Welcome Letter from the Heinigers

Dear Parent,

If you are reading this, you have found the edge of the map.

For years, your child’s world has been shaped mostly by home. You have answered the questions, held the tears, corrected the wild impulses, protected the wonder, and watched this small person become more and more themselves. Now you are beginning to ask a much bigger question:

Who do I trust to help shape my child next?

Choosing a first school is not just about schedule, tuition, curriculum, or convenience. Those things matter, but they are not the whole decision. You are choosing the first community outside your home that will help teach your child what learning feels like, how to handle mistakes, how to work hard, how to treat others, and how to face difficult things.

You are choosing part of your child’s first story.

We are Sarah and Dave Heiniger, the founders of Chisholm Creek Academy, and this question became personal for us. With our own boys, we followed the path we thought we were supposed to follow. We chose a respected school with structure, strong academics, and good people. On paper, it made sense.

But over time, we realized our boys needed something different. They needed more ownership, more purpose, more responsibility, and more room to grow into who they were becoming. We did not want school to be something they simply endured. We wanted it to be a place where they came alive.

That was the beginning of Chisholm Creek Academy.

We believe the traditional school path is showing real cracks. Not because every teacher is bad or every school is failing every child. Many teachers love children deeply and do beautiful work. But the system itself often rewards compliance more than courage, completion more than mastery, and correct answers more than deep thinking.

We wanted something different for our children. We believe many other families do too.

At Chisholm Creek Academy, we care deeply about academics. Reading, writing, math, and clear thinking matter. But we also care about who a child is becoming while they learn those things. Are they growing in responsibility? Are they learning to tell the truth? Are they practicing courage? Are they learning how to work, when to work, how to recover from mistakes, and how to carry freedom well?

Here, learners are invited into their own Hero’s Journey. They learn at their own pace, pursue mastery, ask hard questions, care for their studio, contribute to the community, and begin to see their education not as something done to them, but something they learn to own.

This is what we mean when we say we are raising Dragon Slayers.

The dragons our children will face are real. Fear. Boredom. Conflict. Failure. Mediocrity. Apathy. The temptation to quit when work gets hard. We do not believe children need to be protected from every difficult thing. We believe they need a community that helps them practice facing hard things with wisdom, courage, and support.

For the moms and dads preparing for that first drop-off, we know this can feel tender. You may not be trying to rescue your child from a bad experience. You may simply be trying to choose wisely before their school story begins. You may be asking whether your child is ready, whether you are ready, and whether there is a place that will protect their wonder while helping them grow stronger.

Those are good questions.

You do not need every answer today. You simply need to keep asking better questions. What kind of person is this school helping my child become? What story will my child learn about work, mistakes, responsibility, friendship, and courage? Will this community call my child upward with both love and high expectations?

We are building a small, intentional community in the OKC Metro area for families who want that kind of education. Families who believe children are capable of more than we often ask of them. Families who want their children to become curious, courageous, kind-hearted, tough-minded, and ready to face the world ahead of them.

If that sounds like the kind of community you have been looking for, we would love to meet you.

Welcome to the edge of the map.

Welcome to Chisholm Creek Academy.

With heart and fire,

Dave & Sarah Heiniger
Founders, Chisholm Creek Academy