New to homeschooling, and/or new to filing and following the PA homeschool law, or thinking about homeschooling in the future? We will talk about filing for the first time, withdrawing from public school, how to find groups, mentors and evaluators. We will also discuss styles of homeschooling, a typical day, finding curriculum and other resources.

Come explore the most popular homeschooling styles—Classical, Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, and Eclectic—and discover which one feels like the best fit for your family. We’ll walk through 9 key questions that will help you assess your family’s needs, goals, and lifestyle. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to fine-tune your approach, you’ll leave with a better idea of how to create the perfect homeschool experience for you and your kids.

This workshop offers practical resources, lists of materials, and curricula ideas to equip you as you homeschool a struggling learner. Cheri Kay presents ideas for designing a unique home instruction program tailored to your child’s specific challenges. She also addresses homeschooling while working, teaching multiple ages, scheduling the day, and practical teaching strategies you can use regardless of your curriculum program. Finally, Cheri Kay explains multi-sensory teaching methods, direct instruction, and modeled teaching.

In this session, Carrie shares how to teach PreK- 4th-grade for free (or for almost free), how to keep God and His Word at the center of your PreK-4th studies, how to protect your child’s childhood from academic overload, and more. This session will help you keep the WONDER years WONDERful, full of awe and fun, and on a budget! If you are a mom of a PreK-4th grade student, a family on a strict budget, a parent wanting to have more meaningful experiences with her younger children, or a homeschool mom wanting to simplify her schedule, then this workshop is for you.

Classical education embodies the most natural skills of learning. To give your children a better education, you must give them more than content. You must teach them the timeless art of how to learn. Discover the skills that teach your children how to think well and develop understanding of any subject, topic, or trade. We will model these skills and tools allowing you to experience them yourself so you’re able to use them in your own homeschool. Learn how a Classical Education differs from a modern education, how it can help your discipleship relationships with your children, and get some interactive practice. Experience classical education in action!

Economics is a subject that plays a profound role in the life of everyone on the planet, and yet there is an astounding lack of knowledge when it comes to this field. This must change! Join Alex as he shares the critical foundations of this essential social science, learned from 12 years as a teacher of advanced economics to some of America’s brightest high-school seniors. He will talk about basics like supply and demand, and more complex issues such as the monetary system and banking. Finally, he will offer practical tips to homeschoolers on this critical field.

Explore how to tailor your homeschooling curriculum to match your child’s unique learning style. This session delves into understanding various learning modalities and practical strategies for selecting or adapting curriculum materials accordingly. Whether you’re a novice or experienced homeschooler, discover how to create a personalized learning experience that aligns with your child’s strengths and interests.

Homeschooling provides an education that is beyond comparison with any other method. That said, Idaho code requires that homeschoolers provide instruction, “in subjects commonly and usually taught in the public schools.” This is often summed up as a requirement to provide a “comparable education.” But how are we to meet that requirement without stifling the amazing educational freedom that homeschooling offers? Join Linda Patchin as she unpacks various teaching methods used by homeschoolers and how they can each meet, and exceed, the statutory requirement of a “comparable education.”

Do you love to plan? Do you like organizers, rows, columns and checklists? Do you love to label and color code everything into neat little boxes? Planning is essential to what we do; it helps our days and years run smoothly; but could it be that some of us become bound and chained to our ideas and plans? Is it possible that we are planning God right out of our homeschool? Come and hear how we can put God back in the driver seat of our home and school and how to use planning to help us rather than control us.

If you have ever wondered how to design a high school course of study, evaluate the results, develop a transcript, or award a diploma, then this is the workshop for you! Linda will cover all of these subjects and more in one quick paced hour.

Where Do I Begin? A Workshop for New and Prospective Homeschoolers – Nancy Bjorkman Considering homeschooling? Not sure where to begin? This workshop will define realistic and foundational goals for homeschooling that will get new families off to a solid start. We’ll cover some common roadblocks and misconceptions about “what school should look like”, state law, and many practical tips for success. There will be a time for interaction and questions.

This engaging workshop will review several different teaching approaches found in homeschooling, and then help attendees identify resources and curricula to fit their family’s particular style. Just getting started in homeschooling? Needing to refocus and redefine what homeschooling could look like for your family? Come benefit from Nancy’s over 30 years of experience and enjoy her dynamic style.

