Letters for Leigh

Send us your favorite "Leigh" story, favorite "Leigh quote", first impression, ... Something to share with Leigh in Celebrating CC's Ten Year Anniversary.

I just want to thank you for all of your prayerful effort in creating CC. I feel very blessed to be able to direct a Foundations program and truly consider it a ministry to local homeschooling families. I’m amazed as I consider all of the families across numerous states that are being impacted by your vision and efforts. Last year when we joined CC, it was not an easy year, however, it was the year that I finally “turned a corner” with my homeschooling. I’m no longer a curriculum junkie and am finally learning to persevere in this homeschooling endeavor. My motto this year is from Sheila Taylor (Foundations training this past summer), “A little bit, every day.” God continues to perfect the good work He has begun.

I hope to meet you in person someday – I only hear wonderful things about you, your vision, and your faith.

May God richly bless you and your family,

Carol Eichert, Foundations Director, Classical Conversations of Anderson Township (Cincinnati, OH)
P.S. Thank you also for sending the box of goodies from the 10 Year Celebration! I look forward to reading your book.

Leigh, a note to drop in and say "Thanks"---again. I just read your "Leigh-mail" and once again, you brightened my day and encouraged me in my walk with Him as I journey through it with my children. You are a true friend even though we may not see each other much anymore. You have been a true inspiration to me and a definite blessing to our family. Keep on fighting the good fight and blessing others with what God has blessed you.

In Him, Michelle Galyean Alleghany County, NC

When our family began homeschooling, Leigh was the first homeschooler I had met. She was giving a talk on the confidence to home school back in 1998 at a local Christian book store. In a matter of days, she was praying with me over the telephone prior to a social worker arriving at our home to "check if we were schooling or not". She gave me the confidence to 'stand up' to the social worker and helped me to remain calm and polite.

Her prayer and advice in 1998 led to a long-term relationship that included the start-up Foundations group in Kernersville; a brief stint as her AA; then to the Clemmons Foundations group led by Director Jennifer Jordan; and continues to this day through Program Manager Pam Greenholt in Challenge I.

My fondest memory of Leigh is when she attended my father's memorial service in SC in 2002. Leigh and another mom drove to and from Winston-Salem in a matter of hours just to show support for me. Her love and support have carried me through many challenging days and nights.

Leigh and cooking: it has been said that those with exceptional gifts in one area tend to lack in other areas. Is this not true of all of us? However, whenever anyone would ask how to show Leigh their appreciation, I would often tell them that a meal would always be welcome! "Remember Little Caesar's pizza is just up the road".

At another talk Leigh gave to the local (FHE) homeschooling group one evening, she said that "the teacher makes the difference in your child's education". This is so true! Parents, along with CC tutors and directors, are making a tremendous difference in our children's educations.

Leigh -- thank you for listening to Him and obeying Him when He gave you the vision that is now Classical Conversations, Inc. Keep running to Him.

~fondly, Lynne Kerr, homeschooling mom of 2 in Winston-Salem, NC

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I first met Leigh Bortins while serving in our church's nursery. She and I were sitting in rocking chairs, nursing our newborn baby boys, and talking about raising children. I had just had my first child, Quinn, and when Leigh shared with me that little David was her fourth boy, I was immediately impressed. I started asking for advice. I recognized in Leigh much wisdom and experience! Eventually, the subject of education came up, and Leigh told me she homeschooled. I then shared with her that I was on leave from teaching public school English. Instantly, Leigh recognized a recruiting opportunity! She explained to me her God-given vision about Classical Conversations and asked me if I would be interested in tutoring. Overwhelmed with motherhood, I couldn't imagine the added responsibility of homeschooling, but I politely told her I'd think about it. Deep inside I was awed and thought I'd never be able to do what she does.

Well, fortunately I did think about it. Leigh had inspired me. A year later when my maternity leave was up, I resigned from the school system. After much prayer I even felt called to homeschool. I began reading, researching, acquiring resources, and networking with other homeschoolers. Today God has blessed our family with two more boys, and He has made it possible for us to homeschool and participate in a Classical Conversations Program. Last year in 2006, I finally tutored. Thank you Leigh for sharing your vision, and inspiring and encouraging me along the way. May the Lord richly bless you for shining brightly for Him and advancing His kingdom one family at a time. We love you, Sister!

