Location

Basketball Academy
2401 Stanley Gault Pkwy
Louisville, just east of Old Henry Rd exit at I-265

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Live Music

• Michael Alan Band
  

Food, Fun & Games for the whole family!

• Mad Science Show: Up, Up and Away
  
• Tumblebus
• WLKY Weather Class
• Music
• Concession Stand
  
• Inflatables
  

Posted in Our Homeschool

Sorry, I just have to share... ;-)

I've been feeling overwhelmed with trying to catch up on housework and also
feeling guilty about not doing more schoolwork at the end of this year. I'd
really wanted to have other unit studies planned for us to do after our co-op
and cottage classes ended. I've found that we've become quite lazy. =/? All of
the children slept in late this morning, so I was thinking we should get started
on *something*!!

Well, my 3yr old is at the table having breakfast all by herself and starts
singing...

"World War ll...

Axis leader were..

Tojo of Japan..

Mussolini of Italy..

And Stalin of the USSR!!!"

...a history sentence from our Classical Conversations studies!  (OK, she left out "Hitler of Germany"  -she's 3!!)

...and this is not the only one she recites... all on her own she will come off
with... "Watts steam engine, Cartwright's power loom and Whitney's cotton gin
spurred the industrial revolution in the 1760s...." and

"English King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215, limiting the kings power,
later England's King....." (OK, I admit I can't remember that one (there are 24)
so I just asked her to help me and she's being silly- she said, "you don't know
these do you?" LOL, I've been caught!

She's also memorized most of Ephesians 6:1-24, which was our scripture for the
year, along with some Latin.

Anyway, she's learned *alot* and SHE didn't even attend classes ( but stayed in
the nursery.) Its just from practicing with us at home and in the car. Our other
3 children learned all of these and many, many more facts. Its just incredible
to me that she picked up so much without any effort on my part, and that they
all still remember things from the beginning of the year. This program is put
together in such a way that review is logical, EASY and fun.

OK, I know you're thinking, "But she doesn't know what any of that means! What's
the use?"

Practicing memorization helps her learn how to memorize more.
It helps to hide God's word in her heart.
She's learning lots of vocabulary.
When she attends Cycle 2 in 3 years, she will memorize the information more
easily and have more time to learn about the material and understand it.
She thinks its FUN!! =D
If you'd like to learn more about Classical Conversations, check out the link
below and also feel free to email me at Coopers4Him@aol.com.

All for His glory,

Terese Cooper
www.HomeForHisGlory.com
www.classicalconversations.com

Posted in Our Homeschool

Of course ALL of our children will be doing Classical Conversations Cycle 3, which includes:
Veritas Press Timeline Cards
Story of the World Volumes 3 and 4 (audio cds)
Discovering Great Artists
Drawing With Children
Classical Music for Dummmies
Lyrical Life Science Volume 3
My Body
It Couldn't Just Happen
Scholastic American History Homework

I'm seriously considering Amy Pak's Time Travelers Series to help with notebooking and lapbooking!
AND, I also just saw Artner Reader's Guide to American History which correlates with the Scholastic book we'll be using. Has anyone used this?

We'll also attend half-day at HFHG-Educational Co-op:
Musikgarten
Kitchen Fun
Discovering Great Artists

Both 3rd and 4th grades:
Startwrite
Phonetic Zoo Spelling
US History Based Writing Lessons Volume 1- IEW
Draw Write Now

4th Grade:
Essentials Program
Saxon 6/5

3rd Grade:
Abeka Math and Language (workbooks only!)  (dvd only for concepts)
Math-U-See (DVD only for learning concepts)

Kindergarten and Preschool:
Sonlight literature and Ruth Beechick methods from 3 R's
Math-U-See Primer
Handwriting Without Tears
Phonogram Cards
Bob Books and lots of easy readers

REGISTER NOW!!