Join us for an insightful presentation on classical Christian education, where we'll explore the rich tradition of teaching that integrates rigorous academics with a Christ-centered approach to the curriculum. This session will highlight the importance of acquiring knowledge and learning skills as foundational tools for nurturing a love of learning and developing wisdom and virtue in your children. We’ll discuss practical strategies for incorporating classical methods into your home, while emphasizing the importance of cultivating virtue and character in the educational journey. Whether you’re new to classical education or seeking to deepen your approach, this talk will equip and encourage you in your homeschooling mission.

Do you have a philosophy of education? Yes, whether you realize it or not, you do. But what is it? And do your methods line up with your philosophy? We will take a look at Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education and how her methods and practices all jive together.

Do you want to start building the foundation of educational readiness for your littlest learner? If so, this is the perfect workshop for you! Cheri Kay will teach you about the stages of development, the importance of learning through play, and the foundations for lifelong learning. She will share tips and tricks for making learning fun and engaging for you and your child, while sparking their curiosity about the world around them.

If you have a unique learner, it’s easy to get tangled up in the stress of trying to get your child ‘caught up’ academically. In this encouraging and practical workshop, Krisa points out areas of progress that are sometimes forgotten. She helps you see that when it comes to kids- academic progress isn’t the only measure of success!

Lab journals play a powerful role in both the academic and spiritual growth of students. They foster curiosity, reflection, and intentionality in young learners. They record experiments, cultivate gratitude, stewardship, and a deeper understanding of God's design. By engaging with their observations and reflections, students can recognize the Creator's purposeful order in nature, seeing that all scientific discovery points to His glory.

Does your student understand math concepts, but can’t master multiplication facts? Do you have a child with a math phobia or even a learning disability in math? This workshop includes a variety of teaching strategies and resources that will equip you to teach math no matter what curriculum program you’re using!

Are you looking for ways to bring music into your family and your homeschool? The Growing Roots and Family share insights into making music a valuable educational, emotional and spiritual tool for children of all ages. They will provide tips for sparking musical interest, practice time and using gifts for the glory of God.

Nature journaling is about deepening observation, curiosity, and connection with God’s creation. The author of Nature Study Companion and founder of Living Books Curriculum, will show you how to make nature journaling simple, pressure-free, and enriching for your homeschool. You’ll learn easy methods to integrate Scripture and science into your journals. No artistic talent is required—just a heart for wonder!

Boys have more energy than you can keep up with? Providing an intentional atmosphere of learning for your son will result in successful lessons and joyful days. Hear stories and helpful tips from a veteran homeschooling mom of three boys. “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.” Proverbs 1:8-9

There’s so much to be said about teaching reading. In the session, you’ll learn about the science of reading, multi-sensory teaching, and best practices for teaching a student who’s struggling to read.

Sheila will show you how to integrate STEM and STEAM learning into your homeschool through the lens of faith and wonder. Discover how hands-on nature study fosters scientific inquiry, critical thinking, creativity, and a deep appreciation for God’s design. Learn five simple ways to connect science, faith, and the natural world, inspiring curiosity and a lifelong love of learning—no expertise required!

Technology is inescapable, but it is not the enemy. Using these critical action steps, you can learn to manage technology so it does not manage you. It can be a great tool for ourselves and for our families.

Explore how to tailor your homeschooling curriculum to match your child’s unique learning style. This session delves into understanding various learning modalities and practical strategies for selecting or adapting curriculum materials accordingly. Whether you're a novice or an experienced homeschooler, discover how to create a personalized learning experience that aligns with your child's strengths and interests.

Learning Styles Handout

Gain a fresh perspective on how your children’s actions and attitudes help you discover their natural bent, so you can plan strategies that will help them grow into the persons they were created to be. We’ll peel back the layers to reveal pieces of the puzzle that go beyond the usual “auditory, kinesthetic, and visual” discussions. This workshop will provide you with insight into your children on a new level to help you reach and teach them more effectively.

Discover how to use reading and writing to teach your kids how to think for themselves. Starting with young students, Kerry takes you through from littles to teens, showing how you can develop critical and biblical thinking skills. By the time she addresses the high school ages, you’ll know how to use great, living books and writing to prepare your kids to think for themselves and make wise decisions instead of following the crowd. Plus, you’ll love her ideas on how to incorporate your read-alouds in this process.

You can’t do everything, but did you know that you shouldn’t even try? In this message, you’ll learn how independent learning decreases burn out, helps students excel, and equips them for life. This workshop will give you the tools to guide your child as they gradually transition to learning independently, whether you have preschoolers or high schoolers!

In every generation, except the last two or three, parents have taught their children how to grow their own food, keep animals, and provide for their basic needs. With wit and wisdom, this talk presents some ways parents can teach their children homesteading skills and mend the chain that has been broken from the generations before ours.

