Dear Home School Family,

          Thank you for your interest in The Home School Connection. We are a group of families that enjoy working with our kids to inspire them to love God, love learning and love other people. 

The underlying foundation is the thought that the most important thing we can do in home schooling our kids is to expose them to Jesus as much as possible. We want to surround our kids with wise people (those seriously pursuing relationship with Him.) With this in mind, Family School is a time for parents to be with their children and guide them through social interactions and classroom situations.  Even relationships with people who go to church and love Jesus will benefit by a loving parent’s guidance. Therefore this is not a drop-off situation.

We have 3 quarters of Tuesday classes, each 8 weeks long, with breaks between quarters for holidays, spring break and summer. These are offered at Evergreen Christian Center, on the corner of Evergreen Pkwy. and Glencoe Road in Hillsboro.   A typical quarter starts with a kick-off meeting where we can begin to get acquainted with each other.  Then there are 6 classes from 10:00am to 2:45pm.  We have chapel and a sack lunch break in the middle of the day.  Sometime near the end of each term we take our talents and homemade cookies to a retirement home to bless the residents there.  The quarter ends with the "Home School Review" - a program where the kids present what they have done in class for their dads, grandparents and other loved ones. 

In the spring we end the school year with an Outdoor School at Nehalem Bay campground. Families stay in yurts, RVs or Tents.  It is a blast – we learn some things about creation, play together, do crafts, and have daily devotionals around a campfire.  Many dads take vacation time in order to experience this with their family.  This annual event has two sessions to choose from in mid June.  Sessions A is Friday - Monday, with simple activities families can do together and lots of time to rest and recuperate from a busy school year.  Sessions B directly follow Monday - Thursday and has lots of creative activities for families to participate in.

In the fall of 2004 we launched Connect High, which provides core curriculum, credit based classes for high schoolers.  This structure provides the strong support needed for the unique needs of high school students. These classes run for three 12-week trimesters and are taught by wonderful, inspiring teachers.

The first step to getting involved is to register for orientation.  There you will be able to see a description of the volunteer jobs required of each family, get a sense of our philosophy, and begin to meet some of the neat families that are involved. Quarterly dues are $50.00 + per family (dependent upon how many children participate), payable to the Home School Connection.

For Family School, Danell Macy 503-372-9469

For Connect High, Megan Nixon 503-640-6455