We welcome you to our chapter web site!
STACEY GRIFFITH – TEAM DIRECTOR
Our homeschool journey began in Fall 2019, and we quickly learned how important it would be to surround our children with Catholic community and culture. With a background in business administration, financial and compliance audits, I felt out of my element teaching children. That year, a friend told me about Catholic Schoolhouse.
As soon as I was able to learn more, I knew this program was exactly what I wanted for our family and began laying the groundwork for a new local chapter to open Fall 2020.
Together with my husband George, we have seven children ages 1 to 15, and we have all been so blessed by the love and support in our CSH community! We cherish the friendships we have developed with other families who are passionate about serving the Lord.
What we love best about Catholic Schoolhouse:
- A positive peer group for our children, and community for the whole family
- The opportunity for children to learn from other instructors
- Our faith is fully integrated throughout the curriculum
- Curriculum unites around one common historical theme, helping to build connections and critical thinking
- Everyone studies the same topics at the same time, facilitating family discussions and streamlining Mom’s efforts
- Hands-on art and science take some pressure off the at-home teacher
- Upper Level (middle and high school) curriculum encourages analysis and effective communication; builds connections across the curriculum; does not shy away from difficult issues, but presents them in context with the truths of our faith
- Involvement and support from CSH leadership and the entire national community
AMANDA BARTLETT – SUPPLY COORDINATOR
“Fine! I get what you’re doing, stop yelling it at me!” I am mostly a decisive person. I always make decisions quickly and without hesitation. Very rarely do I take an extended amount of time to decide on anything big or small. Unless it’s what I want to eat at any given moment (Just in case my husband reads this).
There have been few moments in my life when I have been praying for an answer to a big question. A life altering question that would change the trajectory of my family’s life forever and affect every decision from there on out. At the time I was making this decision, I had 3 children and was pregnant with my fourth. My husband was currently on a 6 month deployment with the Navy. My oldest was about to be 5 and I’m pretty sure I purposely missed the deadline for kindergarten registration. I couldn’t imagine sending her off to school all day to be with a room full of strangers. She was such a happy, well behaved, and adventurous silly girl. It nearly broke me in two just thinking about it. But why did it nearly break me in two? I kept thinking this is what all parents go through, it’s supposed to be difficult! It’s normal to not want to be away from them for such a long time, right? Why was I struggling with this? Was I just being dramatic? Did other moms feel like I felt? Did they just “suck it up” and deal with it? Do I send them to public school or private school? Do I pack them lunch everyday? Do I take them and pick them up or will they ride the bus? It was all too much. Well to get to the point, I prayed more in a 2 week period in the summer of 2012 than I had prayed in a long time.
One Friday evening I was out to dinner with my kids and happened to run into my childhood school bus driver, Bob and his wife. She also worked for the school district, but both were retired now and spending time with their grandkids. I talked to them briefly but in that short 1 minute conversation, he flat out told me to homeschool my kids and his wife chimed in, in agreement. In this moment I thought to myself that the comment was a little weird and the whole situation was so random. He, in a conversation of “how are you, what have you been up to?” suddenly became very serious and stated it several times. I agreed to think about it because up until this exact moment homeschooling wasn’t even a thought I had possessed.
I went home that evening, put the kids to bed, and thought about homeschooling for a grand total of 2 seconds. I did however pray to God asking what I should do about feeling so distraught over sending my daughter to school. I pleaded, “Just tell me what to do. I never ask for anything and I trust that your will, will be done.” I got nothing.
I woke up that Saturday morning still dreading my decision. I went grocery shopping with the kids and ran into my aunt who I hadn’t seen in a few months. She said she missed me, and I should bring the kids by soon to play. Then as she was about to leave she turned and asked me if I was planning on homeschooling my kids. I said I have no idea what I’m going to do, to which she replied that I was more than capable. I did however think to myself that I was kind of irritated that two people mentioned it in less than a 24 hour period.
