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Kids Playing Treasure Hunt

About Us

Southeast Nashville Homeschool Enrichment is a secular homeschool program that strives to be an inclusive environment, fostering community and enriching the lives of homeschooled children and families in Nashville by offering classes and in-person events.   We meet on Mondays only and offer a la carte classes.   Families are welcome to register for one class or many.   Lunch and PE time from 12-1 PM is available to all students registered for any class.

Meet Our 2023 Teachers

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India-Jane Hodge

Theater

India-Jane (IJ) Hodge is a Nashville based actor and teaching artist with Nashville Children's Theater.   She will be leading our K-3 Theater class this year.   In 2020, she received her BFA in Theatre Performance from Belmont University. Along with teaching at NCT, she is also the day program coordinator at Friends Life, an organization for adults with disabilities. Her passion for teaching theatre began in the 10th grade when she and her friends started their own theatre camp for the children in her area! IJ loves good storytelling, curious minds, and being a part of the NCT family.

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Kelsey Jordan

K-3 Science, 3-5 Science, Graphic Novel Book Club, K-3 Book Club

Kelsey Jordan has been teaching elementary students for 10 years.  She started teaching in a brick and mortar school, but after 3 years found herself leaning towards the homeschool world.   She has been lucky enough to teach for a homeschool charter for the last 7 years and is currently working on her Master’s degree in Curriculum Development.  Kelsey’s family recently relocated to the Nashville area from California and are very excited to learn more about what Tennessee has to offer.   Kelsey has always known that she wanted to be a teacher and it really is her passion. She believes in hands on learning and loves to find ways to make learning fun!   We are excited to have Kelsey on board to teach our elementary science and book club classes.

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Helen Smith

Tennessee History

Belle Meade Historic Site Educator Helen Smith is excited to create enriching experiences exploring Tennessee History.   After earning a BA and MS in History and Anthropology from Vanderbilt University and MAT from Belmont University, Helen enjoyed teaching Tennessee and US History, as well as World Geography, for 25 years.   Helen is also an educator on staff at Belle Meade Historic site, where she leads tours and field trips for students throughout the year.

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Liz Koltis

Elementary Music K-3, Private Voice Lessons

Liz Koltis holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Commercial Music with a Vocal Performance emphasis from Belmont University. Before choosing to stay home to homeschool her two children, she taught private voice lessons, early childhood music classes, and was a session vocalist here in Nashville. Liz brings a passion for both music and children to the early elementary music class and private voice lessons she will teach this year. She currently sings with Nashville in Harmony, and when she’s not spending time with her family, she can almost certainly be found out in nature.   Liz will be introducing our K-3 students to music through her fun and engaging class.

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Angela Ellis

Entrepreneurship/Biztown

Angela Ellis began her teaching career as an ESL instructor 10 years ago.  She later taught high school literature and middle school dance; and tutored elementary students in reading, writing, and comprehension.  She has taught entrepreneurship and business at the collegiate level as well.   Angela is an entrepreneur herself and has owned and operated a consulting firm for 15 years. She earned a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's in business administration.  Angela has called Nashville home for more than 20 years.  She is active in book clubs, equity coalitions, and the fitness community.  She is passionate about protecting elders, children, and animals. 

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Mundito Spanish

Spanish

After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Mundito founder and lead teacher Casey Cabbage left the US to begin teaching English at a Montessori school in Beijing. She taught with teachers from China, US, Africa, Mexico, and other countries. After a year and a half in Beijing, she moved to a small pueblo in Andalucia, Spain to continue teaching.  Mundito Spanish began as virtual Spanish lessons during the Covid-19 pandemic. After years of teaching overseas, founder Casey Cabbage began creating lesson plans for students grades K-5. Her vision was to bring the best of what she had learned abroad back to the students of her community.  In the fall of 2022, Mundito Spanish opened its first location in Nashville, offering us a safe environment to provide the most effective and hands on learning experience for students in grades K-12. Mundito is different from many other language programs because they have been able to take educational approaches from their experiences of teaching all over the world and bring it back here to Nashville. They have used what they have learned from these experiences to create a curriculum that ignites a passion for not just language, but for culture as well.   Casey and her Mundito team will be teaching Spanish to our elementary and middle/high school students.