Kids Camps have a minimal fee ($30 per child) to cover the leaders and supplies. Camps that will be offered:
Play Camp (ages 3-5)
Art - Geography (ages 6-8)
Institute for Excellence in Writing (ages 9-12)

This was such a wonderful way to spend Good Friday. Everyone involved had a really nice time. The nursing home staff had coordinated an egg hunt inside the facility and also the residents passed out candy to the children. We had more than 20 children and we walked around visiting and singing Christ the Lord is Risen.  One child played the violin while we sang, which was beautiful!! And there were two older children who entertained the residents with a live bunny rabbit (in a basket!) and making balloon animals. Many times its difficult to get all four of our little ones out to serve, but this was a real JOY and we look forward to doing it again next year!

Posted in Family

March 8th is a day I'll not soon forget! We've had lots of fun playing in the snow over the past few days, but today it just KEPT snowing... nearly 14 inches!!



We don't have any big hills, so I took the boys to the end of our (gravel) driveway and made a track for them to sled down. It was pretty small, but they loved it.


And here's the reason I won't forget this day:
 
Right smack in the middle of these two boys is where I tripped and tore my ACL ligament (in my knee ) AND fractured the head of my tibia! OUCH!! At least I had plenty of snow to pack around it while waiting for Johnny to get daddy!! :)

Echo in Celebration: A Call to Home Centered Education, by Leigh Bortins (founder of Classical Conversations)

This great little book was easy to read, yet filled with challenging ideas and inspirational thoughts!

From the back cover:
"Ms. Bortins believes that anyone can be taught the basic tools of learning and how to apply these skills to embrace new adventures in both academics and life. Practicing the tools of learning allows students to take the talents they have been given and quickly adapt to new situations and new information. It is crucial to empower children to become world leaders and agents for change.

This book challenges parents to believe that they are created to competently pass on the love of learning about life tot heir children. True learning occurs when parents know that they, an not a principal or headmaster, are responsible for the education of their children, whether they personally teach their
children or carefully choose their children's teachers and mentors."

p. 12
"Home-Centered Education" refers to a middle ground between go it alone homeschooling and letting an institution make all the choices for your children's education.

p. 16
According to the government's own statistics...
-Until the 1950s education cost practically nothing; and the US had a literacy rate of 90% or better. Today, the District of Columbia spends over $13,000 a year per student; and...
-Less than 50% of American high school students graduate as proficient readers.
-Less than 15% of American high school students graduate as proficient mathematicians.
-In 2006, only 60% of high school seniors graduated.

p. 38-41
She talks about visiting a Jamaican Christian School where the first graders sat for an hour per day copying cursive scripture from a blackboard. She was appalled at first, but then realized ALL of them:

-could sit quietly
-could read every word
-had memorized lots of scripture
-had developed fine motor skills
-had the hand strength to hold a pencil for an hour
ALL of them had beautiful handwriting!

p. 43
"Do you ever find that young people, when they have left school, not only forget most of what they have learned (that is only to be expected), but forget also, or betray that they have never really learned how to tackle a new subject for themselves?"? (The Lost Tools of Learning- 1947, Dorothy Sayers)

p. 44
Good teachers have always fully understood that learning any information is a three step process...

I must first learn and practice the basic vocabulary, ideas and concepts of something new. Every subject has its own lingo, jargon, or grammar...

p 45 I have the skill to learn anything if I know how to:
-memorize vocabulary and rules (grammar stage)
-process new concepts (dialectic stage)
-clearly explain the grammar and dialectic to others (rhetoric stage)

Together, these skills are referred to in Latin as the "trivium" or "three roads."

can be re-named for non-academic subjects:
-input information
-process information
-output information

Proverbs 24
3 By wisdom a house is built,
  and through understanding it is established;
4 through knowledge its rooms are filled
  with rare and beautiful treasures.
5 A wise man has great power,
  and a man of knowledge increases strength;

The FIRST tool of learning is to learn the GRAMMAR.