Many parents slowly progress away from hands-on learning as their student nears high school level classes. But, for students who have difficulty with understanding abstract concepts through traditional instruction, the removal of multi-sensory and discovery-style instruction makes the leap to high school not only challenging but also often very discouraging. In this talk, Peggy Ployhar, the CEO of SPED Homeschool, covers practical ways to build high school credit courses for a homeschool student using unit studies and encourages her audience to do the same in this interactive workshop. You will leave this talk encouraged and equipped to start, or continue, your homeschooling high school journey using unit studies.

Do you find it hard to relate to and teach your children who have different learning/processing styles than you do? Understanding how your student processes information can be the key you need to help them unlock a love of learning. In this session, we will be exploring the neurobiology behind information processing and decision making. The focus will primarily be on how the right brain and left brain function and work together. As we develop applications for understanding communication, you’ll begin to understand why the same message can have vastly different meanings for two people. Take-home applications will help improve communication, relating, and efficiency in learning. Dr. Joe has an engaging way of making the complex simple, and while his two sessions aren't connected, it will be helpful to attend both as you will learn two sides of a coin (how information is processed and how an individual relates to the world around). This session is more focused on external interpretation than internal processes.

“The Principality of Mathematics is a mountainous land, but the air is very fine and health-giving.” (Charlotte Mason) Is this indicative of junior high and/or high school math in your home? Are you enjoying the fine air and taking in the summit view, or does the air feel thin and your student is seemingly stuck hiking in a circle? In this workshop we will learn how to help students retrace their steps in order to build a more solid understanding of place value, fractions, decimals, integers, and exponents. Then with this firm ground under our feet, we will navigate how to breathe life into your upper level math lessons through hands on discovery and practical examples of algebra and geometry concepts. A world of truth and beauty awaits to be found in this mountainous land!

Your child struggles with some part of learning, or perhaps has given up. How do you help them begin again? How do you establish wise goals? How will you tell when you’ve reached them? Learn how to work around areas of weakness, strengthen them, and adapt curriculum. Get tips on how to keep going and to help your child keep going.

The turmoil of the tween/preteen years between nine and thirteen usually catches parents by surprise. Diligent students become addled and distracted. Kids raised in church start questioning the existence of God. Sweet children seem to climb on an emotional rollercoaster – and then invite you to join them. Don’t get a ticket for that ride! Instead, learn to resist the temptation to lose it yourself and to shepherd our children through this challenging age at this funny and all-too-real workshop — and lay a foundation to make the teen years great!

Homeschooling provides an education that is beyond comparison with any other method. That said, Idaho code requires that homeschoolers provide instruction, “in subjects commonly and usually taught in the public schools.” This is often summed up as a requirement to provide a “comparable education.” But how are we to meet that requirement without stifling the amazing educational freedom that homeschooling offers? Join Linda Patchin as she unpacks various teaching methods used by homeschoolers and how they can each meet, and exceed, the statutory requirement of a “comparable education.”

Do your children struggle with learning hard concepts or facts but can quote their favorite movie to you verbatim? Join me as we discuss how and when to use educational apps to help your children master hard concepts and learn facts without the tears. Cherie will share some of her favorite learning apps. If you have favorites please be prepared to share about them.

Charlotte Mason emphasized the importance of learning the history of our native country, neighboring countries, and the world. I’ll share helpful resources and tips on how to integrate geography, literature, art, music, movement, and nature study into your history lessons — resulting in a joyful education. “Our aim in education is to give a full life.” -Charlotte Mason

Are we teaching the right things at the right time? Will there be gaps if we teach outside the box? This session is all about fostering a love of learning and creating a flexible, interest-driven curriculum all while meeting the academic needs of your kids and keeping the important things in focus.

Can you overcome self-doubt and lack of experience to teach the harder subjects like pre-algebra, chemistry, or English literature? Instead of putting it off, find out what your options are! Karri Iverson, veteran homeschooling mom and author of The Mystery of Science series, will share how she’s used resources available to teach her kids through high school.

Will Christian curriculum look any different from public school curriculum when it comes to subjects like history, science, and literature? As the author of most of the Christian Family Discipleship Curriculum provided by Generations, Kevin Swanson discusses the fundamental and radical differences a Christian worldview provides in these subjects.

Unpack the frequently asked questions of how to homeschool struggling learners and those who learn differently. Be encouraged and equipped as Rochelle shares diagnostic checklists for struggling learners, discusses common roadblocks homeschooling parents face (and how to navigate them), and gives strategies for achieving success with your children who learn differently.

