Registering for the New School Year

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In Tennessee, one must register to homeschool either with an umbrella school or with the local public school system. Umbrella schools typically cost around $50-$110, while the Superintendent’s Office is free. Some umbrella schools will ask you to test with them once a year. The public school will only make you test in 5th, 7th, and 9th grades.

Painting Clocks

The kids painted seven wooden clocks for newly remodeled rooms at Zoder’s Inn and Suites.

Our umbrella school is Berean Christian School in Knoxville. We can register by mail because we have been with them for at least three years and do not have a rising Kindergarten student. Continue reading »


Sevier County Homeschoolers

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I just got back from registration night for the 2013-2014 homeschool year in Sevier County, so this blog post is fresh off the WordPress press. We met at Victory Baptist Church in Sevierville. We registered as homeschoolers and received our ID cards. The coordinator, Sabrina Gray, opened the meeting with prayer and a few remarks about our goal of instilling godly character in our children. Then, she introduced some of the vendors and activity leaders.

She surprised me by asking me to come upfront and share about my blog. Afterwards, several ladies with small children walked up to me and asked for the name of my site again. I was excited to share, obviously, and hope they will sign up for updates. I am honored to serve the homeschooling community through this blog.

A paragraph about Sabrina: she is such a neat lady with a beautiful story of homeschooling three children through the tough times, in the early nineties, and now. A talented artist, a writer and an actress, a quilter and a storyteller, she can also bake some seriously delicious bread. Back in May, we were in her home for a bread-making workshop and her husband shared how he went to Romania in 1992 to give Bibles to people. Coincidentally, 1992 was the year when I decided to follow Christ and the Bible. We all cried as we traded stories of how God used different people like him to bring the gospel to Romania.

Sevier County Homeschoolers

Registration night for Sevier County homeschoolers

The Sevier County Homeschool Support Group offers so much: 4-H, choir, Keep Sevier Beautiful, the Passion Play, several activities for highschoolers, quilting classes, parent support night, just to name a few. My children will try the choir. For myself, I will attend the parent support night. I felt encouraged every time I attended last year.

The homeschooling family Sabrina invited to speak are engineers by profession and the parents of four children. I expected them to be informative, but they were also funny. Who would have thunk it? The mom used to be the president of her company when God called her to homeschool her children. He is still an engineer with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Their older children got accepted into all ten colleges they applied for and six of these ten colleges offered them a free ride. Intrigued? I will pass on to you their twelve pointers about homeschooling in a future blog post.

All in all, it was a great night of networking. It was good to see old friends and make new friends. Homeschooling is an exciting adventure and being plugged into a support network makes it even more fun. My suggestion is that you find a support group wherever you live. You will need them in good times and tough times alike.