Here are some photos from Friday night! Enjoy!

• Friday’s hours are from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. nonstop.
• Saturday’s hours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission

Admission is $3 per Family for Esprit subscribers or THEA members and $6 per Family for non-subscribers/non-members. You may Join THEA and/or subscribe to the Esprit newsletter at the fair and enter at the reduced rate. This is a family admission and covers both days. Keep your nametag for re-entry anytime you leave the premises and for re-entry on Saturday.

Children

As always, nursing infants are welcome. There is a designated area (near Workshop Area 3) for nursing mothers. See the website map. We encourage you to find other care for older children for their safety and enjoyment. If you bring your children, you must keep them with you. Chasing children and finding parents makes extra work for already overworked volunteers. Causing others to deal with unattended children is not showing kindness to the exhibitors, the volunteers, or to other customers.

Workshop Schedule The current Workshop Schedule will be posted on the website prior to the fair. Check the large Workshop Schedule Charts to be posted up front at the Arena and at other locations in the Arena for any last-minute changes in the workshops.

Food

A snack bar is located inside the entrance for you to purchase snacks. Picnic tables with sheds are near the Arena. There are numerous fast food restaurants in nearby East Ridge. Please do not eat or drink in the exhibit hall. There will be a few tables designated for eating at the end of Workshop Area 5.

Parking

Parking is free and plentiful.

Exhibitors Break Room

Only exhibitors and full-time workers are to use the Break Room. Please resist the temptation to follow an exhibitor into this room to talk. It is the only place they can rest.

Behavior

Appropriate Behavior Required. Individuals behaving inappropriately may be asked to leave.

Attire

“No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” — Proper attire is required. No swimsuits, short shorts, or similar apparel. Those not properly attired may be refused admittance and asked to return dressed appropriately. Children may not wear shoes with wheels.

Disclaimer

The dissemination of information by the individual exhibitors or at the workshops conducted at this Curriculum Fair / Expo does not necessarily reflect the position of CSTHEA or THEA and no endorsement nor warranty nor guarantee of accuracy or efficacy is provided. CSTHEA does not endorse content, method, or ideology of the companies or products here represented. The large number of materials and sources makes it impossible to screen them all for perfect acceptability to everyone. Therefore, we leave it in your hands to screen the materials you buy for your family’s use.

What to do:

1. Fill out the Express Registration Form (PDF).

   • Please fill it out completely.
   • Please note that admission to the Curriculum Fair is $3 for THEA members/Esprit subscribers and $6 for non-member/non-subscribers.
   • Please make check payable to “CSTHEA.”

2. Mail the completed form with your check, postmarked no later than July 16 to:

       James Hindman
       12433 Pendergrass Road
       Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379
   

3. When you arrive at the Curriculum Fair go directly to the Pre-Paid Registration Entrance to receive your admission packet.

It’s that simple!

But note these details…

• We are not responsible for lost or misdirected mail. If for some reason we do not receive your pre-paid registration before the Curriculum Fair, you will then need to register on site. (If and when we do finally receive a too-late mailed pre-registration, it will be returned to you.)
• We will also be unable to issue refunds for admission if you are unable to attend for some reason. Of course, if you have paid for your newsletter subscription and/or THEA membership and are unable to attend, your purchased materials will be mailed to you.

July 23 & 24, 2010

• Friday, 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM
• Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Camp Jordan Arena
East Ridge, Tennessee

General Information

• Pre-paid Registration
• General Information
• Help promote the Home Education Expo & Curriculum Fair! (PDF)
• Printable items
  • Curriculum Fair Brochure (PDF)
  • Express Registration Form (PDF)
  • Expo Flier (PDF)

Exhibitors and Workshops

• Exhibition Floor Plan
• Exhibitor Tables by Name (Also available as PDF)
• Exhibitor Tables by Number (Also available as PDF)
• Workshop Schedule (PDF)
• Workshop Summaries (PDF)
• Exhibitor List with Links