How to start, where to find curriculum, when to school, and what a typical day looks like are some of the areas discussed. Get an understanding of Rule 13 and gain valuable information for your homeschool journey. This workshop is a MUST for new homeschoolers.

Teaching high school does not have to be intimidating. It can be fun and engaging. Dara will share tips and tricks for successfully navigating your child through the teen years and on to the next years of work and/or college. She will have resource lists and reading lists, emotional support ideas for the teenager and parents, classes needed lists and how to set up a transcript with a transcript template included.

This session offers a discussion of learners who experience some form of disability or learning challenge alongside an exceptional gift. You’ll come away with a broader understanding of how different exceptionalities can manifest themselves within learning styles and preview resources that match your child’s unique learning profile. Ultimately, this workshop will enable you to spend less time searching for resources and more time nurturing your child’s gifts.

This workshop addresses some of the challenges associated with teaching struggling or atypical learners at home in the high school years. Do you have questions such as “How do I award my teen with special needs a diploma?” or “What do I do when my teen with dyslexia can’t read high school-level material?” Rochelle discusses alternative coursework, specialized curricula and learning materials, assistive technology, transcript options, possible graduation guidelines, high school programs for special learners, and post-high school options. She also offers tips for navigating the process of applying for testing accommodations for College Board tests.

Do your children have interest in computers? Do all the "teach your kids coding" materials out there make you dizzy? This workshop will help you cut through the noise and give you the real-world resources to help encourage your child(ren) further into the world of computing.

Participants will be better prepared to implement effective reading instruction for their child who struggles with reading by gaining a deeper understanding of the five components of literacy instruction -- phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. They will learn how to use available screeners to accurately place children in a reading intervention, using phonics and word-reading screeners, spelling screeners, and phonemic awareness screeners.

Could you use some encouragement and strategies to help reignite your student’s love of learning? If so, this session is for you! There are many factors that impact a child’s motivation level—stress, executive function, nutritional needs, media usage, and more. With a little bit of theory and a whole lot of practical application, Rochelle equips parents with the tools they need to tap into their child’s God-given gift of curiosity.

In this session, Llora will give an introduction and explanation to homeschooling through high school. From creating a four-year plan, selecting courses, and figuring grade point average, to preparing for college.

Alysia will share tips and tricks to help you experience success and joy in teaching your child with Dyslexia at home. Learn about what Orton-Gillingham/Structured Literacy is, how it applies to every subject matter, ways to accommodate and modify curricula, and most importantly, how to support your child’s self-esteem so that he/she may know and believe God’s perfectly planned purpose for his/her amazing brain.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the demands of parenting? Life is certainly a challenge for parents, and especially those who accept the added responsibility of home education. But there are ways to make life easier and more productive, and this workshop discusses some of those. Marilyn Boyer, mother of fourteen children and a veteran home educator of more than forty years' experience, shares her techniques for accomplishing a mammoth amount of housework while giving her children a superior education at the same time.

This engaging workshop will review several different teaching approaches found in homeschooling, and then help attendees identify resources and curricula to fit their family’s particular style. Just getting started in homeschooling? Needing to refocus and redefine what homeschooling could look like for your family? Come benefit from Nancy’s over 30 years of experience and enjoy her dynamic style.

Gain a fresh perspective on how your children’s actions and attitudes help you discover their natural bent, so you can plan strategies that will help them grow into the person they were created to be. We’ll peel back the layers to reveal pieces of the puzzle that go beyond the usual “auditory, kinesthetic, and visual” discussions. This workshop will provide you with insight into your children on a new level to help you reach and teach them more effectively.

Before mass compulsory schooling,students learned to investigate, reason, and form independent attitudes. Today's home educating parents are discovering many exciting ways to get beyond packaged curriculum and experience real books, real experiences, real relationships-real learning.

The choices are overwhelming! The multiple approaches and options of curriculum makes our heads spin. Some decisions matter most that lead to homeschool success. This session will help you feel more confident in many of the decisions you face. You will gain insights about teaching multiple ages, schedules, co-ops, on-line learning, extra curricular activities and more.

Sensory concerns are rising, and they can quickly cause stress on a homeschool day. During this session, Alysia will share her experience as a pediatric occupational therapist working with children with various sensory needs. Learn about the sensory systems, therapy techniques to implement immediately in your homes, daily rhythms that support a sensory diverse learner, and ways to begin to understand your own sensory system and how that impacts how you teach and respond to your children.

This session is a practical and encouraging overview of the simple yet effective methods used in the Charlotte Mason approach. You will learn about Charlotte and experience using her methods for yourself during the session.

