Thank you to the IAHE Board of Directors!

As we wrap up the Volunteer Spotlight blog series for 2013, today we acknowledge and say Thank You to the three couples that serve as the heart of the IAHE. Without their willingness to dedicate long hours, the IAHE wouldn't exist today.

Their tireless dedication to our organization and to home educators across the state of Indiana is a fine example of servant-hearted leadership.

"I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you…"

Romans 1:8

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Steve & Penny Taylor reside near Stilesville, Indiana (Putnam County).  Steve serves as President of the IAHE.  Steve and Penny are the parents of nine children, ranging in age from 14 to 31 years of age, and have homeschooled for almost 27 years.  They served as Regional Reps for ten years prior to joining the Board.  Their family is active in 4-H with archery, shooting sports, and livestock projects.  With some children now married, they have begun a new season of life - that of being grandparents - and passing the baton to the next generation of home educators.  

Phil & Debi Ketron reside in Guilford, Indiana (Dearborn County).  Phil serves as Vice President and Secretary of the IAHE. They served as IAHE Region 8 Representatives for four years before joining the Board of Directors.  They homeschooled for 21 years, and their four children are homeschool graduates.  The three oldest have earned college degrees, one of which is a CPA, and their youngest child is currently in college.  The Ketrons had been involved in homeschool leadership in southeastern Indiana for many years.  They hope to be a blessing to the families of Indiana through their service at the IAHE.  

Frank & Jackie Franks reside in Pendleton, Indiana (Madison County) on their 80 acre farm. Frank serves as Treasurer of the IAHE. They have home educated and graduated their children Caleb, Rebecca, and John-Paul. Another daughter Amy lives in Austin, TX, with her husband and three sons. Seeing the faults of how they lived their early lives, they decided to, with God's help, raise adults committed to Christ. They felt the best way to do this was to intentionally homeschool and disciple. Without discipleship, they feel that the results of home education will be no better or worse than any other form of education. 

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Thank to the local Support Group and Co-op Leaders!!!

If you are a part of a local support group, then you already know that we have dedicated and giving parents in our home education community. Throughout Indiana, we have hundreds of support groups and co-ops. The foundation of each of these organizations is built upon the willingness of servant-hearted individuals that step up as leaders.

Without them, our homeschooling lives wouldn't be the same.

Have you been a part of a homeschool group?

A co-op?

A homeschool dance?

A spelling bee?

A homeschool sport?

The people behind the scenes with each of these activities, and so many others like them are, dedicate hours out of their week to enrich the lives of the families around them.

Do you have a special leader that you would like to thank? Leave us a comment below and let us know how much you appreciate them.

Another round of Thank You's for our Convention Volunteers!

In continuation of our November blog series, we would like to thank another batch of our wonderful volunteers for the 2013 IAHE Home Educators' Convention. Each of these people helped make our convention a success! 

Linda Owens

Salem Stegemiller

Jeff Cannaday

Aubrey Cannaday

Caitlin Cooper

Petrie Smith

Mariah Taylor

Gallory Taylor

Braeden Taylor

Declan Taylor

Bob Huffman

Melissa Huffman

Jennifer Smith

Don Smith

Lisa Thyr

Irene Silva

Aleisha Whitesell

Ashley Whitesell

Andrea Whitesell

Austin Whitesell

Gabe Smith

Miriam Smith

Phillip Balke  

Peter  Balke  

Daniel Balke

Mary Howard

Zeke Williams

Lydia Abbott 

Jeff Thomas
Deb Koval

Thank you to our Social Media Team volunteers!

The IAHE is grateful to the members of our social media team!


Each of these people help the IAHE share information about special events and much more. We have bloggers, Facebook followers, and Twitter users. They help us reach out to homeschool families across the state that may not know about all that the IAHE has to offer. Thank you!

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Tara Bentley

Tara has been married to husband Mark for almost 25 years and they have two lovely daughters. Their homeschooling years began when the oldest was finishing sixth grade. Thirteen years later, that same daughter has gone on to graduate college and get married. Their youngest daughter is a senior in high school. Tara blogs about homeschooling, Christian fiction and more. Mark and Tara also serve as Regional Representatives for the IAHE and Tara serves as the Managing Editor for The Informer magazine. 

Blog: www.theblondemotherbear.com

Twitter: @TaraLynnBy

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/tarabentley/

Annette Breedlove

Annette has been married to her husband and best friend for 10 years. Together they are raising their four children to follow the Lord’s will, no matter what. Annette longs for the day when she will meet her 5 angel babies who have entered heaven before her. She enjoys creating UNIT STUDIES with FREE PRINTABLES and she gets her scrapbooking fix in by making Subway Art for herself and her readers. Annette blogs about homeschooling, gluten- and grain-free recipes, homemaking, the occasional DIY projects and maintaining her sanity.