• Cross Country
  • For grade 3 through 12 both boys and girls
  • Contact Jim Steffes: Jim@bartohoss.com
• Girls Varsity Soccer
  • Must be 13 by August 15
  • Contact Janell Bontekoe: janell@bontekoes.com
• Girls Volleyball
  • Highschool age
  • Contact Ryan Bolton: rjtmbolt@bellsouth.net

Winter sports (approximately October through early March)

• Basketball
  • For middle and highschool boys and girls
  • Contact Angie Ambrosetti: ambrosetti8@comcast.net

Spring Sports (approximately March through May)

• Boys baseball
  • For middle and highschool age
  • Contact Julie Simmons djsimons@tvn.net
• Boys Varsity Soccer
  • Highschool age
  • Contact Yoli Bell: bellyobell@comcast.net

We are also in the midst of organizing a boys middle school school soccer team — this would be a fall sport. (Contact John Trussel: jtrussel@daltonstate.edu)

Can sign up for any of these at the Homeschool Expo/Curriculum Fair.

Not just for homeschoolers, this event brings together nearly 90 exhibitors of educational resources from all over the country offering games, DVD’s, kits, art supplies and books all designed to delight the heart of a child, no matter where that child is educated. Over 70 workshops will be offered to give the parent specific assistance in everything from pre-school activities to college prep. Interact with education and resource experts which will help you help your child whether they are a struggling learner or passionately interested in a certain topic. 2 day cost is $3 per member/subscriber family, $6 per non member/subscriber family. More info available at www.csthea.org or 266-HOME

This year I joined the Facebook crowd and have found it great fun to connect with high school and college friends as well as many local folks. I have always made it a point to stay connected with many of our out of town friends and family with a yearly letter usually sent some time after Christmas. I was inspired to do this by Edith Schaeffer’s family letters. As a single girl, I moved around quite a bit after graduating, including a two-year mission term in Europe which led to friendships all over the globe. I often toy with the idea of dropping our family letter but I just cannot bring myself to do it knowing it is my only tie with so many of these friends.

Lately I am appalled at how poorly I have kept up with friends who live here in Chattanooga. Many are on Facebook but that is not the connection I am talking about. Something is wrong when we are no longer in touch with dear friends who live near us but we are in touch with hundreds of friends via social networking sites.

Shortly after that wedding, I attended a gathering at a friend’s house. It was supposed to be a two-hour drop-in. I arrived at nearly the end of the specified time, found three women there as well as the honoree and we sat and chatted for four more hours. It was so soul satisfying to see friends face to face, to laugh together, to share real solutions, to laugh some more, to talk about books (what else is there to talk about?) and to recount God’s faithfulness to us and to our families. You just cannot do that on your Facebook status!

A friend in North Carolina shared a thesis on this subject of social networking. The title was “Twitterpated: False Community on the Internet” by Beth Churchill. Here are some gems with commentary:

“Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are more about the self and less about others simply because of the difficulty of feeling meaningfully connected to others using only text as a means of communication.”

This is so true. You cannot view someone’s face when they read what you posted, you cannot see body language. Social networking sites offer only a truncated type of relationship building. Compare this with true community in which

“They held one another accountable for their actions, and encouraged one another in faith: “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thess. 5.14).

This quality of encouragement is needed by all of us. We need to be on the receiving end as well as the giving end.

“Social networking sites do not provide an adequate substitute for communities formed by real-life relationships, such as Christendom’s communities. Christendom provided adequate context for the forming of relationships, a system of accountability in the building of relationships, and a sense of identity as a result of those relationships. Wherever social networking sites provide hints of these things, they provide them insufficiently.”

