Back to the Beginning…CHAP’s Origin Story

As most of us know, teaching one’s children at home is as old as humankind. Parents oversaw most of their children’s learning during the colonial period and the 1800s in America. By the mid 1800s, a shift was occurring. The “common school” began to be the center of a child’s education rather than the home, and this movement developed into the public school system that we have today.

With the public school movement, a more humanistic curriculum arose, as did the concern of parents who hoped to influence their children with their values and faith. Some parents began using a private school hoping to instill a Judeo-Christian foundation for their children. Others began to explore another option for their children. Though homeschooling was virtually unheard of in 1970, some thought that more individualized instruction might be a more effective way to educate their children. A few Christians (and some with other world views) took the home education route.

As that small homeschool movement grew in the Lancaster, PA area in 1986, a small group of Christian homeschooling parents formed a support group named Lancaster County Home Education, known by the acronym, L’CHEA. To remind us from whence we came, here are some of those early pioneer parents who gathered for this group: Kim and Larry Huber, Ken and Terry Nitchman, Don and Fran Owens and Dan and Cindy Smith. They gathered in homes and in store-front/church buildings in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania. It was their goal to support each other and others who desired to join them through activities like “Park Day,” field trips, or simply a time of social gathering.

L’CHEA also began to think about ways to support homeschooling parents as they searched for teaching material.

With a few curriculum providers on hand, they launched a “Come and See” what is available event in the Lancaster Farm and Home Center in 1986. This is now remembered as the first annual CHAP Convention. Much to the board members’ surprise, over 200 people showed up, and they were ecstatic.

As the years rolled on, the desire to encourage and equip homeschoolers prevailed as the L’CHEA (eventually the CHAP) Convention grew in size and moved into larger facilities: Lancaster Mennonite Highschool, Lancaster Bible College, Elizabethtown College, and ultimately in 1993, the Farm Show Complex, hosting as many as 5,000 to 9,000 attendees and often over 200 vendors in some years. Well known and locally respected speakers were also invited to share at these conventions.

As responsibilities expanded, so did the need to incorporate as a non-profit. So, in 1991, L’CHEA moved to that status.

In 1994 the name was changed from L’CHEA to CHAP to reflect the wider influence that CHAP now represented.

Throughout CHAP’s history, support groups were allowed to affiliate with CHAP so more people could find a support group in their area.

After 24 years at the Farm Show building, the 2017 CHAP Convention was hosted in the beautiful Lancaster Convention Center in downtown Lancaster, PA.

There was time off for COVID, and the Convention moved to Spruce Lake in 2021, Woodcrest Retreat in 2022, and York Fair Grounds in 2023.

Since 2024, the CHAP Convention has been held at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA, with the same goals and services abounding.