Blog: http://www.inallyoudo.net

Twitter: http://twitter.com/InAllYouDoMommi

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/abreedlove

Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AnnetteInAllYouDoMommi/posts

Hillary Moore

Hillary has been married to her best friend for 13 years. They are raising their six children on their small homestead in the hills of south-central Indiana. Homeschooling as a lifestyle, they center their lives around the Lord and home. Hillary enjoys cooking, reading, photography and learning alongside her children. She can be found blogging about these things at Our Homeschool Studio.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OurHomeschoolStudio

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OurHmSchlStudio

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/hillarym1/

Blog: http://www.ourhomeschoolstudio.com

Google+: http://google.com/+HillaryMoore

Instagram: http://instagram.com/ourhmschlstudio

Shalynne Addison

Shalynne has been married for 8 years, has three children, and a stepchild. She lives in the cornfields of Northwestern Indiana where she spends her days taking care of her home & husband, writing, and teaching her kiddos. She is a blogger and soon to be doula in training.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderfullychaotic 

Twitter: @mrsaddison

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/mrsaddison

Blog: www.wonderfullychaotic.com

Cheryl Long (aka Long Household)

Cheryl and her hero-husband Terry celebrated their 25th anniversary last December. They have 11 children; 10 biological and a precious little girl who joined their family this past summer, along with three grandbabies, so far. They are training up a Godly generation on 15 beautiful acres in Jackson County. Though neither Cheryl nor her husband have any musical talent, their offspring have been gifted with beautiful voices and play multiple instruments. They have a singing ministry and the three older girls give private music lessons. Along with the three "Long Academy" grads, seven students remain in the home. Cheryl has been teaching phonics for 15 years and believes by the time all is said and done, she may earn a degree. ;) When not schooling, gardening, or keeping up with her large brood, Cheryl enjoys blogging at Treasures from a Shoebox. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/long.household.1

Blog: http://treasuresfromashoebox.blogspot.com

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/mytreasures

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CherylAnnLong

Tawnee Hinton 

Tawnee and her husband live with their four children in Central Indiana. Tawnee is a Support Manager for Classical Conversations and an officer in the US Navy Reserve. She has been a copy editor for The Informer for a year and blogs about her family’s homeschooling adventures at Adventures in Homeschooling. You can find it at www.adventuresinhomeschooling.com.

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You don't have to be a blogger to be a part of our social media team!

Some of our volunteers help us spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more. We are grateful to the following individuals for everything they do to support the IAHE!

Shawn King

Cameron Mayhill

Bryan Hart

Jason Bean
Carol Carpenter
Tess Worrell

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Facebook Party Winners!

We had a great time last night at our Facebook party with Andrew Pudewa. Andrew is the founder and director for the Institute for Excellence in Writing and will be one of our featured speakers for the 2014 IAHE Home Educators' Convention.

Here are a couple of the questions that Andrew helped answer for our guests. Visit our Facebook page for more.

Kristy asks: Andrew, how much should we direct our child's writing? I feel there has to be a balance between modeling good writing and allowing the student to discover on their own. Thoughts? 

Mr. Pudewa's reply: Never withhold help; try not to meddle. Read out loud to children of all ages--that's the best way for them to "discover" what works--by imitating the great writers.

 Mary asked - Any fun ideas for an eager first grader who wants to learn to get her imagination on paper?

Andrew Pudewa She can dictate her stories to you, and you can write for her, then let her copy them. If that's easy, then only write down the Key Words from her statements, and be the "outline secretary". Then give her the outline of her story, and let her try to write them into sentences--help her as much as needed. 

Question: If you have an older student, what is the one thing you would make time for in that last busy year to teach them?Andrew Pudewa's response: That's easy. Latin. Hands down the most valuable thing you can do to improve vocabulary, grammar, careful thinking, mental discipline. Latin. Latin. Definitely Latin.

Door Prize Winners

We gave away six sets of (3) MP3 files of IEW workshops, winner’s choice! There are over 75 workshops to choose from on the IEW website.

• MP3 Winners - Jennifer Smith, Kelly Cox, Victoria G, Cheryl Long, Greg Villaroman, Alison Slatter

We also gave away three $25 Gift Certificates from Institute for Excellence in Writing. 

• Gift Certificate Winners - Annie Peterson, Melissa Huffman and Lisa Pieper

Our Grand Prize winner will be given their choice of either: {1} set of Primary Arts of Language  ($158 value) or {1} Teaching Writing: Structure and Style ($169 value).

• Grand Prize Winner - Tiffany Gee

Everyone that entered to win during the party will receive an email from IEW with a link for their free downloads. 

Thank you to IEW for a great party!

Purchase Creation Museum Discount Tickets!

Bring the whole family to the Creation Museum!

"The state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in familiar settings. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers. The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Majestic murals, great masterpieces brimming with pulsating colors and details, provide a backdrop for many of the settings."

Purchase your museum tickets online using the IAHE discount code, and you'll save up to $10 per ticket while supporting the IAHE.

Thank You to the IAHE Legislative Team!

Although the Indiana General Assembly only meets three or four months of the year. The IAHE Legislative Team works year round.  2014 will be a short session of ten intense weeks from January to mid-March.

The IAHE legislative team monitors committee meetings during the session in addition to State Board of Education meetings, and summer study committee meetings.  They follow up on issues and prepare for possible issues that may arise during the session.  They build relationships with elected officials.

The committee evaluates approximately 2,000 bills that are introduced each session and monitors their progress.  They testify at hearings and are available to legislators, the press, and other media outlets that have questions or desire an interview about home education in Indiana. 

The Legislative Director, Sandra Frazer, moderates the IAHE legislative panel at the IAHE Convention, oversees the IAHE Legislative Day Reception at the Statehouse, and is the “point person” for the team.

New this year we have a Legislative Intern.  Jake Hibbitt is a homeschool high school senior.  In addition to helping out with reading bills, meeting with legislators, etc., he has a major role in implementing IAHE's Legislative Day Dessert Reception in February.

IAHE would like to thank the following volunteers on our Legislative Team:  Micah Clark, Frank Franks, Sandra Frazer, Jake Hibbitt, Debi Ketron, Cindy Noe, Alison Slatter, Camille Cantwell, and Tyler White.