You might feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, but it can all be explained! This session will give you a brief overview of educational styles and curricula choices to help you navigate which way to go. Different styles are for different people, and we will give you an honest evaluation of the various choices with the pros and cons of each type. Tips to discern who you are, who your children are, and what will work for you will help you to hone in on appropriate choices for your year.

Learn about the tools that teach your children how to think well and develop an understanding of any subject, topic, or trade. Using the Seven Wonders of the ancient world as a springboard, we will model these tools allowing you to experience them yourself!

Yes, you can use Charlotte Mason's principles and methods with a special needs child. Sonya shares what she has learned from more than 15 years of teaching her daughter with autism, pervasive developmental delays, and language processing issues.

The world of homeschooling is a lot like the world of food. You know that you want to provide nutritious meals for your children’s minds, but there are so many possibilities for what that food could look like and taste like. Join Sonya for a simple overview of five main flavors of homeschooling: traditional, classical, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, unschooling. Find your preferred flavor and learn how to shop for a successful homeschool menu.

Cut the cost of college tuition in half! This popular workshop will share how to accelerate the first two years of college by earning credit for subjects your student may already be studying in high school. The College Board’s College Level Examination Program (CLEP) along with Prometric’s DSST program are nationally recognized credit- by-exam programs that offer over 70 different exams, allowing students to test out of courses generally taken the first two years of college. Whether your student is gifted, motivated, or looking for purpose, this workshop will help save time and money earning a college degree. Teens are encouraged to attend with you.

Does the subject of literature seem like a mystery? Are you a loss about how to understand it yourself, much less teach it to your kids? This inspiring lecture demonstrates that everything you need to know about understanding and teaching literature is present in your second grader’s bedtime story. Adam reads a classics children’s story out loud and then leads the audience into a discussion of eternal literary themes. Along the way, he shows how you can do the same at home by following five simple steps. Your literature curriculum – to say nothing of family story time – will come alive automatically. You’ll never put the kids to bed the same way again!

Add the Wonder Nature Curriculum is a multi-age, cross-disciplinary curriculum that capitalizes on the wonder that exists around us to learn many subjects all at once in a family setting. By adding elements of fascination, this curriculum helps learning stick and beyond that, it causes each member of the family to be more aware of the daily miracles surrounding them. Learn how to implement Add the Wonder Nature Curriculum into your homeschool and why it is a great fit for today's learners!!

If you love the idea of a flexible curriculum guided by your child's interests but aren't sure how to make that happen without holes or headaches, this session is for you. 20+ year veteran homeschool mom Kim Sorgius will show you how to create your own curriculum plans for your child's interests, using tools and resources to make the job easy. It's time to think outside of the box!

Gone are the days when people would choose a career and stick with it for life. Many careers these days last less than three years and the majority of 20-year-olds will have four career changes within that decade. In fact, it is likely that the careers they will have, haven't even been invented yet. How are we supposed to prepare our homeschooled children for a world we can't predict? Lean research backed ways to ensure your homeschooler is prepared for an uncertain future.

A unit study that will cover all your subjects but math for all your kids from kindergarten to grade 12-- it seems too good to be true. Listen to the story of Gather 'Round Homeschool: kingdom-based teaching that connects every subject, unites your whole family around the table, and brings it all back to Jesus. No more bouncing around from one subject to the next or one child to the next. What if you could do school with all your kids together? From the philosophy, the values, and the approach, if you've been considering Gather 'Round or are looking for something new for this next school year, don't miss this message.

Are you a frustrated homeschooling parent? Many homeschooling parents struggle with stress, anger, and discouragement. Kathie discusses several causes of frustration, and then tells how to deal with them. She also stresses the importance of dealing with anger, and having the right spirit in dealing with our children.

Math is so much more than memorizing rules and facts. With a unique and humorous approach, Steve demonstrates how to use hands-on manipulatives to illustrate important math concepts such as place value, double digit multiplication, fractions, algebra, exponents, squares, square roots, and factoring trinomials.

Most Christian parents want to teach their children theology and Bible doctrine, but aren't sure how to go about it. Learn the difference between primary and secondary doctrines and how to help your children protect themselves against cults and false religions that would seek to woo them away from true Christian faith.

At some time in our future, is it imaginable that freedom of speech and freedom of religion could be suppressed where we live? History would indicate so. How do we prepare ourselves and our families for such a contingency? What curriculum might best prepare us for persecution, even martyrdom? How do we cultivate necessary virtues without sparking burdensome fears? This may not be a pleasant subject to contemplate, but perhaps it will be an important one.