She describes how everyone has an incredible capacity to memorize information and ability to store and manipulate large amounts of grammar. "Imagine the grocery store you shop in. If I asked you to tell me where the eggs are so I could run right in and grab them, would you be able to do so? Of course you
could. The average grocery store carries 30,000 items and you can quickly tell me where to find most of them. Why? Because it is organized by category and you've shopped in similar stores repeatedly. In other words, you've seen those items over and over again in an organized way making it easy for you to memorize the store. You can categorize 30,000 items in one location."

p. 48
"I propose a good education teaches a child how to build a grocery store of the mind for every subject."

p.50
Education through DIALECTIC:

"Dialectic is often referred to as logic or critical thinking skills.I prefer to think of it as a dialogue to clear reasoning...

Dialectic skills are best learned through puzzles, discussions and group interaction led by an enthusiastic teacher... This is where we need to copy Jesus' model of discipling a few students at a time to be effective."
 
p. 53
Education through RHETORIC:

"Rhetoric has come to mean "sound bite" and propaganda to moderns. To classical, Christian students, it means to practice specific skills in order to be the most persuasive in expressing truth, goodness and beauty."

Chapter 5 Learning for Life

"Parents often ask for a complete subject scope and sequence for implementing the classical model. That question reveals a lack of understanding about the classical model. Instead (she has a chart that lists) a simple scope and sequence of skills taught in a classical education. The focus is on goals that
develop a free, competent human, able to confidently confront and conquer new ideas."

"The classical model is skill-based, not merely subject-based."

Chapter 6 Home-Centered Education has 3 guiding principles:

1) I am going to work hard and consistently as my child's primary discipler. She encourages reading aloud for over an hour daily and to restrict (or get rid of) TV and video games. Tell stories, play games... Controlling technology is one of our hardest challenges.

2) I am going to concentrate on teaching my students the tools of learning anything.

"The key to a classical education is modeling."

Most students don't really know what they are to master, why they are to master it, or are given the skills to master the information. Academic goals for inexperienced students should be clearly defined tasks, starting with mastering basic skill.

3) I am going to find many resources that challenge my child's mind and heart as well as finding a like-minded companion for the journey. She talks about how to find friends and mentors for our children.

Chapter 7 The Purpose:

Studying to Glorify God
"Catechism comes from the Greek meaning to resound or echo, to celebrate or initiate, to repeat another's words or deeds...... All of the educational models throughout history until the Enlightenment emphasized the idea of catechesis. It began with memorizing a set of facts and having the student echo the facts to a teacher. Then a discussion could begin that celebrated that information as God
given and used to initiate a student into a new world of thought.... Resounding scripture, seeing it in larger and newer contexts, and teaching it to someone else allows us to echo His joy. Catechesis!"

p. 105: "True education should prepare us to love learning and to see the world from God's side of the sky. Learning should affect the heart as much as the head. We should help our students look for challenging mentors more than easy textbooks. The original role of education in the church was to have students discipled by someone who looked out for their whole heart- a lover of Christ who transferred his or her delight in the Lord, somehow to show the students that they could receive His blessings now."

"We celebrate our life's purpose- to know God and make Him known!"

And from the final chapter:

"It is very hard work ro teach children 'to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him' in a home-centered environment, but the Psalms say that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Since every reference in the Bible about teaching is given to parents or church leaders, it follows that Christians should provide the
majority of a youth's instruction. To think otherwise is to trust non-Christians to teach your children the wisdom of God. I want my children to know I value sharing Christ and His creation with them and that there is no greater honor for me than being God's play-fellow with them. This may sound impossible to you, but if you seek first the kingdom of God, you will have those magic moments when your children know their home resides on holy ground."   wow! ;-)

I was so inspired by reading this simple, easy to read book. I highly recommend you read it for yourself to gain a better, more complete understanding of a *Christian* approach to classical education. You can purchase the book here:Classical Conversations Bookstore
or there is also a copy available at the Southeast Christian Church Children's Library (which is open to non-church members.)