- Anita Jenkins, CC Mother of three, who's family has participated in Classical Conversations since 2003.

I met Leigh 4 years ago at the HEAV convention in Richmond, VA. I wanted to know more about the classical education model since I had heard that "buzz word" and didn't have a clue how or why it was different from the way I was homeschooling my two sons. So, I went to hear her speak. In a few moments I felt like I better listen harder because I could barely understand what she was trying to teach us and I felt like a slow-learner. When the presentation was over, I knew a piece of my homeschool puzzle had been found! Even though I didn't fully understand what it was!

Wandering down to the CC booth, I wanted to see if I could purchase what she had just spoken of. Foolishly, I thought I could just buy it and be off! While I meandered around looking lost, Leigh came over to me and said, "You were at the presentation a while ago, what did you think?" Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm sitting in the audience of a presentation I'm never expecting the speaker to notice me. I am noticing them! I was shocked that she would first, remember that I was there, and second, ask me what I thought about it. I was still feeling confused, so I answered her question like this, "I found it disturbing." I was disturbed. I couldn't understand this stuff and now I was determined to figure it out! I was ready to purchase it all with my already overused credit card! She laughed and said, "Listen, don't buy anything but this book." It was The Case for Classical Christian Education. Apparently, it was obvious to her that I was still in the grammar stage of understanding classical education. So I spent the summer reading it and by fall I was ready to begin my CC journey. I am proud to say that God has helped me to not only understand the classical model myself, but allows someone like me to share it with others.

Leigh, I am truly grateful for your perseverance, devotion, and love you share with us all. You are doing what God has called you to, and it shows.

Love in Christ, Christie Overbeck - Foundations & Essentials Director, Roanoke VA

"I first met Leigh at a small CC booth at the VA Homeschool Convention in 2003. I had attempted to Classically educate my children and at this point I felt stretched beyond my limit and overwhelmed. The books drew me to the booth and prompted me to ask about what they had to offer. I glanced at the guide, asked a few questions, glanced again... walked away... came back.... walked away... asked some more... etc. I must have come to that little booth a dozen times before I understood what lay before me: "Grammar Stage Memory Work in a 'Box'". I needed this!

Leigh may never fully know what an impact my involvement with CC has had on my family. We began in our home with a couple families and are now enjoying the 5th year of a thriving program that has grown in Fredericksburg, VA! She has inspired me to "Do a little and do it well!" I have not only grown in my confidence as a home-schooling mother, but greatly as a person! I have had the courage to ask God for many things ~ because He is my Father and I am the daughter of the King. He somehow provided skills and vision necessary to start and Direct our program during its first few years. I asked Him for grammar and now I have been given the opportunity to train others in this wonderful subject; I have recently asked him for skills that I have longed to develop personally, and am now pursuing interests that have been laying dormant for a years. That is the wonder of growing in the knowledge and understanding of God!We grow as whole people as we turn our face to Him and trust Him for BIG things!!! Thank You, Leigh!"

Maria Copeland, Essentials Tutor and CC Audio Team Member

My favorite impression about Leigh .... she believes in women and wants to empower these new-found friends she makes to dream with her!! I think Leigh looks at all of us and thinks, “Why can't they see what I see in them?” She wants us to use our gifts to serve other homeschooling families. I wrote Leigh a short little thank you note a few years ago that turned into making one of my dreams come true. Maria Copeland and I wanted to use our gifts to bless her and her audio production efforts. It has been great to “dust off” my radio skills and share them with the CC community! A desire of my heart was fulfilled that I didn't even know God put there! Leigh – thank you for believing in us and letting us be a part of your vision. We believe in you!

My favorite Leigh quote...... “We are God's playfellows! He wants to play hide and seek with us in His creation!”

Thank you Leigh for making my son, Spencer, feel like “one of your boys.” We is very grateful for those relationships. Thank you for your concern when my father died in February. You are a dear friend.
Pam Lopes, Challenge A Director Fredericksburg, Va
First CC community in VA in 2003!
CC Audio Producer

I would like to thank Leigh for her insight into teaching that I did not have until joining Classical Conversations four years ago. I really appreciated her emphasis on spend time teaching the basics of reading and math with your young students. My youngest son, Calvin, was an abecedarian when we joined so I took these words to heart! We covered the Foundations material each week but I spent more time on the reading and math than the memory work. I understood that reading was more important at that point for him. This year he is improving in the reading and now more interested in what he can read from foundations material on his own. Praise the Lord! Thank you Leigh for the insight and encouragement.

