Our Story

We are a group of homeschooling families who love learning! We began meeting together in the Fall of 2009 with three scholar level classes, Shakespeare Conquest mentored by Rachel Keppner and two different Foundations of Liberty classes mentored by Mary Black. After a successful year with those three classes and a wonderful production of Much Ado About Nothing, we decided to greatly expand our offerings and form iFamily. Jana Browning was our torch bearer and valiantly led iFamily during its first official year. She was somehow able to organize the classes, interact with all the families, arrange our rental agreements, see to the cleaning of building, collect and disburse all fees, mentor a class, have kidney surgery, mother her seven children, gracefully sail through her eighth pregnancy, and keep a smile on her face! During the 2010-2011 school year, we had 24 different Moms Schools (or classes) and forty to fifty families meeting together each week. Our iShakespeare Live! acting troupe performed Twelfth Night eight times to thunderous applause.

Although we had a wonderful year, anyone could see that it was not possible for iFamily to survive with one person doing the vast majority of the work, so we decided to reorganize once again and created iFamily Leadership Academy with bylaws, a board of directors, and a brand new website. During the 2011-2012 year, we with a five member board, 27 Mom Schools, and many new mentors. We had a amazing year! Our youth put on two plays – The Light Princess, adapted for the stage by our very own Heather Fahnestock, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream, both of which were a smashing success.

The 2012-2013 year is moving forward with a wide variety of classes, a new Board of Directors, and lots of website changes. We hope to improve our organization each year and we are excited to be growing and blessing the lives of homeschooling families throughout southeast Idaho.