AFA plans homeschool TV channel

 breaking ground with unique approach

  AFA will soon launch one of the most challenging and potentially far-reaching projects in its 32-year history.
  The Homeschool Channel (HSC) is scheduled to go live in January 2010 on the Sky Angel Christian television service. It will be AFA’s first attempt to use its growing expertise in Internet television technology to offer non-news programming aimed at strengthening families.
  “This is a natural extension of what AFA has been doing all these years,” says Jeff Chamblee, program director of HSC. “We believe the culture is declining largely because homes and families are falling apart. Families are falling apart because fathers are not fulfilling their God-given roles in the home.”
  Chamblee explains that HSC is not being designed as classroom teaching on television. Rather, the new TV channel will offer supplemental programming for homeschool families, including both educational content and – more importantly – guidance in how to disciple children in the context of homeschooling.   
  “God has given parents the responsibility for their children’s spiritual nurture, particularly fathers,” Chamblee says. “So a large part of the channel’s focus is reaching dads to strengthen and assist them in raising their children in a way that honors God.”
  It’s a Biblical concept that has been addressed in many books and preached in many sermons. However, no one, to Chamblee’s knowledge, has attempted to develop video programming that weds educational content with family discipleship. “We are definitely plowing new ground,” he says.
  Examples of HSC’s unique programming now in development include a series on art history that includes beginning drawing; a series that profiles unique homeschool families across the nation; a series that features moms and dads mentoring their sons and daughters in a profession, a trade or as a homemaker;   a study series on the U.S. Constitution; and a series on Western Civilization from a Biblical perspective.
  “We are committed to helping families bring all learning under the lordship of Christ,” Chamblee says. “It is our conviction that a full understanding of the world and our place in it is not possible without an understanding of our Creator and Sustainer.”
  Chamblee brings plenty of experience in homeschooling and parenting to the project. He and his wife, Anita, have been homeschooling one or more of their own seven children for over 20 years.
  Currently he spends his days gathering, modifying and originating video content for HSC, a task that frequently involves networking with other homeschool experts.
  Bob and Tina Farewell are two such well-known and passionate homeschool veterans who have allied with the AFA project. The Farewells are popular homeschool advocates and entrepreneurs. They formerly operated Lifetime Books and Gifts, a successful online bookstore aimed at homeschooling families, and for 18 years traveled with the bookstore to state homeschool conventions. They have signed on as official HSC ambassadors to state homeschool organizations.
  Paul Bass, an experienced video producer formerly from Florida, serves as Chamblee’s assistant. Bass and his wife are homeschooling parents of four children. In God’s providence, Chamblee connected with Bass at a time when he was becoming keenly aware of his own responsibilities as a father to pastor his family.
  Others who have offered support and resources for HSC include well-known preacher and family-discipleship advocate Voddie Baucham as well as Answers in Genesis, the ministry that operates the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio.
  Stay informed of the progress of HSC at www.thehomeschoolchannel.tv.