All for His glory,

Terese Cooper
www.classicalconversations.com

Posted in Family

(By Terese Cooper, originally published in the August 2006 issue of The Mother's Heart)

On Valentine’s Day – just ten years ago – I wrote a love letter to my husband telling him how much I loved being married to him. We had just celebrated our five-year anniversary and I looked forward to what the next five years with him would bring, “Whether we will be preparing for an empty nest or chasing toddlers and changing diapers- I’ll be happy as long as we’re together.” Little did I know that in the next five years, the Lord would answer our prayers and we would more than double the number of children had.

When I met John, we were each single parents entering our relationship with much anticipation. We had long discussions about our hopes for the future. When we discussed future children, it was bittersweet. John spoke of his dreams for a large family, which caused me to love him all the more, because I had similar dreams. But, I had a difficult confession to make. Years before, I had a tubal ligation and would be unable to have any more children. John didn’t hesitate to say that God could take care of that. My faith in having more children wavered, but John chose to love me regardless of whether or not we could have more children.

Once we married, we quickly realized the emotional and physical demands of blending two broken families into one family that would honor God. Any Christian family attempting to put together the pieces of life after a divorce has some serious challenges to face. Anger, intolerance, threats, and volatile situations from former spouses were more frequent than we’d anticipated. Explosive incidents caused us so much grief and pain, but we vowed to stand firm in our faith and be an example of Christian character. However, these months of pain and trials proved to draw us closer to the Lord, which strengthened our marriage and family.

As our faith continued to grow, God revealed to John that we should consider homeschooling our children. That step of faith has continued for almost 14 years now and the Lord has transformed our lives. Not long after we began homeschooling, I picked up a book called: All the Way Home by Mary Pride. This book sparked a conversation about our long held dream to have a large family. We started talking about the possibilities and whether it would be reasonable to try to have more children. We began praying about it together and over time God revealed how He planned to add to our family.

God provided funds for us to have a tubal reversal, and we prayed that it would be successful. It was! Our first child together, Jake, a beautiful baby boy, was such a blessing to us, and such a precious answer to our many prayers! One day we were driving along Interstate 265, going to visit John’s parents. We were just basking in the joy of God’s rich blessings upon us. That day we made a decision that radically changed the direction of our lives. John made the following statement: “I think we should just leave our family planning to the Lord.” I looked at him in awe at the moment, because it was the exact thing I had been thinking! I, too, longed to rely solely on the Lord for our family planning, completely out of a spirit of thanksgiving for God’s mercy. Also, our years of relying on the Lord for strength had taught me that I could faithfully accept His sovereign plan for our family size, and the timing of our children. When we had this brief discussion together, I felt an incredible sense of “oneness of spirit” with John. This was a unique feeling, a precious blessing from the Lord for us both to have concluded the same thing on our private walks with the Lord and to agree so readily. We were elated!

The elation turned into excitement for us as we became pregnant with Haley when Jake was not quite six months old. We became pregnant with Johnny, our sixth child when Haley was fourteen months old. This pregnancy ended in an emergency C-section, which required general anesthesia and was quite traumatic. It was at this point my faith in God’s plan began to waver. I was having doubts about whether I could handle any more. However, I always came back to Phil. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Our family and friends met the announcement from us with concern when we became pregnant with baby number 7 just over a year later. I was nearing 40 and having so many babies so quickly was taking a toll on my energy and my strength. At this point, I have to admit we shared our family’s concern, however we tried to be positive and thankful. We were overjoyed to have been given the blessing of a seventh pregnancy, but we were also more than just a little scared. After much prayer, I was able to have a natural delivery of our seventh baby- a precious little girl!