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Brickeology

STEM

We are Joe and Shannon Tessitore and, along with our 8 year old son Valentino, we are Brickeology.  We moved to TN in 2022 after living abroad in Spain, and we absolutely love calling Nolensville home.  We all have a huge passion for Legos (and sci-fi), and that all started when Valentino was gifted his first Lego set when he was 3.  Right away we realized that beyond the fun that is Lego, it has so much more to offer.   From encouraging imagination to critical thinking, fine motor skills to physics, Lego is truly the ultimate teaching tool.   We are also homeschoolers and we absolutely love teaching and sharing our enthusiasm for all things Lego while we work towards our dream of opening our Lego store in the next 1-2 years.  Joe and Shannon will be leading our K-2 students in STEM classes this year.

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Strategic Self Reliance

Wilderness Survival

Strategic Self Reliance is a wilderness skills and survival training school based in Tennessee.   Founder, Alfred Felker, has a law enforcement background and received additional certifications in wilderness and primitive skills, wilderness survival, advanced land navigation, and woodland search and rescue.  Alfred has a love for the outdoors and has spent time since early childhood, almost 40 years, hunting, studying and learning the Eastern Woodlands.

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Mike & Kristin Bauer

Group Guitar Classes

Mike Bauer a player's player with a teacher's heart. Mike has helped hundreds of students win at guitar over the last 10 years.  Mike's passion is "to make learning guitar the most fun musical experience our students have ever had, which will quickly inspire a love for playing." Mike has worked with over 50 national artists and has a performance resume as diverse as Bill Gaither to David Lee Roth.  Since arriving in Nashville in 1998 he's been a studio and touring guitarist as well as a seminar clinician. Mike has played alongside some of Nashville’s biggest stars, touring and/or recording with artists such as (in country music), Pam Tillis, Chely Wright and Little Big Town.  He was also faculty at Nashville’s Trevecca University as their commercial guitar instructor for 5 years.  Mike and his team are excited to be back again to lead our group guitar classes.

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Susan Athens

Photography & Cooking

Susan Athens is originally from Naperville, IL where she was a teacher and administrator for 25 years. She taught many courses including culinary, science and art. They moved to the Nashville area last year and love it. Susan's passion for photography started in high school when cameras used film and she started her photography business after her daughter was born. Realizing how important it was to document the milestones of her own daughter, she wanted to do this for other families as well. She has trained with some of the best photographers in the world learning both photography and Photoshop.

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Jordan Racca

STEM

Jordan graduated with his doctorate in audiology (AuD) from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2017 and his PhD in Auditory Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University in January 2022. After completing his PhD, he began teaching project-based middle school STEAM in traditional and non-traditional learning environments, including at the Nashville Zoo. Jordan is excited to use his scientific training and content knowledge in audiology to develop inclusive and equitable STEAM lessons that engage K-2 scholars in active, hands-on learning in the heart of Music City. Jordan will be teaching our K-2 STEM class this year!

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Ron Petroff

Recording

Ron Petroff is a Grammy Nominated producer/engineer/instructor based out of Nashville, TN.   He holds a BA in Music from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters in Jazz Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Miami.   Ron is an active producer and engineer that works primarily from his Production Room in Nashville as well as the West Barn in Franklin, TN.  He also works with up and coming producers and engineers at The Apprentice Academy (THEC Certified Audio Recording and Production Apprenticeship) in Franklin, TN.  Ron is frequently working on several projects at a time as he continues to establish his roots and value in the Nashville modern music scene.  Ron looks forward to teaching our students about music production in our recording class this year.

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Mallory Yerger

Upper Elementary Music

Mallory Yerger is a recent retiree from Williamson Country Public Schools where she taught Elementary Music for 20 years, making a total of 26 years of experience in the field.  She holds a Masters of Music Education from Belmont University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education.   She loves to teach music to young people.  Mallory enjoys the outdoors, horses, and hiking.  She has also taught MusikGarten, an early childhood music program designed for the youngest learners.  She is also certified in Orff-Schulwerk Music, Levels I, II, & III, an approach to teaching music that combines, music, movement, speech, and drama centered around the developmental needs of children and the art of play.   Mallory will be teaching our Upper Elementary Music class this year.

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Jansen Gibson

Middle School Science, Environmental Science

Jansen Gibson studied Geology and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University.   Since then, he has worked as a private tutor, in addition to providing home-schooling and teaching about environmentalism and conservation with local non-profits.   Jansen has experience teaching age groups from pre-K to senior citizens, and focuses on working with students that want to expand their understanding of, and excitement for, science and math courses.   Additionally, Jansen has several years of experience as a math, science, and history teacher who creates a warm and adaptable learning environment to build confidence and capability inside and outside the classroom.   Jansen currently teaches at the middle and high school level at several tutorial programs around Nashville and looks forward to teaching our middle and high school sciences this year.

