GET TO KNOW US

I was raised, and continue to live in, a southwest suburb of Chicago. The fourth of six children, I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school. I went on to earn my Associate of Arts Degree at the College of Dupage with an inclination toward marketing and business, and graduated with highest honors.

From age twelve, I honed my entrepreneurial spirit to start a local petcare business that allowed me to work my way through college. Immediately afterwards I took a teacher’s assistant position at a private grade school, working with students from 3 year old preschoolers to 8th graders on both academic and extracurricular levels. I still advise my two younger siblings’ schooling at home, relying on my previous experiences to help fine-tune their academic growth, which is led by my parents. My student/teacher involvement in the education process has given me a unique perspective in understanding the value that homeschooling can bring to families.

With that in-depth experience and passion, I’ve teamed up with my incredible Mom, Barb, to bring Star of the Sea to parents exploring alternatives to public or otherwise institutionalized education.

I absolutely love sharing my insights, and have counseled numerous parents asking for advice on education solutions for their children. It is greatly fulfilling for me to help families live out their most important responsibility to raise and educate their children to be the successful, motivated people they are meant to be.

I am a lifelong Chicagoland native and have been married for 32 years and have six children. I have an Associates Degree in Business Administration and was in the hospitality industry in my “old” life prior to homeschooling all our children through high school.

21 years ago my husband and I began the adventure of educating our children at home, with literally no experience or training. We haven’t regretted it for an instant. My role as primary educator meant I was at ground zero in the day-to-day tasks of homeschooling. It was scary, fun, challenging, rewarding, and tiresome; sometimes all in the same day! We learned how to homeschool the old-fashioned way, through trial and error. And early on we made our fair share of mistakes (and in hindsight) realized we did many things the hard way.

We overcame problems, developed better methods, learned shortcuts, and remained a close knit family through all the craziness. No one knows our children better than us, and we felt that teaching them at home gave us the opportunity to focus their education on those areas important to us, our faith, and our vision of how they would develop and grow.

Now, with our daughter Mary, I want to share all that we’ve learned with others who want to educate their children at home more effectively, more easily, and with greater success. We’ve been so blessed that we truly believe there’s no reason for others to reinvent the homeschooling wheel when we can share our wheels with them.

In my spare time I enjoy trying new recipes, working in the yard, family game nights, travel, and sitting on the front porch with a good cup of coffee.

And I'm Barb Cimbalista!

Hello! My name is Mary Cimbalista.