With 7 children, ages 4 months to 20, John and I were both feeling stretched beyond capacity. We were convinced each of these children were an incredible blessing from the Lord, but began to be concerned that we were not doing a great job of caring for all that the Lord had given us. Privately, each of us was wrestling with the idea of having no more children. We told God we would trust Him with everything, but our faith was beginning to be shaken amidst the chaos of our daily lives. At this time, we were also reaping what was sown in our earlier failed marriages. Our oldest children were now teenagers stretching their wings between two families that had very different standards. We sincerely wanted to let the Lord be in control of our family size, but we also felt that we could not handle adding any more children to our very full family. It was truly an emotional and spiritual struggle for each of us.

As we drove along Interstate 265, on another visit to John’s parents, we embarked upon this topic once again. John stated simply, “I just don’t think we should have any more children.” As he spoke a huge wave of relief rolled over me. I had felt the same leading, but had been wrestling with the guilt of that decision for a while. It was amazing. We were in exactly the same spot of the drive when we made the decision to accept God’s sovereignty in the timing of our children. As we crossed the overpass, I could see the huge sloping hill behind John’s head as he looked at me and it was like a snapshot of the last conversation. That was the first time we experienced the “oneness of spirit” regarding our family size, and here in the same spot the Lord blessed us again with the same event, almost as a memorial. This was yet another gift from God, this blessed peace in the decision to consider our family complete.

Now our children are: Blaise 20, Rachel 19, Lacy 19, Jake 6, Haley 5, Johnny 3, and Maelyn 18 months. As you can imagine our lives are never dull, with three children in college it is challenging to keep up with their lives and activities and of course, the four little ones at home keep us hopping around too! We continue to homeschool our younger children and we are just so thankful for the size of our family. While we still struggle at times with energy and resources, we know that the Lord provides daily for us, as we lean on Him. We will never regret that we let Him be in charge of the timing for each of our pregnancies. Our faith is strengthened and renewed each time He reveals His provision for our lives.

Terese Cooper is married to John and is a homeschool mom of seven, with four children still at home. She is active in her local homeschool community; is the listowner of HomeForHisGlory, a network of 500 homeschool families in the Kentuckiana area; and is currently involved in the start-up of HomeForHisGlory-Enrichment Co-op, which will serve over 80 families.  

Posted in Family

              Everyone kept moving (imagine that!)      


     

Posted in Our Homeschool

Today was our first Open House. We had 4 families join our small group of 7 families.

We began in the sanctuary for our Opening Ceremonies, Scripture Song and Tin Whistle (shown below)


Here's my Johnny (4) giving his Presentation (a snowflake he had made)
We went out into the larger area for Family Fun Challenge, which is a sort of trivia game in which we practice our old memory work.

And here's the whole group (with visitors) awaiting the launch of our rockets:

Posted in Our Homeschool

We've had alot of fun this semester exploring the world of Knights and Castles. I've been teaching this class at our co-op and its mostly consisted of projects.
Here we're working on shoebox castles:

Posted in Our Homeschool

Our History Sentence for this week is:  "In 1517, Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation by printing the 75 Theses that made Pope Leo lll excommunicate him. Later John Calvin joined the Reformation."

I found some  ideas and FREE printables at  Church House Rock

Here's how we celebrated with our small group of 6 families (27 children!) We decided to remain in our classes (which are divided by families instead of grade levels) and rotated to three activity stations.

The first activity was to make a "Luther Rose" suncatcher:
From here, we moved to the back of the room to the "puppet theater" and the children acted out a skit using puppet symbols to represent the meaning of the colors of the Luther Rose, while a narrator read over the meaning of each and led the audience through an interactive praise hymn. (sorry, no picture)

Next we trekked across the parking lot to tape up our "statements."
The Harpers
The McGlynns
The Coopers

Sorry, I didn't find a camera until half of our families had left, but we ALL had a great time with this!

