NATCHEZ &045; Years of casual talk and lofty dreams have come to fruition for two of the main players at the Natchez Children’s Home’s new school, but now the real dreams are for the students.

Just after Labor Day the Children’s Home started a formal home schooling program for its residents and Director Nancy Hungerford and long-time educator Betty Cade couldn’t be more excited.

&uot;This is my passion,&uot; Cade said. &uot;This was really my dream fulfilled to be able to come to a small school.&uot;

Cade, who retired as principal at Central Alternative School last year, has spent 37 years in education. Cade, who said her true passion has always been at-risk children, serves as the school administrator.

That passion is something shared by Cade’s daughter, Robbie, who taught for four years before becoming the teacher at the Children’s Home.

&uot;We get to focus on the whole child here,&uot; Robbie Cade said. &uot;Spiritually, emotionally and physically. We all work together as a family unit.&uot;

Hungerford, who has tossed around the home schooling idea with Betty Cade for years, said the school was the right thing for the children at the Children’s Home.

&uot;It’s a focus for what our kids need,&uot; Hungerford said. &uot;The conditions that bring these children here have not improved over the years, they’ve degenerated.&uot;

The upstairs wing of the Children’s Home has been converted into a schoolroom, even though most of the school materials were already there through Title I funding. The students, five, right now, walk upstairs at 8 a.m. and stay in class until 3 p.m. The students, ranging in age from 11 to 14 focus on language arts, writing and math in the morning and do science, character education and social studies in the afternoon.

Student-athlete volunteers from Cathedral, Vidalia and Natchez high schools come at the end of the day to do physical education with the students.

Since children stay at the home for varying lengths of time, from two to three months to two to three years, the school uses a computer program to test them in and out of the school. When they first start at the school they develop an educational plan that serves as a roadmap. The curriculum is based on state benchmarks.

zsocial worker Jackie Biggs said the home school program was not a lack of confidence in the public schools, but merely stability for the home’s children.

&uot;Kids come to us with plenty of stigmas behind them,&uot; Biggs said. &uot;Knowing they can catch up sends them spiraling ahead.&uot;

Biggs said the one-on-one attention such a small classroom provides the students is invaluable. She said she expected the students to test out of the school at a much higher level than they tested-in at.

Biggs, who spends time with the students after school, said she has already seen a major change in their attitudes toward homework.

In addition to the Cades, 10 student volunteers and one retired teacher work with the students during the week.

Hungerford said the Children’s Home always welcomes inquiries about volunteer opportunities.