Hi, I am Chenning. I am married to my beloved Dave, and a long-time resident of the San Gabriel Valley. I am the homeschool mother of four, and a joyful adoptive parent. Having been helped and blessed so much by friends and family through my own experiences of parenting, adoption, and homeschooling, I love to support and encourage others on their journey.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading and writing. Growing up, my mom used to always tell me to put my book away at the dinner table. I still consider middle grade and young adult fiction as my favorite genres. One of my favorite things to do is to matchmake people, especially young people, with great books.

I received a B.A. in English Literature from UC Berkeley. My focus was British literature with an emphasis on Shakespeare. From there, I went on to receive my teaching credential from Point Loma Nazarene University. Pre-kids, I taught four years in the Alhambra School District. When I had my first child, Matthew, I retired from full time teaching and didn’t look back. Little did I know that I was going to be homeschooling him and his siblings – Nathan, Aaron, and Lily… and then other precious students in our homeschooling communities too!

We homeschooled with the Classical Conversations community for a decade, and I taught English grammar and IEW history-based writing lessons to upper elementary students in small classes. The last few years, I have taught persuasive essay writing using The Lost Tools of Writing to middle and high school students both online and in person. I have taken training courses at the Institute for Excellence in Writing and the Circe Institute. I love reading my students’ writing and consider it a great honor to do so!

Here are a few of my favorite things:
1) The times when my home is full of music. I love to hear the sounds of my children playing piano, guitar, cello or using their voices to praise God. I also love learning, playing and singing worship music with them.
2) My SUV completely full of people! This means that I am going on an adventure with loved ones.
3) Keeping a commonplace book of meaningful or beautiful quotes and passages from books, sermons, poems, etc.