OUR BACKSTORY
A Whole New Experience!
In 2024, Shannon Baer, Danica Childs, and Autumn Cornwell teamed together to create EUREKA! A Homeschooling Experience for Creators & Thinkers.
“EUREKA! provides students the opportunity to participate in both academic and creative pursuits in a Christian environment that encourages intellectual curiosity, personal development, freedom to risk, and a sense of play. Our desire is to foster community through connection, creativity, and collaboration – and that all of us would be known and loved by one another and by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Join us!”
Shannon Baer, Danica Childs, and Autumn Cornwell are honored and overjoyed to lead EUREKA! Homeschool Co-op through all the adventures ahead!
Shannon Baer
The Baer Family embraced homeschooling from day one! Shannon and Stan Baer married in 1993 and proceeded to homeschool all six of their kids, who currently range in age from 14-29 years – their youngest son, David, is currently attending this co-op. Shannon has been involved in a wide variety of homeschool communities during the last 25 years, both secular and Christian. These have included membership in Sunseeds Co-op; serving as a board member for the WISH Nonprofit (Workshops Investing in Socializing Homeschoolers) for five years; launching and directing Classical Conversations at First Baptist Church in Pasadena for four years; and founding and directing the nonprofit Ecclesia Classes at St. James United Methodist Church in Pasadena for seven years.
Shannon currently owns Protégé Education, which is a vendor for charter schools, and also teaches exclusively at FUNdamentals Co-op. A vibrant and in demand teacher, Shannon has blessed numerous students with her humanities and art classes for a quarter century. The Baer family lives in Sierra Madre, where Stan is an Senior VP/financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. Stan and Shannon attend Christian Assembly Church, where Shannon launched and led the CA Moms Group over the past five years. In her “spare time,” Shannon also sells block print art, frequents thrift shops, and makes her friends laugh out loud!
Danica Childs
“Hello! I’m Danica Childs. My husband Steve, an art professor at APU, and I have been married over 25 years, and we’ve been on the homeschooling adventure with our two daughters, Thorne and Pippa, for over ten years. I have a BA in Intercultural Studies and in Communications and a MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University, and received an MA in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from Talbot Seminary in order to become a practicing Spiritual Director. From teaching English in South Korea, to managing and training personnel in a Client Services department for ten years, to teaching in the church and the ministry Autumn and I started, to homeschooling my kids, to now teaching other homeschooled children, the through-line of my life has been education.
To say I love learning is an understatement, which is why this quote by the great physicist Richard Feynman perfectly sums up my life and much of our homeschool experience: “Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” Within every subject whether it’s nature, the arts, literature, math, history, or the sciences, there are marvels and beauty to behold. I believe wonder and curiosity are contagious and that the more it’s modeled, the more kids catch it! I’m passionate about learning and encouraging kids to behold the wonders of our world!”
Autumn Cornwell
“HA! Comedy is my middle name! I’ve written and/or performed comedy my entire life: sketches, improv, plays, fiction, radio, theater, TV, film, and even stand-up – and I love teaching it all to the next generation! After getting my B.A. in Radio/TV/Film Communications from Biola University and completing Screenwriting and Directing Workshops at the American Film Institute (AFI), I worked in TV sitcoms, wrote and directed comedic short films and an independent feature, and published two YA novels. I did this while church planting in Hollywood, co-leading international mission trips, and offering an ongoing women’s ministry in So Cal with my sister, Danica.
“But one of the most creative things I’ve done in my life was marry my Biola boyfriend, J.C.Cornwell, over thirty years ago and raise two amazing kids – Dexter and Clementine, who crack me up on a daily basis! We jumped into homeschooling in 2020 and God nudged us towards FUNdamentals a year later. Now Clementine is in her junior year of high school at EUREKA!, while Dexter is a sophomore attending Biola University. J.C. works in Animation at Dreamworks and teaches adjunct at Biola University’s Snyder School of Cinema Arts. We’re a creative family, who found a good fit with homeschooling, since it allowed us to produce artistic content and travel, thanks to a flexible schedule – note our genteel attire during a trip to Bath, England for the Jane Austen Festival!”