Morgan Honeycutt

When I taught in public school over 10 years ago, homeschooling was never on my radar.  My husband and I are both from the North Houston area. We attended Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball. We both went to the University of Houston and then lived on the southside of town. I taught in Pasadena ISD, and after completing my master’s in Educational Leadership, I became a testing coordinator at a highschool in Pasadena. When it came time to move back to the north side of town, we were shocked at how BIG little Tomball had gotten. Our realtor recommended looking in a town further north called Magnolia. Before we purchased a lot and began the process of building our home, I researched schools in the area and felt comfortable to settle in.

When we moved to Magnolia in 2011, we had a 2 year old and an infant. I stayed home with the kiddos while my husband traveled quite a bit for business. During the next few years, my kids attended mother's day out, and I became a team leader in a direct sales company, managing over 50 team members. I enjoyed getting out and meeting ladies through networking, and through that process I learned more about how some families homeschooled their children and what it looked like. I had to be honest; I was intrigued. I met women from different walks of life who had kiddos who were just starting the homeschool journey as well as those who had graduated their students into colleges! I was ready to start considering homeschooling, but we decided to enroll our daughter in kindergarten in public school. After her first year, we were ready to try homeschooling. At this time, I was still running a business with a toddler at home. I really just wanted a part time school she could attend where I could do work with her on the other days. It was so hard to find any balance. That first year, there were a lot of tears! During that time, my niece was enrolled in a school in Pearland that went three days a week and used Abeka curriculum. I thought, "That’s exactly what I need!" I scoured all over the local area looking for that model, but the only ones here were way out of our price range. I reached out to the director at that school and asked if they had any interest in expanding this direction. She told me, "Absolutely not, but I’ll give you some tips." Then and there, the idea of Magnolia Heritage Academy was born! This was in 2015. Pretty soon after that, we had our first location but not enough students. By 2016, we had students, and we were ready to start. Unfortunately, the pastor at the church we were hoping for was taking a call within the ministry and would be moving from the church. We had to move on. At this time, both of my kiddos were ready to go into regular school, and my husband was ready for me to go pursue a position in the local district. I prayed fervently for God to open a door, or I was going to have to move on. That fall of 2017 He did.

Another school in the New Magnolia area had been reaching out to me for the last year or so about partnering. I knew our educational philosophies didn’t align, but I realized God was giving me a route, and I needed to trust. I started in their building in August 2017. During that time I enrolled a few children and began teaching. In November, our current location became available, and I moved MHA! That first year, it was small with only seven children! The second year (2018-2019), we had 6 teachers, and we grew to 28 students. Our third year (2019-2020), we had a total of 10 staff and 61 students.

2020-2021 we had over 90 students and 12 staff members. 2021-2022 to current years we have about 125 students with a consistent waitlist and 32 staff members. It is amazing and very humbling to look back on the prior years and see the path that God has taken one simple idea on. MHA was an idea God put on my heart, but the journey has been in his timing.

For me, MHA was born of the idea that parents are called by God to teach their children. We all do, regardless of where our students attend school. However, as a former public school teacher, I know that there are certain skill sets effective teachers have. We take the best certified and highly qualified teachers and meld that with at-home learning. Our goal is for students and parents to feel supported and recognize the ability to thrive. We meet the students where they are in their educational journey, and we push them appropriately. Most of our teachers have been public or private school teachers, and then chose to pursue homeschooling. This gives us insight on the importance of flexibility in our students' educational journey. We take the elements we loved from the homeschooling experience and our knowledge of good teaching practices and join them together for a very unique hybrid experience.