Our role is not to tell families how to homeschool.
It is to help make more possible.
We connect families with educational resources, local groups, instructors, activities, events, and one another. When an opportunity already exists, we want families to be able to find it. When something our homeschool community needs does not exist, we are willing to help create it.
Connecting. Supporting. Creating.
Our Story
Our roots are in the Cullman homeschool community.
Alabama Homeschool Connection began as Cullman Homeschool Connection, created to serve as a central connection point for local homeschool families. CHARGe - the Cullman Homeschool Activities & Resource Group -followed as another way for families to get out of the house, meet one another, explore, learn, and have adventures together. As the community grew, we began doing more than simply sharing information. We started helping create the opportunities families were looking for. That included field trips, homeschool skate days, educational programs, teen activities, dances, Cullman’s first community homeschool prom, and graduation opportunities for homeschool seniors. The philosophy was simple then, and it remains at the heart of what we do today:
If our kids need an opportunity, we don't have to wait for someone else to create it. We can build it together.
Built from the Homeschool Community
The opportunities we create are shaped by families who actually live the homeschool experience.
We know what it is like to search for the right class, wonder where your teenager will find their people, look for activities that fit your family, or realize that a milestone your child wants simply isn't available yet.
That is why our programs grow out of the needs we see within the homeschool community.
We are part of this community ourselves - building the kinds of opportunities we want our own children and families to have.
From Field Trips to Milestones
Alabama Homeschool Connection
Resources, field trips, local groups, family connections, and community opportunities that help homeschool families find support and build real relationships.
Alabama STEAM Academy
Teacher-led classes, enrichment, STEAM, workshops, and hands-on learning designed to inspire curiosity, strengthen skills, and connect learning to the real world.
Teen Scene & Graduation
Teen socials, dances, community experiences, prom, and graduation milestones that give homeschool students meaningful ways to belong, connect, and celebrate.
Meet The Director
This is a little longer than your average bio—but after more than 20 years of homeschooling, teaching, building, and occasionally figuring things out the hard way, apparently I have a few things to say. And if you’re going to trust me with your kids, your time, or your homeschool journey, I think you deserve to know who I am.
I’m Jennifer Garcia—a Christian, Cullman native, mom of four, longtime homeschool parent, educator, technologist, and someone who has never been very good at seeing something our kids need and waiting for somebody else to create it.
Homeschooling has been woven into my life for more than two decades. I’ve taught around the kitchen table, navigated high school and dual enrollment, celebrated graduations, worked through learning challenges, changed course when something wasn’t working, and done plenty of figuring things out along the way.
One of the experiences that shaped me most as both a parent and educator was helping one of my sons navigate a visual learning disability. Traditional approaches didn’t always work for him. I had to learn to look beyond the usual methods, understand how he processed information, and find different ways to help him learn. That experience changed the way I teach. It taught me to look at the student in front of me - not simply the curriculum - and reinforced something I believe deeply:
Homeschooling should open doors for our children - not close them.
Before education and community building became such a large part of my life, my professional career was in technology. I attened UAH for about 4 yeasr and change my major as many times from Electrical engineerin to Spanishto Poly scie and Education. I discovered I did not like being defined by one role. I finally earned a B.S. in Business Information Systems from Bellevue University, became Oracle Certified, and spent more than two decades in technology, including work as a software engineer with IBM, Alpha Telecom, and Hexagon Public Safety. I’m fluent in English and Spanish, and my work took me throughout Mexico and Central America. One of the highlights of my career was overseeing the installation and training of an Emergency Operations Center for the Policía Nacional Civil in El Salvador while working in support of U.S. Embassy operations.
That combination of technology, travel, education, and homeschooling probably explains why my classes rarely look like traditional classrooms. My strongest teaching areas include math, science, Spanish, computer science, creative writing, ACT preparation, and navigating the high school and dual-enrollment years. More than simply teaching a subject, though, I love creating experiences that make students curious. Give me a historical mystery, a coding challenge, a science investigation, or a seemingly impossible math problem, and I’m happy.
But academics are only part of what I believe our kids need.
They need community, too.
My involvement in the homeschool community goes back many years. In 2011, while teaching and volunteering at Lionsgate Christian Academy, I met Robin Beckham, one of the eventual founders of Timeless Homeschool Events, who introduced me to the events she and others were organizing for homeschool students. I volunteered in those early years, with Lionsgate and Timeless. As my children got older, my involvement grew. By 2017, I had taken over Timeless’s internet and social media marketing, which I managed through early 2020. When leadership changed they chose to establish their own team of volunteers, I stepped away and remained largely uninvolved during the pandemic years.
When my family returned to Cullman in 2015, I wanted homeschool families here to have the same kind of friendships, activities, and opportunities my family had experienced in Huntsville. I helped found Cullman Homeschool Connection and became involved in building CHARGE and the Cullman Homeschool Co-op, which eventually grew into Alabama STEAM Academy.
In 2023, I returned to event work with Timeless when I approached its leadership about establishing a Cullman chapter. I founded the Cullman chapter of Timeless Homeschool Events and served as its president through August 2026. Together with an incredible team of local volunteers, we built a thriving community and created dances, celebrations, milestone events, and spaces where homeschool students could build friendships, make memories, and simply belong.
Today, all those different pieces of my life have come together through Alabama Homeschool Connection.
It isn’t just about classes. It isn’t just about events. And it isn’t just about graduation.
It’s about creating the things I’ve spent more than twenty years wishing existed for homeschool families -a place to discover opportunities, find support, build friendships, learn something new, celebrate the big moments, and know that homeschooling doesn’t have to mean doing everything alone.
Learn. Connect. Celebrate.
That’s what I want for our community—and it’s why I’m still building.
Photo Note: Some photos featured on this site were taken at events I planned and produced while serving as president of the Cullman chapter of Timeless Homeschool Events. They are included as part of the history of my work in the homeschool community.
Great thing happem when community comes together!
Jennifer
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Kristin
Gustavo
Outlaw DJ
Bonnie
...and a host of other valuable volunteers
Building Community Through the Years
With this introduction:
“From classes and field trips to proms, teen gatherings, and community celebrations,We've spent years creating places where Cullman-area homeschool families can learn, connect, and belong. These are a few moments from that journey.”
The Cullman Tribune
The Cullman Homeschool Activities and Resource Group (CHARGe) Field Day at Sportsman Lake Park...
The Cullman Tribune
Local mom Jennifer Garcia, along with a group of other homeschool parents, in 2018 started the Cullman Homeschool Activities & Resource Group (CHARGe).