Teaching Parents Association - Meeting the Needs of Home Schooling Families

Welcome!

Welcome to the Teaching Parents Association web site.

Homeschooling can be a journey with many twists, turns and never ending questions.  It is our wish to assist you in that venture.  We minister to South Central Kansas homeschool families in various manners.  This site is one of those many channels.  Please take your time to look through all the pages. It is packed with information that we hope is helpful, informative and answers your questions.  The Teaching Parents Association welcomes your input, ideas and communication.  Our greatest goal is to meet our homeschooling families’ needs.  We are a volunteer organization and our hearts are for those families.  We are blessed to have a board comprised of many homeschool veterans which allows us to draw upon years of experience and be a resource to others. 

If you have questions that are not answered through this site please contact us via the information listed on the contact page.

May God bless you and your family in your homeschool journey.

Thomas Paine
Teaching Parents Association
Board President

TPA Lirbrary Closed for the Summer

May 13 will be the LAST DAY this semester that the TPA Library will be open.  We have exciting plans for growth and development over the summer while the library is closed and look forward to seeing you next semester!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
We need several different volunteers for the library, please let us know if you might be interested in one the following ways of helping:
- computer assistants to add new books to our computer system
- a shelving person to shelve the new books
- a Story hour coordinator that would organize a quarterly or monthly or weekly story hour for younger children
- a Bookmaking teacher special event for homeschooled children
- library assistants who would work 1 Wednesday every 2 months during our open hours of noon to 3pm.

Please contact Valory Harrison with inquiries or to volunteer. 

TPA Offers ITBS Testing Each Spring

TPA offered the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) to 1st-12th graders again in 2009.  This is a standardized test which is not required by the government but may prove helpful in assessing a student’s strengths and weaknesses relative to his peers.  The results are for parental use only and are not given to any other entity.

Testing takes a full day (8:30 until around 4:00) and includes Vocabulary, Reading comprehension, Spelling, Capitalization, Punctuation, Usage and Expression, Math Concepts & Problem Solving, Math Computation, Social Studies, Science and (for high school only) Sources of Information.  The test results show where a student falls in national percentiles and grade equivalents for each subject. 

Last names ending in A-L will test on one day and M-Z will be on another.  The testing will run each day from 8:30- 4:00.  Testing will take place at Countryside Christian Church, 1919 S. Rock Road pending availability.  Cost has traditionally been $25 per student.  The registration form can be found on the Teaching Parents Association web site beginning the first of January and is generally due March 1.  Testing takes place the end of March or first of April.  Please direct any questions to