Homeschool co-op holds resource fair in Copperas Cove

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Christian Homeschool Educators’ Support System (CHESS) held a resource fair at Robertson Avenue Baptist Church last Friday morning, featuring more than a dozen vendors.

CHESS is a homeschool co-op based in Copperas Cove that provides co-op classes on Tuesdays and Fridays for eight to 10 weeks each semester in the Fall and Spring. They also offer parents’ nights once a month, field trips, prom and graduation ceremonies in addition to other activities.

The CHESS Resource Fair featured several vendors who provide services such as tutoring or activities or other resources for homeschooling families, both within the CHESS co-op and outside of the co-op.

“We have a bunch of resources that are in the community that homeschoolers like to participate in,” said CHESS secretary Brittany Laver.

Some of the vendors at the Resource Fair included Educational Outfitters, Girl Scouts Central Texas, American Heritage Girls, a Norwex consultant, the Copperas Cove Public Library, Coryell County 4-H, Homeschool House (of Belton), New Horizon Music Studio, Elena Shaw (English tutor), Corrie Pennington (tutoring services), Little Forest Adventures and more.

“Much to the surprise of a lot of people, homeschoolers are very socialized,” Laver said. “We plug them into a lot of different activities. We have them doing a lot of different cultural things, and so learning to play instruments is part of that, being part of sports. We have our kids involved as far as the social aspect is concerned, and then we have Co-Op classes, where we teach each other’s students.”

Laver said that the co-op classes are taught by the parents and other community/church members.

“My daughter is super excited because she’s in theatre,” Laver explained. “Theatre isn’t something that we can put on a production at home, but it is something we can do at Co-Op, and so she loves that, and Dissection is not something a lot of people want to do in their home, but it is something we do here in Co-Op.”

This year’s theatre production is called “Not Your Average Joe” and is a retelling of the story of Joseph and his multicolor dream coat set in the 1950s featuring a leather jacket instead. The production will be at Robertson Avenue Baptist Church on November 4.

Laver will be teaching the Dissection class, where students will be dissecting a dogfish shark and other animals.

CHESS meets for its co-op classes at Robertson Avenue Baptist Church, but CHESS treasurer Cheryl Feinberg said that the location is going to have to change sooner than later.

“Unfortunately, because of the boom in homeschooling, we are growing at a very rapid pace, and we are outgrowing our facility, so we are going to be needing a larger facility soon, really soon,” Feinberg said.

“We are extremely blessed and super happy to have Robertson Avenue Baptist hosting us this year, but we also are keeping an eye on the fact that our membership pre-COVID was 48 families per classes, and this semester, it’s 110,” Laver added.

Feinberg said that due to the space constraint, they have had to turn away some families this year.

“It’s definitely a great problem to have,” she added. “I feel blessed that I get to reach out with all these kids and touch their lives in a positive way and help to provide things that they can’t do on their own and that my kids can do those with other homeschoolers and make friends that way and learn from other parents.”

Feinberg has been homeschooling her children for nine years, as has Laver.

Laver said she only found out about the homeschool co-op scene in 2019, though. Feinberg said she also didn’t know that co-ops existed during her first few years of homeschooling.

“I think that that having a co-op is paramount because you can learn from different people. You can find new techniques,” Feinberg said. “Having that that fellowship and that friendship and that reliance of other resources of other moms or dads because we do have dads teaching here too, that’s important.”

Sarah Sherlock attended the resource fair on Friday with her three kids, including her son who is in first grade and her daughter who is in second grade. As a military affiliated family, Sherlock said that she started homeschooling her kids when they were stationed in San Antonio.

Sherlock said she decided to homeschool her children partly due to the constant moving around with the military but also because of how her children learn.

“The main one was my kids learned differently than other kids, and the way they were learning wasn’t the way that school was teaching, which is fine, but I wanted them to excel more,” Sherlock said.

The cost is $35 for an annual membership, plus a fee of $15 to $50 for attendance of the co-op classes, depending on how many days per week. Some of the classes are free, while others, like Dissection, which is a science lab-type class, have additional fees associated with the lab.

Classes offered this year include: Classical Lyrical/Worship dance, children’s theater, health and fitness, fiscal readiness, American Sign Language, CSI, American Girl History, Zoology- reptiles, amphibians and fish, beginner or intermediate sewing, typing skills, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Book Club, Agricultural Literacy, advanced drawing, Fallacy Detective for Middle Schoolers, Chess Club, Card Games, Dissection, Kitchen Fundamentals, Creative Journaling and Scripture Writing, Oceanography, cross-stitching, robotics, Pinterest Science, Exploring Space, The Machinist, Botany, Ribbons/Beads/Headbands and Bows, Spanish, Around the World One Country at a Time, Crash Course: The U.S. Constitution, and Plannering for Adults and Teens.

For more information on CHESS, email at info@chesshomeschoolers.org.