Fort Cavazos homeschool fair showcases resources for families

FORT CAVAZOS, Texas - The Fort Cavazos School Liaison Office hosted the Homeschool Resource Fair Friday at Bronco Youth Center.

Homeschool has become a major entity within the military community to adequately support the educational goals of military children. According to the BlueStar Families 2022 "Military Families Lifestyle Survey," 12% of military families homeschool their children. The liaison office wants to make sure the families have as many resources as possible within the area.

"The homeschool resource fair is designed to provide information for families in the local area who are homeschooling, and some of the entities are going to be here from the installation, DOD (Department of Defense) entities and then we also reach out to the community," said Kristine Caparco, school liaison officer for Child and Youth Services. "That way, families can have information in the full local area and not just on the installation."

The liaison office hosts the fair twice a year, once in the fall and again in the spring. There were 18 different organizations represented at the fair, including Tutor.com, the New Horizon School of Music, Mathnasium and the University of Texas at Austin. The school liaison officer was able to give a snapshot of the available resources which is part of their overall goal.

"Our goal in the School Liaison Office is to make it easier for the families and have one spot for them to be able to have resources and support if needed," Caparco said. "We do have a homeschool resource packet that has information about the laws, the TEA (Texas Education Agency) regulations for homeschooling in the state of Texas, ... a plethora of resources for curriculum, extracurricular activities and ways for them to come together."

Sanderlin George, an Army spouse, and her children have completed their first year of homeschooling. She said the School Liaison Office was helpful in giving her the information she needed to be successful. George added the resource fair is a
great resource.

"I love it because it gives more things that are actually here - local - that I can go to, and the kids can participate and be with other homeschoolers," she said. "I like that we can come to these and actually find resources here."

Many organizations from the Fort Cavazos community showed up to the event to present what resources were available on post for homeschoolers, such as Behavioral Health services and the Exceptional Family Member Program. The Directorate of Public Works Environmental has an educational outreach program through their Adaptive and Integrative Management Team where they encourage Soldiers and their families to get involved with the environment and to show them the natural resources on the installation and across Texas.

"If you're a school group, or if a bunch of homeschool groups get together, they can schedule an event where they can have access to the education center," said Lindsy Butler Hardy, pollinator biologist and field technician with the AIM Team. "It's an educational walkthrough of different facets. So it shows kids about forestry work and control, burning efforts that they do on base, some grassland bird education and also life cycle stuff."

Hardy believes the educational events the team hosts fit well into a biology or natural science component of a homeschooled child's curriculum.

"If you're able to join us on one of our educational events, you can have somebody else who's not a parent, but somebody who kind of lives and breathes that type of work, as you know, the educational educator for the day," Hardy said.

For more information on homeschool resources within the Fort Cavazos and surrounding community, reach out to the School Liaison Office, Room 101, Shoemaker Center, Bldg. 36000, or call 254-288-7946.

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