- Bless you, Cathy York, CC Foundations Director

For a long time now, I’ve wanted to write and tell you how very impressed I have been from year-to-year with the students of CC. I have taught in many home school settings and these students are by far the most intriguing students! These students are so excited about learning and motivated – it makes my job so much easier and much more fun! I’m just amazed at their enthusiasm every year – this is my third year, so this is not just your one outstanding group you get every few years. Every year, I’ve been so impressed with the fact that I do not have to do a song and dance, if you will, to keep their attention. They are always bright-eyed and anxious to learn. I just wanted to share that with you and compliment you on what a good job you are doing and also the tutors who are working with you.

- Lori Flores, NC Spanish teacher

She has given us the love for learning that Hamilton and I aspire to pass along to our children. I will never forget sitting in a house at Smith Mountain Lake in Oct. of 2002 and having an algebra light bulb moment that I never had in school. She said to me one time "Holly, you need to work for me. You have too much time on your hands and you are working your daughter too hard." She was right, and working for her has been the best thing that ever happened to our home school. I did not have time to create all the extra work for our daughters, so we only were able to complete the basics which has been a very valuable lesson for me.

Leigh's house on the lake is fantastic, but I will always remember the days in the basement. Carrying books up and down the steps was always such a bonding experience. Those were great years and great memories!

Holly Morales, NC State Manager and long-time friend of Leigh Bortins.

Back in the 1990s when Mike interviewed Leigh about CC, I had the radio tuned into Home School Heartbeat. Like you, I don’t have the time to follow all of the home school media, but, that night, because of God’s perfect timing, I heard Leigh for the first time. I knew right off that I had a lot in common with this vivacious home school mom. I had no idea that one day I would not only meet her, but that I would have the opportunity to sit under her teaching!

- In the joy of the Lord, Beth Hill, one of many, and founder of Christian Home Educators of Cincinnati

A fun, first impression of Leigh… I first met Leigh at an informational meeting about homeschooling. She was pregnant with baby number four and seemed so together to me. If I chose to homeschool, I had no idea how I would manage all she seemed to manage! The next time I saw Leigh, she told me about the Foundations program she was beginning in the fall. There would only be space for 32 kids, chosen by lottery. I wanted in so badly! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to learn that our family would be a part of this new educational adventure.

A fun, first experience with Leigh… I spent the first 2 years of the Foundations program hanging out in the nursery with Leigh and our youngest children. It was so nice to pick her brain about different subjects, and know that she was just a mom like me!

Any note of thanks or appreciation you would like to share with Leigh… Leigh, I am so grateful for your confidence in me. I remember the panic I felt when you suggested that I should start a program in Clemmons. How could I do this? But your encouragement gave me the courage to look deep inside me and know that, yes, I could do this with God's help. What an amazing five years it has been! As I looked out on 49 shining faces this morning, at our first meeting of the year, I was overwhelmed by God's goodness to me and the Clemmons program. I feel so blessed to be using the gifts and talents that God gave me, and to be part of an amazing community! Thank you again for believing in me!

- Jennifer Jordan, veteran Foundations Director, Clemmons, NC

A fun, first impression of Leigh… That's Leigh?!?

Any note of thanks or appreciation you would like to share with Leigh… Thank you for looking to me as a potential leader for your organization. Your support and love for me as a person has meant so much.

Any of your favorite “Leigh quotes” ... "Take care of those babies."

A special wish or blessing you would like share with Leigh… May the Lord continue to bless your obedience to Him, your family, and your heart for home school moms.

- Leah Bromen, Ohio/Kentucky State Manager

A fun, first experience with Leigh…I remember when we both decided to “jump ship” at Clayton Lake, leaving our 4 boys on board – never giving thought to “how” we would get back on! It was a side-splitting experience.

Special Thank You: Leigh, Thank you for having the confidence in me that I didn’t have in myself!

