Welcome to the Official site for the Perry County Homeschoolers
We are a Christian, non-profit, volunteer ministry committed to giving information, guidance, support and encouragement to homeschooling families in Perry County and surrounding counties. We believe God, in His Word, has given parents the authority and responsibility to educate their children in a godly manner. We seek to nurture each parent and child within the group and without. While we do not require that members be Christians, members should be respectful of our Christian Beliefs.
Homeschooling is a great way to teach your children while instilling them with morals and family values.
Support Group Policies:
- Membership dues are currently prorated to $15.00 per family. This fee will give you membership in PCHS from now through August 31, 2025.
- A Mandatory meeting is generally held in June to plan the upcoming school year and collect dues.
- Members are expected to participate in at least one activity by volunteering to coordinate or serve in an event or activity. New Members receive a one year grace from service.
We encourage you to become a member to receive the full benefits of the group. Feel free to contact us at pchomeschoolers@gmail.com for more information.
If you would like to join, please click on the picture below.
Let PCHS Help You Make the World Your Classroom
Overview of PA Homeschool Law
August
The following is a snapshot of our August calendar when classes and activities start up again. Members have access to the full calendar including details and sign-ups.
September
The following is a snapshot of our September calendar. Members have access to the full calendar including details and sign-ups.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com
It wasn't until compulsory education became widespread that “homeschooling” became the unusual option.
But IS keeping children home from school actually unusual or unnatural? Is homeschooling a radical new experiment . . . or would that be public schooling?
From time immemorial most children were taught at home. They learned trades and skills from their parents as they lived and worked alongside them, but they also learned so much more: “Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching” (Proverbs 1:8, ESV). Parents were expected to train up their children with all the knowledge they themselves possessed—from moral and religious training to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Sometimes they hired tutors to help with difficult subjects, but the parents ultimately took full charge of their own children's education.
Homeschooling has been happening longer—
much longer—than compulsory education introduced in the 1800s.
Any online search for “famous homeschoolers” will bring such names as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Mozart, Florence Nightingale, Booker T. Washington, and many more.
That quick tour of history reveals that parents have been educating their children right at home throughout the ages, and doing so very successfully.
Kids learned at home as did the majority of others since the beginning of time when God instituted family with parents as natural teachers. Knowing home education is no trend or fad, but rather an enduring practice, makes public school, which has only been around for a fraction of history, sadly resemble an experiment.
So, is educating and training up (discipling) children at home really odd after all, or could it be that removing them from parents and home for the majority of their days by sending them away to learn (and be discipled) is what's really unnatural?
Because every student is discipled by someone. Shouldn't it be you?
Homeschooling can be challenging. It can be expensive, time-consuming, and confusing to choose classes and curricula for multiple students. We are writing to tell you that your Homeschool Organization has partnered with SchoolhouseTeachers.com which will provide all the courses you need for homeschooling each of your preschool through graduating 12th-grade students at the discounted annual price of $189 (you save $80). With hundreds of online courses, lesson plans, quizzes, tests, answer keys, certificates of completion, and streaming videos, your annual SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership will ensure you have a full-spectrum, non-Common Core curriculum platform to confidently educate your children at home.
Membership is good for your whole family—including grandparents—no matter how many children you have. Because everything is included online, there is no need to buy textbooks. PLUS, there are no per class, no per child, nor any other hidden fees. You can also generate quarterly report cards for each student and access help with transcript creation for your high schoolers. The regular price is $267.97, but by using the join button below, you'll save over $80 and pay a total of only $189 for the year. By the way . . . see the print magazines above? You'll receive a print subscription to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, with a fresh issue delivered each quarter as long as you remain a member.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com contains nearly every subject imaginable—art history, drawing, computer technology, foreign languages, history, language arts, math, music, science, and loads of electives. Let your kids help pick out their own courses!
Please sign up today for your family's membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com by clicking the red JOIN button above. You will save over $90 off retail.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40, ESV)
TOS Magazine
Get the premier trade publication for the homeschooling community delivered right to your home. Released quarterly in beautiful glossy print, each issue is packed full of advice, resources, and encouragement. Our enhanced magazine format includes BONUS digital content, which means MORE reading material for you than ever before!
PCHS Quarterly Collection Drives
Got Donations?
Clean out your unwanted/outgrown clothing, housewares, toys, and games all while helping PCHS at the same time!
PCHS has joined a virtual partnership with Community Aid. Although we no longer have a physical donation bin, we will be collecting donations which will be purchased by Community Aid to benefit our support group on a quarterly basis!
These drives will occur the first Friday of March, June, September, and December. These dates usually line up with our monthly gym classes or yearly book sale, so the drives will therefore be conducted at those locations. I can even arrange a pickup of your donations if needed! Or if you will be seeing Janel Martin or Diamond Hile at a function within the two weeks prior to the drive date, you may give your donations directly to them.
A few things to note:
- Please continue to keep your clothing and your shoes bagged/boxed separately from each other and other items (i.e. please don't give us boxes of a complete mishmash of items). Clothing together with other clothing, shoes together with other shoes, and the household/toys/games in their own boxes/bags.
- Several things we cannot accept: NO BOOKS, NO FURNITURE, NO ELECTRONICS, NO LARGE OUTDOOR TOYS (bikes,etc)
- Please pack any glass items (dishes,vases, etc) very carefully. We do not want to risk having a shattered mess.
- If you find you will have more than a bag or two to donate, please contact me before the drive to give me a heads up. Another family in our group has offered the use of her vehicle if we have more than my van can hold, but we would like to plan accordingly.
Do you suddenly have a large amount of donations to get rid of, or did your children all simultaneously grow out of their clothes in between scheduled drive dates? If a drive is not scheduled to occur soon, contact me directly at pchomeschoolers@gmail.com and I can coordinate a time and place to get your donations.
Support PCHS with the BoxTops4Education Program
Support PCHS with your normal grocery shopping!
If you already have a boxtops account, you can now change the school group you are supporting to PCHS.
If you are new to boxtops, you can choose to support PCHS right away, but first contact me to ask for a referral code. Each time someone new signs up for the boxtops app, PCHS gets a bonus if you use the referral code I can send you.
Click the photo below to email PCHS and request a referral code so you can signup and help support our group.
HSLDA
We recommend that homeschooling families join HSLDA.
Even if you never experience legal trouble yourself, your HSLDA membership will help enable other homeschooling families to get the legal help they need and will help defend our right to homeschool here in central PA.
Membership in HSLDA also gives you personal access to the legal staff; HSLDA's experienced high school, special needs, and Toddlers to Tweens consultants; and discounts through HSLDA's PerX program.
PCHS members SAVE $15 on the HSLDA membership price when you enter our Discount Group code on the HSLDA membership form!