Now I am not saying that social networking sites are bad and should be discontinued. They just should not supplant your real friendships. Even though I tell myself that I only spend 15 minutes or so every day on Facebook, that time could be accumulated and instead used to have a very meaningful visit with a neglected friend. Again it is a matter of priorities: we need to be sure we are connected in a real way with our friends, we need to be sure that our 15 minutes of facebook time a day is not the only way we are nourishing friendships and feeding our souls.

So please take the time to call those friends you have neglected and plan a time you can meet with one or two of them together for a breakfast before starting your homeschooling day. Share a walk together on the Riverwalk, or a tea at a tea-room. Find a quiet place, free from distractions, and share your heart with each other. Then you can post about that lovely time to your facebook status. . . or NOT. Seriously, let that be your mother’s day gift to yourself: to get in touch with at least one local friend you have neglected or to call up someone you know needs encouragement or to plan a get together with a woman wiser than yourself.

“This communicating of a man’s self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joy, and cutteth griefs in half.” —Francis Bacon

— JMT

As a mother who teaches her young children at home, I am frequently asked, “What are you gonna do about teaching chemistry?” Admittedly, chemistry is not the only subject that people are concerned about, sometimes it’s also physics, foreign language, calculus, or biology. Homeschooling is popular enough that most people know a neighbor, distant relative, or someone who teaches their children at home, but they certainly do not understand what goes on inside their home and how these kids are actually learning. The majority of those who want to know how homeschooling moms plan to teach high school fall into three categories.

The first of these categories is The Spectator. Those who ask this question about home schooling remember the difficulties of being in real school with professional teachers. They know that it was hard enough to keep up with these subjects as a student. What they are really asking is “How could a regular mom possibly have enough mastery of the material to competently teach the high school subjects?” Commonly, good mothers will admit to each other that trying to help their gifted second-grader with homework can be a challenge.

For these people, it’s impossible to comprehend families who take the entirety of their children’s education into their own hands.

Indeed, the homeschooling family can be an intriguing mystery. For many, homeschool families provide the same curiosity as sideshow exhibits at the state fair. To these people the question of how to teach an upper-level subject is as important as paying their fair ticket and stepping into the tent to find the answer to this strange phenomenon. It’s a wonder. It’s a relief to know. Nevertheless, when they exit the tent the show is over, their curiosity satisfied, and their life goes on as usual. Truthfully, it didn’t matter if their questions were ever answered because they weren’t affected.

Others ask because they are affronted that one might try educating their children outside of the professional teaching industry’s realm. Likely, they are a proud teacher. They’ve spent a lot of money on a college education to earn a degree that has trained them in their occupation as a teacher. They’ve spent so much time and put immense effort into their work. It’s only natural that they will not comprehend how a plain untrained mom with a will could do it.

Asking “What are you gonna do about chemistry?” is the polite way of asking, “What makes you think that you can teach your child successfully?”

It implies, “Even if you have a teaching degree, surely you aren’t qualified to teach all of the subjects necessary for a good education.” Their question is rhetorical. Firstly, they know how much devotion they put into their own classes for their student’s sake. It is a lot of work. Moreover, they only teach one class!

Which leads me to my second point; teachers are aware that they are not qualified to teach every subject a student would need for graduation. They confess that no teacher could do it all. Their question is meant to take the wind out of our sails before we‘ve gone too far. It’s a question of discouragement — one to sober us to the task ahead. Perhaps they are kindly trying to spare us because they don’t think we’ve counted the cost. I call this second group **The Affronted*. Homeschoolers bother them because they think our decision to homeschool is one of judgment on them or lack of concern about our children’s welfare. They don’t yet know that teaching my children at home is a matter of faith.

Some ask because they are considering homeschooling and are trying to find answers about how it all works. I like to call this last category of questioners The Innocent. They’re looking to compare notes because they are curious to find out if they‘ve got what it takes. They want your formula for success.