Again, it was a little weird, completely random, off the wall, out of the blue statements. I made a mental note that maybe I would put more than 2 seconds of thought into researching homeschooling but only after I put the kids to bed tonight. Well suffice it to say I did not google a thing about homeschooling. I did pray again though. The same as before. And still nothing.
Come Sunday, I got the kids ready and went to Divine Liturgy per our usual Sunday routine. I spoke with a mother there whom I was close with. We talked about our summer plans, camping trips, hikes- the usual activities one talks about with a friend. One of my children started haphazardly making her way down the church steps so I turned to make my way towards her when my friend said, “We should talk about homeschooling.” By this time, I had made it to my 18 month old trying to now roll down the curved, steep, brick stairs. I reached out for her wrist, gripped it and froze in place. It took me almost 10 seconds to turn around and look at my friend. The next words that come out of my mouth were “Fine! I get what you’re doing, stop yelling it at me!” As I looked up at the sky and threw my free hand in the air shaking it at Him. She thought it was directed at her but what she didn’t know is in that 10 second pause, I finally came to understand that through Bob and his wife, my aunt, and now my close friend, while standing outside of the church on a Sunday, that God was answering my prayers. I had been choosing not to pay attention, so God made sure to get his point across.
We have been homeschooling since that moment in 2012 on those church steps. My 5 year old daughter is now about to be 18 in her senior year of high school. She is still a happy, well behaved, and an adventurous silly girl. So when my sister in law Stacey Griffith, our Catholic Schoolhouse Director, called me and said, “I have an idea,” I didn’t even let her finish her sentence and replied with “I’m all in.” We joined our local Catholic Schoolhouse chapter as one of the original families in 2020 and I can honestly, without hesitation, say for our family it has been the most fulfilling thing that we do homeschool wise. The people Catholic Schoolhouse has brought us, the lifelong friends my kids have and the friends my husband and I continue to make, is one of the greatest blessings in our lives. I no longer yell at people, “Fine! I get what you’re doing, stop yelling it at me!” And I try to listen and learn what the Lord wants from me.
ELIZABETH MADSEN – PROGRAM COORDINATOR
I am a homeschooling mother of five kids ranging from 0 to 12 years old. Our family lives on Whidbey Island and enjoys learning at home and in our life together. I attended the University of Washington for undergraduate degrees in History and Political Science where I met my husband. Before schooling our kids, I worked at the Archdiocese of Seattle for 5 years and went on to run my own small business teaching Creighton Model FertilityCare System to women and couples. At Catholic Schoolhouse you’ll find me shuffling people around in the mornings finding the best spots for our volunteers and making sure every classroom has what it needs to run. I enjoy being part of this community and enjoy sharing my gifts, but I receive much more than I contribute.
CARRIE APPLE – FACILITY COORDINATOR
I am a homeschooling parent of four kids ranging from 13 to 22 years old. We are a family with biological and adopted kids soaking up as much quality time together as we can, learning, playing, serving, and sharing the things that we love. The two oldest (who were homeschooled K-8) have launched out of the house and are working full time. We currently have two 8th graders homeschooling and living at home. I homeschool full-time and work part-time as a remote cued language transliterator, mentor and tutor. My husband, Jude, is the manager of the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and is passionate about science, research and science education.
Education:
- Bachelor of Arts in Human Services – WWU
- Transliteration Skills Certificate (cued language transliterator for the deaf/hard-of-hearing)
Favorite homeschool resources & things: Our Catholic Schoolhouse community!; cooperating and networking with other homeschoolers; getting to go to daily Mass and an adoration hour together each week; the Anacortes Community Forest Lands (hiking, swimming, mountain biking, rock climbing); having time built-in for real and regular community service; Barton Reading and Spelling System; Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW); Homeschool Potpourri Consignment in Kirkland; homeschool science fair; homeschool public speaking classes; read-alouds; Padilla Bay Research Reserve; schooling over tea and slippers or on picnic blankets; sports (Parks & Rec); doing science in the kitchen, gardening. . .