Favorite Leigh Quote: “You’ll be fine”

- Sheila Taylor, Foundations Director, Kernersville, NC

My first impression of Leigh was her brilliance! I first met her, after I had read The Well Trained Mind, and had been trying to do this classical thing on my own for a few years, at a small church in Raleigh. My friend had called me and said, "You just have to meet this lady. She sounds right up your alley!". So there I went that day, thrown out back and notebook in hand. I had to stand the whole time, but my socks were blessed off! Yes, she was brilliant, but so humble and so passionate. Every word made sense, and she had such a desire to make God known that it was evident in everything she was conveying. I remember she had one of her sons with her who was 5 at the time. Some of my favorite Leigh quotes are, "Our purpose is to know God and make Him known.", "Do we not know that we are training the royalty of God's Kingdom?!", "To teach is to learn.", and every 'LeighMail' she has ever out out. I am so grateful that she makes herself so "real" to all of us, that she opens up of her struggles and triumphs with all of us.

Leigh, you will never know how CC has so touched my family's lives. CC has so incorporated my husband so that we are no longer have the "homeschool life while Dad is at work, and then turn it off when he gets home". It has really brought us together. All the resources, from the power point to the songs, work so well with my three very different children. We knew we were on to something, when two years ago, my child with a sensory deprivation disorder, who is usually running laps around the room while we are doing our memory work, stopped in his tracks on day, popped his head up and corrected us on our Latin for that week. He was three years old at the time. He is still running a lot of laps, but is absorbing every bit of it and continuing to hang it all on those pegs. CC has allowed me to have the one room school house I always desired to have. Most importantly, Leigh, you have equipped me to really seek out God in all things, and then to teach my children that. God has been so faithful to reveal Himself to us. We have had so many "aha, thank you God moments!"

Leigh, I pray for you everyday, you and your family. I pray all of God's riches blessings on your life and endeavors. I pray for our unity within CC. I pray for His protection over you. I pray for CC to continue for many years to come. I praise God for you and your faithfulness to the vision He gave you!

- With tons of love, <>< Heather Tomberlin, Director, CC of Wake Forest, Youngsville

I first met Leigh at the 2003 NCHE conference and was excited about her program. I met her again at an informational meeting a few months later in Raleigh and she remembered my name! She never stops impressing me with her wisdom and vision for home-schoolers. The Lord truly has his hand upon her.

- Barbara Cason, Director in Raleigh Area

Impressions of Leigh

This lady, talking about memorizing all this information

Teaching classically: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric

Give it a try, it works!

Doubt, fear, trepidation

Singing, laughing, painting upside down!…hey, this is fun!

Surprise!

Unsolicited connections in reading history, time-line cards, history sentences

Dancing and singing to the history songs of Cycle 1, “Hinduissssmmmm”…play it again, Mom!

Wow, this works!

Learning to teach myself, outpouring it to my kids

I can do this!

Tools and confidence; learning and teaching, looks so easy

1st with Foundations, then with Essentials, now Challenge

It works…I am learning so much and they are learning so much

A community of like-minded women and children

So much work…so much fun!

Helping, encouraging, laughing, learning

This lady, talking about memorizing all this information

- from Denise Moore

First six weeks of tutoring Abecedarians... a daunting task!?!

The tutor, feeling intimidated and insecure, asks her mommy helper, "Am I doing this right? Are you happy?"

The mommy helper responds, "Sure, you are doing fine - but do try to relax and enjoy it!"

On another Foundations morning that same year...

The same tutor asks her mommy helper, "What is up with these kids? They are just rowdy today!"

The very direct mommy helper responds, "Actually, Heather, the kids seem normal to me. I think it is you that's the problem."

Heather shocked at first, but then realizes she was indeed being a bit overbearing. The two mothers proceeded to melt into laughter... a unique friendship was born!

- Classical conversations between Leigh Bortins and Heather Shirley

My funniest story about the early days with Leigh is that she and I always laughed about her not liking to cook when being in the kitchen was something I really enjoyed. Well, one day she invited me to come to her house to work on the Challenge I assignment guide. I asked her what I could bring, and she said nothing, she would fix us lunch. I said, "Really?? You don't like to cook." She said, "Don't worry, I can at least take care of lunch." So I arrived at her house on the appointed day, and she and I worked hard on the updates for the assignment guide. She then pushed back her chair, and said, "Well, I've got to run, one of the boys has a dentist appointment." She had completely forgotten our lunch arrangement! This is so typical of Leigh whose mind is always racing toward what lies ahead. Like Paul, she is truly running the good race!

- Classical moments between Leigh Bortins and long time friend and veteran Challenge I Tutor, Pam Greenholt.