Usually, I vary my reply depending on the audience. Here I address this response to Christians with young children. To lay the foundation you must know that I have an intimate relationship with the Creator. He made the universe. He made me. When I was wicked and when I was His enemy, He died so that we could have a relationship. He has already proven His faithfulness. My decision to homeschool is a constant exercise of faith. I am teaching my children at home to glorify Him. It is not easy. I am not faultless. I am naturally lazy, impatient and selfish, among other things that I don’t care to admit.

However, God calls me to be more like Him and promises to help me make the transition. By spending my life with my children, I have abundant opportunities to exercise patience, compassion, selflessness, gentleness, and did I mention patience? I am given the potential to cultivate the character of Christ. Whether I seize them or neglect them, the opportunities to grow in spirit that come from the decision to continue my role as parent into the educational realm are never-ending.

When the Christian mom who has decided to homeschool has her eldest in kindergarten and is asking, “What about chemistry?” what she wants to know is “Will God abandon our family when we reach high school?”

So now I ask “What?” Why would He do that? Is it too hard for Him? He knows more about that subject and every other than anybody! Oh, I know, He’s so tired of me utterly relying on Him that He will simply refuse to provide a way. Perhaps I’ve used up my favors and now I’m going to have to go it alone. Do we see the absurdity of the question?

It is God’s desire that we become as dependant on His provision as little children. Since He’s promised to take care of our needs, our obligation is to seek Him first. It is our duty to walk by faith depending on Him. Abraham is an example of faithfulness that pleases God. He was obedient to God’s command to sacrifice his son. Yet Abraham believed God would fulfill His promise to build a great nation through Isaac. How could a dead son be the father of a great nation? This is no doubt the question that Abraham grappled with. He certainly speculated on how God would fulfill His promise; however, it was only when Isaac was tied down on top of the altar and the dagger drawn that God provided a way and Abraham saw God’s provision. Don’t draw your daggers yet. We aren’t asked to sacrifice our children. Just to trust them and ourselves in God’s hands. When we stay awake at night worrying about how to teach chemistry to our children when the oldest is yet seven are we really walking by faith? It’s not wrong to speculate on how God will provide. Abraham did; but, his focus was not on fixing the problem. It was on obedience which God credited as faith. It’s not walking by faith if we fret because we can’t see every step of the entire path of our children’s 13-year education. We, like Abraham, need to have confidence in God’s provision.

Beloved, let me propose one last thought. Above our children’s learning chemistry, it may be that the greatest lesson is for us to live by faith. When someone asks you the question next, do not give the glory to the plethora of aides that are available such as DVDs, co-ops, satellite schools, special classes and tutors. Give the glory to God and say, “I dunno yet how I’ll teach chemistry, but I am confident that God will provide for all of our needs.”

Yvonne Clark resides in Red Bank, Tenn., with her husband, Brent, and two daughters. This is their fifth year homeschooling, each day being a step of faith. She is a contributor to http://Rubysisters.blogspot.com/.

Last month we learned that we are failing to give our boys a reason to learn. We learned that boys are motivated by honor and that our society has left them without hope. We also learned that one antidote to the problem may be using great literature to motivate our sons to pursue honor. But what books should they read? I recently asked a group of longtime homeschooling mothers, women I highly respect, what books they recommend0.. The following is what I gleaned from raising my own sons and also their suggestions. I have broken the list down into three parts: fiction, poetry, and biographies. With a few additions, this would be a fine list for girls also. But we have seen our girls motivated, more motivated than ever before. It is our boys who are struggling.

Noticeably missing from the list are books I would classify as victorian moralism. The group of women I surveyed almost unanimously agreed that moralism is antithetical to real heart change.

A friend Chris puts it this way, “Moralism looks good on the outside, which makes mothers feel more comfortable with their children: if they look good on the outside, I must be doing things right. It is just another kind of legalism. But in a world out of control and chaotic, one is always willing to sell their liberty for tyranny that will bring order. It’s an old, old story.” Our goal is not to produce self-righteous prigs like our old friend Eustace Scrubbs before he met the dragon in The Voyage of Dawn Treader but rather to motivate our sons by the examples of true heart change whether that heart change is in the real man Stonewall Jackson or the fictional mouse Reepicheep. When we read of these sorts of characters we don’t feel smug and good; we feel challenged and even ashamed.