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Mr. Bond Science Guys

Elementary Science

Mr. Bond’s Science Guys' mission is to make science fun, cool and easy for kids!
With over 20 years of experience in Tennessee and beyond, our mission is still to get kids excited about science! No matter what the circumstances we will find a way to bring exciting and educational programs to kids.   Mr. Bond and his team are excited to teach our elementary science classes on Nature (FALL) and Chemistry (SPRING).

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Kendra Andrus

Middle/High School Book Club

Kendra Andrus is the product of a rich free-range homeschooling education followed by higher education in great books and the liberal arts, and thus is compelled to give her own homeschooled children (and now SENHE students) the same valuable learning experience. Education should be full of curiosity, wonder, and virtue! She received her B.A. in both music and religion and attended seminary. She is a published author who finds endless inspiration for children’s books in her everyday life with her own six children — she writes to solve their problems, answer their questions, and tell the stories of their adventures together. She loves learning through books, reading aloud as a family, inspiring young writers, and having deep and meaningful conversations about life that are sparked by stories. Together, she and her husband Matthew manage the loud and feisty-fun chaos that is their daily life, devotedly supporting their children in all of their unique passions. If she is not catching up on 12 loads of laundry, you can find her cooking fancy meals, hiking to waterfalls, and at the symphony, opera, or theater basking in the transformative performance arts.   Kendra will be leading our middle/high school book club this year.

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Shirley Haskins

Sewing

Shirley was born and raised on a dairy farm in Western NY with 4 siblings. At age 8, she joined 4-H which started her lifetime love of sewing. Shirley has been married 42 years, raised and homeschooled 4 children and is a Grammy to 8 beautiful grandchildren. During her homeschooling years, she taught sewing classes in her children’s homeschool tutorial. Currently, Shirley has a sewing business - doing alterations, making drapes, quilts and home decor projects.

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Jan Newell

Sewing

Jan was born and raised in West Monroe, Louisiana. A neighborhood friend introduced me to her to sewing in sixth grade. In seventh grade, she took Home Economics and learned to sew on a larger scale.  Jan got her first sewing machine in middle school and still prefers it over newer ones!   She enjoys teaching children to sew and is a great partner for Shirley Haskins in our sewing classes.  Jan has three children and 5 grandchildren whom she is also teaching to sew. 

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Andrew Rose

Art

Andrew Rose holds a BA in Studio Art from Western Kentucky University. He brings 12 years of kindergarten-middle/high school art education experience from St. Matthew School in Franklin, TN. During his time there, he worked closely with his students and their families to foster an environment of creativity, curiosity, and discovery. Along with his teaching duties at St. Matthew School, he was responsible for his school’s graphic design and photography needs. On sabbatical from teaching, he spent time employed with the award winning De la Torre Art Design group based on location within the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. Here he specialized in the design, fabrication, and installation of themed environments, zoological exhibits, and museum displays. Most notably, he refurbished, re-designed and painted the mural above the entrance to the Unseen World at the Nashville Zoo.  Mr. Rose sees himself as an incredibly positive and creative person who is able to effectively collaborate and respectfully communicate with everyone. He enjoys medieval, fantasy, and prehistoric themes in his creations and possesses a true flair for educating others.   We are excited to have Andrew teaching art classes for our elementary, middle, and high schoolers.

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Emily Archer

Sports Sampler, PE, Archery

Emily is a certified personal trainer with backgrounds in teaching bootcamp and kid exercise classes. Raised and homeschooled in a tiny town in Alabama, Emily knows the value of community and "your village" when it comes to the everyday challenges of homeschooling. She moved to Nashville to study Communications and Exercise Science at Trevecca Nazarene University . With a passion for hiking, Star Wars, and culinary adventures, she embraces new experiences. As a single mom of two and a homeschooling alumna, Emily values personalized learning while balancing mom, personal trainer, and even musician booking manager. Her enthusiasm, networking skills, and dedication to safety have made her a sought-after personal trainer. Emily's multifaceted background and love for fitness help her inspire students and foster a nurturing learning environment.