Posted in Our Homeschool

In September, I began a Foundations Program with Classical Conversations. The "program" involves meeting together with other families one day per week (9-12) while a trained tutor leads the lessons. One great thing is that parents attend classes with their children. This helps the parents to know what was taught and how to reinforce it throughout the week.

Each weekly lesson covers the grammar of 6 subjects: Latin, History, Bible, English Grammar, Science and Geography. We will also learn the complete Veritas Press timeline (each year) and Ephesians 6 (this year.) Additionally, we have practical experiences in Science and Fine Arts.

(Here are my 2 older children in class with their tutor.)

We've been doing this for 6 weeks with my 4 younger children 2, 4, 6, 8 and their recall is amazing. My 4 yr old sat at the dinner table and sang the skip counting 3s jingle all the way through and I just about fell over.

Classical Conversations now offers a power point program and audio cds that make learning and review fun and easy! My 2yr old gets us ready for class many mornings! We just line everyone up to begin our memory work:

We review our phonograms and timeline cards and then use the power point to cover the other subjects, except for Bible, for which there is a beautiful cd with Ephesians 6 set to song. We love to listen to that in the car, along with the CC audio cd with our weekly memory work. After doing our chants with the power point presentation, we review the mapwork and do handwriting, math, writing and reading.

I love that I'm free to take any rabbit trails and we still stay on track. :) I believe reading aloud is very important, so we use that to extend the memory work, choosing books that correspond with our history and science.

This is a GREAT program for families with multiple children:
-gives the most educational value for your money / time investment
-you can teach all of your students K4-6th together
-materials are nonconsumable and only ONE package is needed for your whole family!
-3yr cycle provides structure to keep busy moms on track

I also want to point out that I've used this program before (3 yrs ago) and we loved it then. Classical Conversations has grown and is even better today. I'm so glad to came back to it!

Please take a moment to visit the website:
Classical Conversations and feel free to email me if you have any questions. Its not too early to begin planning for next year! ;) We'll have open houses and information nights beginning in February.

All for His glory,

Terese Cooper, Coopers4Him@aol.com

www.HomeForHisGlory.com

What a GREAT time we all had at the Basketball Academy

Posted in Our Homeschool

We went to co-op yesterday, but this was our first day of HOMEschool.  I don't know WHAT made me think it would be a good idea to begin everything in the same week! Ah well, you can't tell by the pictures anyway. Doesn't it at least LOOK like we had a wonderful day? ;-)

We started with reciting our memory work...
A little bear counting...
After an initial period of refusing to EVER to school, Haley ended up being the BEST student of the day.
She really surprised me with her initiative today!

                    FREE ADMISSION ~ DOOR PRIZES

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
 

We’ll have stations set up at our 5 Hardwood Basketball Courts and 9 Volleyball Courts to give your children a taste of our PE program. Indoor Playground with Inflatables, State-of-the-Art Fitness Center and Game Room offer something for parents and siblings as well.

Join us for dinner and support our co-op!

The in-house Chick-fil-A will donate a portion of all Family Fun Night purchases to the HomeForHisGlory-Educational Co-op.

Basketball Academy
2401 Stanley Gault Parkway
              Louisville, KY 40223             
        502-244-6677       

(Conveniently located in the Eastpoint Business Center, west of the LaGrange Rd exit off I-265)

                                                     

                  

Posted in Family

Well, we had a beautiful day! We were all getting ready to go fishing and we stepped out the door and saw this:




Needless to say, that got everyone's blood flowing! And kept the children occupied while we get a few last minute things together for our next adventure, fishing at the Metz's.

Johnny caught the first fish:

He was so excited!! Jake and Haley actually caught 2 of the biggest fish, but they both BROKE their lines, so we didn't get any pictures.

