Who we are:

Christian Cottage Schools is a small, family-run business, owned by Mike and Teri Spray, that has been in existence since 1986. We help thousands of children each year by providing diagnostic testing, custom-designed curriculum plans and parent support. We also have a private school for homeschooling families that provides additional training, accountability, and legal coverage in the state of Colorado.

Teri: Well, I guess I should start by saying first and foremost, I am simply a “servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.” I am also the happy wife of Mike Spray since 1974 and the mother of two terrific adult children and some amazing grandchildren. I earned my Colorado professional  teacher license in 1975, and have had a burden for homeschool for many years.

I had a varied teaching career, based primarily on the fact that I was a military wife for the first ten years. I started teaching in California, where I taught unit studies to gifted children of all ages from 1976 to 1978. After having two children I returned to teaching in 1982. In Hawaii I worked for a private school as the teacher for a class of Learning Disabled/Gifted junior high students.

Over the years I have taught as a Learning Center Teacher, Testing Specialist, Home Tutor for a high school diploma, and English as a Second Language Teacher. I have taught study skill seminars, art classes, and have worked as an educational therapist.  As a direct result of these varied and diverse teaching experiences, I learned the immense value of a prescriptive individualized curriculum, accurate testing, and unit studies.

For two years, I felt the Lord guiding me toward a ministry for children in the home. So, in early 1986, my children, Jeremy and Meredith, and I decided to try a home-school experiment. We wanted a Christ-centered education and an individualized program. Our little experiment was so successful that other children joined us, and we established a private school in our home that September. Later, we were approached by other home schoolers in our area. They wanted to know if we could help  them find the right curriculum, and help them over any teaching rough spots. This was the birth of Christian Cottage Schools.

We began with a bona fide day school providing curriculum and support services to homeschool families. We now have designed curriculum programs for nearly 10,000 students in Colorado and elsewhere since 1986. I also wrote and published the four Christian Cottage Unit Study Volumes from 1996-2000. (Volume 1 In The Beginning God!, Volume 2 For God So Loved the World, Volume 3 God Bless America, Volume 4 Blessed to Be a Blessing)

Mike and I have had the privilege of helping Christian Home Educators of Colorado since its birth and have even been given the amazing honor of the Ruth Beechick Home Education Distinguished Service Award.

Teri has been at the forefront of Colorado Home Education from the beginning, including founding Christian Cottage Schools, and being a founding member of both Christian Home Educators of Colorado and Solid Rock Enrichment Program.