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Natalie Lurie

Archery

Natalie has lived in Nashville for the past 13 years and has fallen in love with how diverse, secular,  and accepting the homeschool community has become.  Natalie has a background in early childhood education and was a certified personal trainer before becoming a mom. She is extremely excited to bring her skills, knowledge, and experience to Southeast Nashville Homeschool Enrichment. She is joining us as a certified NASP archery instructor and is looking forward to guiding children through a truly unique experience that will teach discipline, responsibility, perseverance, and teamwork. She whole-heartedly believes in the vision of SENHE and loves being a part of such a thriving and loving community. 

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Cristin Tillinghast

Theater, Private Voice & Piano

As a 32-year professional veteran of Broadway, Film, Television, and commercials, Cristin emphasizes the necessity of a solid foundation of musical and theatrical craftsmanship that celebrates the unique gifts of each performer. She actively promote a professional and competitive Theatre Department that inspires students to develop their dramatic skills in tandem with responsible and inclusive world citizenship.   Cristin has a B.M. in Opera from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an M.A. in Theater & Directing from Regent University.  Her true legacy is the successful careers of former and present students on Broadway, in Regional Houses, and in Opera companies worldwide.  Cristin will be leading two of our theater classes and offering private voice and piano instruction as well.

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Michael Puckett - Tennessee Robotics Center

STEM/Robotics

Like many great American companies, TRC was started in a garage.  Michael Puckett, M.Ed created TRC as a way to introduce his sons and local neighborhood friends, homeschool, and community students to the exciting world of technology, robotics, and computer science.  TRC developed teams that competed in the FIRST LEGO League robotics program.  Over the past 12 years,  TRC has become a force for change inspiring students interested in learning technology, robotics, and computer science. The robotics lab in a garage has grown into a thriving center for students who are passionate about pursuing a career or education in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art/Design, & Mathematics). Michael is most proud of the fact that many of his students have gone on to study engineering and computer science in college and are making a positive impact in the world.    We are excited to have Michael and his team leading our 3rd-5th grade and 6th-12th grade STEM classes this year.

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Natalie Briscoe

Digital Arts

Natalie Briscoe is an illustrator currently living in Franklin, TN. Her work has taken shape as children’s picture and activity books, greeting cards, packaging, gift wrap, editorial work, murals and more. She also runs an online shop that consists of stationary products and ceramics. She graduated from Watkins College of Art in 2020 and has since been working with clients like Hallmark, American Greetings, Modern Sprout, Sourcebooks, Design House Greeting, Cider Mill Press and more. 

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Katie Filer

Fiber Arts

Katie Filer is a mom of 2 and a handwork teacher. She is studying with the Waldorf
Handwork Educators program, which is recognized by the Association of Waldorf Schools of
North America. Katie started fiber arts with sewing and embroidery at age 10, and just never
stopped. After having her second child she was home more and fell in love with teaching her oldest her passion for embroidery, tailoring clothes, darning, and knittng everyone in our family as many pieces as she possibly could. This quickly snowballed into wan6ng to provide these experiences to the children in the community around her. In Katie's free time, she is a Girl Scout leader, chairs a Parent-Teacher Organization commitee, is an avid gardener,
and a lover of all soft fluffy animals.

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Chandler Bogomolny - Liberty Music Academy

Private Lessons - Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano

After graduating Summa Cum Laude from University of Miami's Frost School of Music (and being awarded Outstanding Senior for Music Production), Chandler now specializes in drums & bass and has a strong passion for one-on-one music education & band mentorship. He has played at venues such as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, been featured on recordings with 100k+ plays on Spotify, and contributed musically to the Miami Film Festival. When not teaching, he regularly plays in downtown Nashville on South Broadway. 

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Brad Longfellow - Liberty Music Academy

Private Lessons - Piano, Voice, Guitar

Brad Longfellow is a native of the beautiful state of Maine where he studied Music Education at the University of Southern Maine. After a six-month internship at the British School of Bahrain in the Middle East, he continued to teach and perform in Portland and is now thrilled to be doing the same in Nashville. He has over ten years’ experience teaching music privately and for 317 Main Community Music Center, a bluegrass/roots-centric music school in Yarmouth. Providing private voice, piano, and guitar lessons and directing elementary, teen, and adult choirs, bands, and vocal groups, he has had the privilege to work with students of all ages and learning styles.

Brad has a deep love for vocal music rooted in his family heritage and fostered by his upbringing in church, choral education, and personal musical community in Southern Maine. He has directed and performed for several churches, performed in choirs with the Portland Symphony, as soloist with ChoralArt, recorded and arranged piano with Vineyard Music, Anchour Studio, and Kingdom Life Church, and continues to study writing and production here in Nashville.

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