Posted in Our Homeschool

This should be sub-titled "An Answered Prayer." God certainly blessed me this past week. I've been drowning in clutter in my office (you couldn't even call it a schoolroom, because I couldn't let the children in without close supervision!) And who would want to learn in this mess:


This picture is actually after she was here for 5 minutes and suggested that I use my space better by thinking VERTICAL. I moved the crates on top of this shelving unit and it made a big difference:

It was definitely a dangerous journey to reach the puzzles and games in this closet:
For over a year I've been asking God to send someone to help me get organized and He has! First someone offered up a vanload of FREE storage containers and then, He sent another angel to put everything in its place!

Amy Larimer came to my house one Saturday morning and while our 8 children played, she completely turned my room around:



My six yr old daughter loved helping with the labels. ;0)

She REALLY wants me to install a couple of shelves in this closet (even called to offer her husband to come and do it, but we were out all weekend!)


OK, I did promise her that I would organize my books and I still need to do that, BUT it looks 100% better and I think we'll actually be able to BEGIN school this week!!  Yay! Praise God and thanks to Amy for your help!!

Our four co-op campuses came together for one last summer picnic. God provided us with a perfectly mild evening in the midst of an otherwise sweltering August.


We enjoyed fellowship



and fun ... well into the evening hours!!

Welcome to Louisville's First Annual Homeschool Fair!!

What a wonderful time we had at the fair! It was so incredible to see the vision become a reality; to see so many homeschool families enjoying the fair together was really precious to me. I was thanked over and over again, and I just cannot accept without giving credit where it is due.

I keep telling you it was God. HE is the one who orchestrated ALL of this. It's been so obvious to me and to others working closely on this project with me.

I need to give thanks to the folks at homeschoolfair.com where I found alot of helpful ideas. They've been hosting theirs for 18 years! I'd like to give a BIG thank you to Suellen Barnes, Mini Masih and Sherry Stumph for your support and for coming on board with me in this. I truly could not have done it without you all picking up the messes, adding the right details and putting it all together in an organized way.

Thank you to ALL of the wonderful volunteers who came out to help us yesterday, we could not have made it without you! To Anne Swetnam, Kristi Fields, Kimberly Robinson and Hope Quill, who spent the entire day serving with us. And to the many others who came out to help, Bryan and Lisa Jones (who brought a group of teens) the Cooks, Feinns, Russells, Kuos, Weisemanns, Ranks, Christine Degnan, Karen Stearns, Jessie Monteith, Cynthia Simpson, Terri Eisenmenger, Heather McGimsey, the Bashams, Colemans and the scouts.

I'd also like to make special mention of the Truth Advocates team. Not only did they offer interesting entertainment throughout the day AND host a Speech/ Debate workshop, but they also served in any capacity needed for the entire day.

We invited vendors from the local community who had something to offer homeschool families. We're thankful for such a GREAT response! Families were able to come and compare what was available in the area of cottage schools,  enrichment classes, tutors, lessons and clubs, as well as support groups and even a few book vendors. We're also thankful for the new relationships that began here.
Thanks to Mad Science who offered an amazing show that was a big hit!

And, thank you to the wonderfully encouraging and helpful guest speakers Sally Clarkson and Debbie MacGregor.

Also, former homeschool mom and owner of Louisville School of Rock, Donna Reddick, helped tremendously with the overall layout and scheduling of the event, as well as providing the complete stage and sound set-up and some great rock music! Thanks to Kim Porta and family for the beautiful music you provided for us. Thanks to all of the dancers from Grace in Motion, I know I heard at least one little girl exclaim that she wanted to be a ballerina now!

Thanks to Bev Mazurowski for providing the many contacts she'd already made and to Lisa Twyman for getting us listed on WJIE and for getting us a free inflatable from All About Kids and to the MANY homeschool businesses / groups who came out to share with us, even in the terrific HEAT of the day!

And to others who I haven't named here, please forgive me for missing your names and please know that you were greatly appreciated!

I hope that many of you have now caught the vision and will join us in working on the committee for next year's fair. We definitely want this to be an annual event and expect next year to be better!

All for His glory,
Terese Cooper