limits on screens is not a simple matter of storing technology in a padlocked chest because going cold turkey can punish the whole family. The first step is to come up with a thought that makes the limit seem worthwhile to the person that you know and love. Some respond to an encouraging smile coming alongside to help while others will rise to an outright challenge. Some prefer direct information while others need to see for themselves. The point is to speak in a way that makes sense to your child.
The busy Christmas season might seem like a bad time to try on a new habit. Feedback from our Large Room meetings says otherwise. Filling spare time with screens over Thanksgiving break backfired. Children who only have screens on weekends reasoned that, if they could play games on weekdays of holidays, then they could play on weekdays of school days. Crying, complaining, and crankiness decked the halls. Christmas is a great time to cut back because of the opportunities to introduce liturgies. My mother is from Germany and we celebrated Advent every Sunday, counted down to Christmas with a family Advent calendar, put our shoes out for St. Nicholas on December 6, and prepared a gift for the Christ Child on Christmas Eve (a song, poem, or Bible verse). Think back to when you were a child. Are there little family traditions that have lapsed? Are there ones you would like to introduce? Think about what your children can do with you to prepare for Christmas. Turn on some Christmas music. Bake, decorate, make gifts, and wrap gifts. Collect some pinecones, holly, or evergreens to make a wreath. Make ornaments for the tree. Write letters to and draw pictures for military people deployed overseas or to nursing homes (which some Harvesters have already done at school). ![]() We have finished our first term of the school year which has begun well! Term finales help us see what students know, and we will celebrate with a Term Finale Dinner tomorrow night (November 14). Other highlights are at the end of this blogpost. The response to the Large Room meetings—an opportunity for parents to get together and chat—has been wonderful. The meeting in September focused on questions raised by families eager for their children to thrive. In October, we chatted about the staple of school: narration. Early this month, we discussed a vital habit: attention. We brainstormed good after-school routines, natural consequences (positive or negative) for finishing homework, consistency, small steps, drawing a realistic line in the sand, room for grace, and how screens affect children. Developing habits has so much scope for the imagination that we will talk about it next month. Please join us on December 3. One topic hooked our attention—those dazzling, distracting electronic screens. We decided that, while some children respond well to an hour of screen time a day, others need to wait until the weekend. In launching a new habit, Charlotte Mason believed the best way is to share an idea that makes the new habit worthwhile. That idea may be unique to the situation or it can be thoughtful reasons. A couple of weeks ago, some friends had a brief talk with their child about limiting video games. They simply shared that keeping up in school was a challenge and playing video games only on the weekend might help. They pointed out the major transition in school next year and how important focus is in getting ready. The tutor had no idea of the change in screen habits but saw an immediate and lasting effect. The child rattled off the steps of long division and even pointed out which ones were confusing. The difference was so dramatic that the tutor sent a note home saying, “Whatever you are doing, keep doing it.” The attitude has been positive, thoughtful, and motivated ever since. Our next post will suggest screen-free ideas or apps that mesh with Harvest habits. In the meantime, we are celebrating the following:
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HCSA community called to offer another way to learn for students in Clarendon County Archives
May 2025
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