THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE NIDI
( nī-​ˌdī ) is Latin for nest
Your "NEST" is home... the perfect place to grow.
At Nidi Schola, the "nest" is not just a metaphor for smallness. It is the deliberate cultivation of that enrichment: morning hymns, watercolor afternoons, poetry recited while rain hits the windows, and Fridays finding ladybugs in the tall grass. We do not rush to fill their minds with facts. We fill the room with beauty, goodness, and love. The only soil in which a five-year-old’s spirit truly grows.
NIDI CORNERSTONE
The Cornerstone: Education as an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.
Everything at Nidi Schola rests on this truth. The twelve students, the farmhouse table, the Friday field studies, the six-week rhythm all of it exists to provide that specific Charlotte Mason "enrichment." Not entertainment. Not busywork. The careful, loving surrounding of children with what is beautiful (art, music, nature), good (noble literature, virtuous habits), and loving (the steady attention of adults who see them as persons, not projects).
Boutique Scale:
Hard cap of twelve students. One room that functions as a living room, not an institution. No rows of plastic desks, no cafeteria noise, no assemblies. Just a farmhouse table, windows that open, and the intimate knowledge of who each child is becoming.
The 4+1 Rhythm
Mon - Thu: Mornings include inspirational, skill-based learning and careful formation of habits. Afternoons: Lunch, Rest and Play.
Friday: Half-day field studies. in Detroit’s wild spaces—woods, wetlands, urban gardens.
Six weeks on, one week completely off. Year-round with breath. No burnout, no summer slide, just steady growth.
CM Through and Through
Short lessons. Living books (not textbooks). Narration (not worksheets). Nature study as a primary subject, not an elective. Poetry by heart. Handicrafts with real tools. We are members of the Ambleside Schools International tradition—rigorous, relational, and rooted in the classical liberal arts.
Parent Partnership
Parents remain the legal educators of record (Michigan homeschool hybrid model), but they rotate as Friday field assistants, maintaining our 1:4 adult ratios without inflating tuition. Monthly parent education evenings ensure the philosophy extends from school to home. This is a shared work, not a drop-off service.
Meet The Founder
Shanna Sansom spent three years teaching and leading at Charlotte Mason Community School (member of Ambleside Schools International), including a year as Executive Director building sustainability and retention. She has launched educational ventures for homeschoolers, co-founded a BIPOC forest school, and spent over a decade teaching her own three children.
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Shanna’s work is rooted in the “Great Recognition”, the Charlotte Mason conviction that all education is divine, the Holy Spirit is the true Educator, and children are born persons bearing God’s image. She believes that preserving a child’s capacity for reverence and wonder is itself a spiritual discipline, one that requires protecting them from the hurry and abstraction of modern childhood.