CLAIRE PEREA – COMMUNITY COORDINATOR
I am a mother to three outgoing and inquisitive children, ranging in age from 1 to 7 and a wife to my husband, Thomas. We moved to Anacortes in 2019 after living in Louisiana for our entire lives so that we could have better access to everything outside that the PNW has to offer.
Our family joined CSH in 2022, and joining this community has turned out to be such a blessing for us! When we joined, our oldest was 4 years old. I was freshly coming out of a yearlong struggle with postpartum depression and my biggest goal with to provide some structure to my routine as a stay-at-home mom and hopefully make a few friends, too! With zero intentions on homeschooling, I was excited for my son to have a little bit of classroom practice before starting kindergarten. As a former educator, I was thrilled to have the chance to be in a classroom again and (hopefully) make a few Catholic friends. After that first year, my son went on to start kindergarten and then first grade at a local public school, while I continued to volunteer at CSH with my younger two children. About halfway through our third year at CSH, I started to really struggle with the fact that my oldest was always somewhere else, being taught and influenced by other families. It was around this time that my husband also started mentioning he could see the benefits of homeschooling for our family. It wasn’t long before we decided to totally change everything and become a real homeschooling family.
In just three short years, I’ve gone from volunteering as an assistant class leader to now being both a class leader and Community Coordinator, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for our family at CSH. I’m grateful for this amazing community of Catholic families that have become great friends for my family. Joining CSH has quite literally changed our lives for the better!
STELLA BROWN – ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR
In the year 1999, a month shy of my 25th birthday, I embarked on a journey halfway across the world to the US from the Philippines. I arrived in Los Angeles where I worked as a caregiver for a few months, then obtained a position in bookkeeping (Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable,) with some customer service tasks mixed in; and I worked these concurrently with the caregiving.
By 2006, I met my future husband, Chris Brown through Catholicmatch.com (a good friend gifted me a subscription and did not leave my apartment till I made an account!) A year before that, I had prayed a Novena to the Holy Spirit to find a spouse, and “coincidentally” in WA state, Chris was also inspired to pray a Divine Mercy Novena for the same intention. By 2008, we were married and moved to Washington state – to this day Chris says he “rescued me from LA.” Five years later, we were counting our many blessings as a family of 7.
Our CSH journey began in 2021, when we attended the 2nd year our Chapter was established. We were not able to attend the year before due to my health issues and some financial factors. With encouragement from my sister-in-law who was already a CSH member, and seeing pictures and hearing of the beautiful experience she was having, we jumped at the opportunity to register all but the oldest of our children. Since then, we have never looked back and are happy members of the Anacortes Chapter. Tuesday (Chapter Day) is the only day that our kids are actually excited to wake up for school! They enjoy their studies, have met friends for life, love their teachers and of course always look forward to field trips.
Through the Chapter, we were also connected with people who taught our children music lessons and gave them opportunities to expand their public speaking skills. Our three girls love CSH memory work. They sing them all the time (sometimes in an obnoxiously funny way!). In fact, as a result of the singing/memorizing, all three of them became super scholars, have earned the triple crown award and are even hoping to have the double-triple crown. We remind them that while we are proud of their accomplishments, it’s more important for them to strive to be super scholars in virtues.
For my educational background, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management. After graduation, I worked as a bookkeeper as my first job, which I love, as I find it exciting and very satisfying. So when Stacey, our Chapter Director, tapped me to assist her with the Finances, I of course said yes right away. Then, after a year, she asked me to be part of the Coordinator Team, about which I admit I was hesitant since I struggle with my confidence. But with Stacey’s encouragement, I accepted the role and this will now be my 3rd year in the role!
Homeschooling for me is extremely rewarding and a great blessing, however, it is also very challenging and intimidating; especially since I attended a more traditional school in the Philippines. There are still times that I feel like giving up, but know in my heart, this is the best path for my family. By the grace of God, this will be my 10th year of homeschooling!