Selah Academy
A Downtown Harrisonburg School for 4, 5, and 6-year-olds
NEW for 2024-2025!
Selah Academy will offer one hour of childcare beyond our 2:00 p.m. pick-up time for the 2024-2025 school year!
We believe…
that children learn best through experiences and play.
Learn more below.
children should be active participants in unhurried, meaningful learning.
Learn more below.
children are capable of deep, religious experience and can encounter God personally.
Learn more below.
Selah in Action
Meet the Director
As a mother of four, I know what it is to care passionately about your children’s education as well as their hearts. I have been interested in how children learn for most of my adult life, first as an English teacher and then as a mom who, with my husband, chose a combination of private, home, and public schooling for our four (now grown) kids.
I have a strong love of children’s literature and reading aloud to children as well as a belief that children are curious by nature and learn best through discover and play. In addition, I believe children have a keen ability to connect with God if given the chance to do so.
In 2019, I felt an inner nudge to pursue a Master of Education in Independent School Leadership at Vanderbilt University, and towards the end of my study, I found myself thinking about starting a school.
Then I discovered Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Montessori-inspired way of helping children connect to God, which helped lead me to a place where I decided to pursue starting a Christ-centered, literature-focused, discovery-based school, and thus, Selah Academy was born. A gathered team and I started Selah in 2022 as a pilot program, one-day-a-week, and graduated in September 2023 to a 4-day-a week kindergarten and Pre-kindergarten school for 4–6-year-olds.
I am thrilled to be doing this work of welcoming children into a vibrant, unhurried, intentionally prepared learning environment where they can discover and thrive. We invite your child to come play, pause, and participate with us on this exciting new venture.
Paula Cook
Director
Nearly everyday, our daughter asks, “Is it Selah Day today?!”
Emily, Selah Academy Pilot Program Parent
