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Proverbs 22:6

Welcome to the Cypress Valley Home Educators Association home page. Whether you're a first-time home schooler seeking information on how to get started, or a veteran looking for resources, we hope you find this site helpful. And be sure to see the "Kid Stuff" section for a peek at some of our local kids' talent!

Be creative with home schooling!

Home School News

The Christian Resource Connection in Marshall sells new and used homeschool curriculum. Call 903-935-0418 for more information.

The Junior Explorers Club for Homeschoolers. A free activity club especially for homeschool children. REGISTER TODAY!
WWW.JUNIOREXPLORERSCLUB.COM

Now you can listen to Home School Heartbeat on the web at www.hslda.org/docs/hshb/. Home School Heartbeat can also be heard on radio stations across the country and is produced by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).

HOMESCHOOL GIRL'S DAY OUT CAMPS
A weekly homeschool day camp for your homeschool girls ages 8 -14. Register Today!

The Pittsburg Bible Book Shoppe, located at 139 Quitman St. in Pittsburg, is now catering to home school needs. Call them at 903-856-3044, or call Christopher Cone at Silverstrings Studio in Longview at 903-295-8850 for more information. Chris can also be reached by e-mail at: chris@silverstringsstudio.com

Shekinah Curriculum Cellar (near the Longview Airport), recently changed its walk-in hours:
Monday-Friday 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. For information call 903-643-2760, or visit www.shekinahcc.com


First-timers	FAQs	Kid Stuff	About Us	Resources

The First-timers section guides those considering home schooling for the first time through different parts of the site that give basic information on how to get started.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) contains answers to many common questions, especially for first-time home schoolers.

Kid-Stuff is our gallery of computer and hand-drawn art, essays, stories and poems produced by local children.

About Us has information about the history of the organization, our goals, and who to contact to for more information.

Resources is a compilation of helpful information for all home schoolers, including legal documentation, a list of curriculum vendors, locally-available literature, and links to other home school organizations.

Thinking about home schooling? Hundreds of thousands of families across America have found that there's "no place like home" for providing a nurturing, effective way to teach their children.

		Consider these facts: It is estimated that in the United States more than 1.2 million children are taught at home. Median standardized test scores are mostly in the 70th to 80th percentile among all the home school students nationwide who took those exams. At least 25 percent of home-schooled students are studying at a level one or more grades above normal for their age. Teacher certification is not important to student success. Average test scores for home-schooled fourth-graders of parents who were never certified as public school teachers is 82 percent -- identical to the scores of students from homes where at least one parent is certified to teach. The median amount of money spent in 1997 on educational materials for home school students was about $400.
(Data from "Home Schooling Works," a 1998 Home School Legal Defense Association-funded study of 11,930 home schooling families.) For more detailed statistics, see http://nche.hslda.org/docs/study/rudner1999/default.asp

Basic Issues
The decision to educate your child at home is one of the most important you will ever make. As a Christian organization, CVHEA suggests that the decision to home school be a prayerful one. The most successful home educators have religious or philosophical reasons for choosing to teach their children at home and a commitment to keep going when the challenges become many.

Many times, parents choose to teach their children from the very beginning of their educational career. But in some cases, the child's needs are not being met in a traditional educational setting, and parents choose to remove their children from public or private school to provide more focused one-one-one learning to meet individual needs. However, if a desire to remove one's child from public school is based on a particular problem, we recommend exploring ways to correct the problem with the personnel involved before making a decision to teach at home. If you decide to proceed to remove your child from public school, we recommend, if possible, waiting until the end of the school year, or at least the end of a grading period.

Steps to Getting Started

Discuss the possibility of home schooling with your spouse. Successful home schooling depends on a partnership between husband and wife in a two-parent home. Especially in the case of an older child who is enrolled in public school, discuss with them the possibility of teaching at home.

Order your curriculum materials, have your textbooks on hand, and have a plan before proceeding to teach or to remove your child from a public or private school.

Contact a Cypress Valley Home Educators Association representative for more information. We do not sanction, license or otherwise have any authority over home schoolers.

Investigate Texas home school laws and state requirements.

Consider joining a state or national home school organization.

Check our FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page to find answers to common questions.

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