We question our own motives and behaviors. In the best cases, we repent.

Fiction

1. Men of Iron, Otto of the Silver Hand, others by Howard Pyle
2. The White Company, by Arthur Conan Doyle (Sir Gerhard and Sir Nigel. Not as well-known as his Sherlock Holmes books, but for illustrating honor they cannot be beat.)
3. The 39 Steps etc., by John Buchan (all Richard Hannay books. People often love 39 Steps but don’t realize there are at least 3 sequels. Greenmantle is next followed by our family favorite Mr Standfast.)
4. The Scottish Chiefs, by Jane Porter; In Freedom’s Cause, by G.A. Henty and others dealing with Scottish liberty.
5. Black Fox of Lorne, by Marguerite de Angeli
6. Sugar Creek Gang, by Paul Hutchens (I highly recommend seeking out the originals rather than the updates.)
7. C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, The Space Trilogy, The Screwtape Letters. (Don’t forget The Abolition of Man, by Lewis, that describes in depth our dilemma.)
8. Little Britches series by Ralph Moody “Son, there is no question but what the thing you have done today deserves severe punishment. You might have killed yourself or the horse, but much worse than that, you have injured your own character. A man’s character is like his house. If he tears boards off his house and burns them to keep himself warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin. If he tells lies to be able to do the things he shouldn’t do but wants to, his character will soon become a ruin. A man with a ruined character is a shame on the face of the earth.” That is just a small taste of the riches available to your sons in Ralph Moody’s books.
9. Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling (Kipling is a among the best authors for boys. Try Jungle Book, Just so Stories and Stalky and Co.)
10. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English author unknown), J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings (Don’t miss Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham.)
11. Ivanhoe and others by Walter Scott
12. Redwall series, by Brian Jacques
13. The Princess & Curdie, and others by George MacDonald
14. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
15. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Don’t underestimate the power of this book for boys. They naturally like Mr Darcy.)
16. Rolf and the Viking Bow, by Allen French (French is an author worth searching out.)
17. The Marsh King, by Walter Hodges
18. G.A. Henty (In spite of the fact that Henty is formulaic fiction; he does manage to tell the kind of stories boys love. Some of his books are even good literature. At least read a few Henty’s: The Boy Knight, In Freedom’s Cause, etc.)
19. The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. (This is NOT a feminine series. The hero is Pa. Is there a better book for boys than Farmer Boy?)
20. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

Biographies

1. Man Called Peter, by Catherine Marshall
2. Quiet Strength, by Tony Dungy ( Great book for the athletes in the house.)
3. Endurance Alfred Lansing
4. Childhood of Famous Americans (COFA) books for younger boys (Our favorites are William Penn, Francis Marion, Stonewall Jackson, Lou Gehrig)
5. Leaders in Action series edited by George Grant (Our favorites are Carry a Big Stick (Teddy Roosevelt) and Never Give In (Winston Churchill)
6. Of Courage Undaunted, by James Daughtery
7. Christian biographies such as Borden of Yale, Jim Elliot, Eric Liddell, Hudson Taylor
8. Mornings on Horseback, and other books by David McCullough

Poetry

1. Idylls of the King, by Tennyson
2. If, by Rudyard Kipling
3. Opportunity, by Edward Sill
4. The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Tennyson
5. The Leak in the Dike, by Cary
6. Casabianca, by Hemans
7. The Village Blacksmith, by Tennyson
8. Horatius at the Bridge, by MacCaulay

Cindy Rollins, who resides in Hixson with her husband and children, is a homeschooling mom of nine. Visit her blog at <www.dominionfamily.blogspot.com>. E-mail Cindy at dominionfamily@gmail.com.