Faculty Spotlight: Classical Kindergarten with Mrs. Snowden

Mrs. Snowden began her career as a substitute teacher for junior high, but she soon found her niche with kindergarten children. She appreciates kindergarteners’ sponge-like absorption of the world around them and their wonder at creation. After substitute teaching, she began teaching Kindergarten at a private school in Mississippi for a short time. But she soon felt the need to provide her children with classical education, so she homeschooled her children for two years.

After moving to Waco, Mrs. Snowden and her husband Matt found Live Oak and thought it was exactly the environment their children needed in order to participate and learn with other students. Now Mrs. Snowden is excited that she can help kindergartners discover the world while Wes (now in 6^th grade) and Molly (now in 7^th grade) receive a wonderful education. Mrs. Snowden admits it can be a challenge teaching and attending sporting events for her children, but she enjoys it. And her students like her class so much they find her at games and sit with her.

When teaching kindergartners, Mrs. Snowden immerses them in whatever subject they study at a given time. When teaching about geography, for example, she brings in maple syrup from Canada and Mexican food to interest the students in other cultures. The students grow an herb garden together so they can feed their enormous class rabbit named Benjamin Bunny.

Mrs. Snowden teaches with the hope that her students will be well prepared for first grade both in areas such as knowing the alphabet and how to count but also in character traits such as holding love and respect for God and others. She wants students to feel comfortable asking questions and sharing their hearts so that they feel better prepared for life ahead. Mrs. Snowden loves the considerate attitude Live Oak engrains in students so much that she wishes “every child was taught this way.”

Meredith Snowden teaches Kindergarten at Live Oak.