Family Story: The Cross Family

By Sandy Cross

Hi, my name is Sandy Cross. I am the mother of seven wonderful children, five of whom have attended or are currently attending Jesse Remington High School in Candia, New Hampshire. While I homeschooled my children for many, many years, I found that the high school years can be more challenging. It becomes difficult to keep everyone accountable and doing their best work especially when it comes to writing tasks that they may not even realize they are capable of. 

Over 20 years ago, we were offhandedly introduced to Jesse Remington and it was the best introduction and turned out to make a great difference in our kids and our family’s life. We enrolled and graduated the first two of our Jesse Remington attendees in the early years (Jacob ‘08 and Joshua ‘12). Since then the rest of our family was pretty much “born“ into Jesse Remington and have been unofficially attending and participating in numerous events over the years. Our son Isaiah graduated just last year (‘23) and our daughter, Esther, will be graduating this year (‘24), followed by our daughter Emma in two years (26’) and our grandson Ethan in three (‘27). 

Jesse Remington has had a profound impact on our kids' education and our family. The faculty and staff demonstrate love and a deep concern towards the students and are second to none. They strive to have a personal relationship with each student. I’ve always enjoyed showing up at the school at lunch to see Mr. Philbrick, the headmaster, engaged in a serious competition of ping-pong or trying out a student’s moped, or Mr. Samuelson in a heated basketball tournament with the students either during lunch or after school. 

Staff and faculty commitment extends beyond normal school hours. It is greatly experienced during Jesse Remington’s mission trips, which hold a special place in our hearts.  These trips have deepened the relationships that our children have with the faculty and staff and they know how much they care about them. The mission trips have also made a big impact on the hearts of our kids by letting them see Christ at work in the world and within our school community. 

It has also shown them how they can impact the Kingdom of Christ by doing simple things in preparation for these trips, such as cutting out crafts, preparing lessons, and creating lasting friendships with those they meet on the mission field. The trip to Costa Rica this year confirmed for my daughter, Esther, that she is called to be in missionary work and continue her education in Spanish so that she can teach English as a second language in a country like Costa Rica. The numerous projects, service opportunities, and mission trips offered by Jesse Remington High School have made a lasting effect on our entire family and we are very grateful to be part of this community.