IF YOU GOWhat: Education Expo and Homeschool Curriculum FairWhen: 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. SaturdayWhere: Camp Jordan Arena in East RidgeCost: $4 family admission for THEA Members and $8 family admission for nonmembersMore information: Go to csthea.org.
More than 1,400 families are expected to squeeze into the Camp Jordan Arena this weekend to shop for school curriculum and get schooled in home schooling.
The 30th annual Education Expo and Homeschool Curriculum Fair, sponsored by the Chattanooga Southeast Tennessee Home Education Association, is one of the few gauges of the number of home-school families in the region.
Parents can home-school their children through the school system or through church schools. As a result, there is no official count of home-school children in the area, said Jan Bontekoe, a home-school mother of seven and organizer of the expo.
“We have seen an increased interest,” Bontekoe said. “There are lots of young families coming in. I would guess that some of the young families who would have, in the past, explored private schools are now looking to home education.”