There are 10 Essentials needed for a joyful homeschooling journey. You might be surprised to find out they aren’t using a perfect curriculum, reading a particular book, or following a specific methodology. The 10 Essentials to homeschooling are far more foundational than that (and they are super easy to apply this week)! In this session, Carrie shares the 10 essentials and how to incorporate them into your homeschooling today whether you are new to homeschooling or you have been homeschooling for years.

Always feeling behind? Wondering how to get it all done? Find out about this simple and flexible tool and how you can incorporate it into your homemaking and homeschooling! This in-depth workshop will guide you through several ideas and templates to get you started.

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!

This practical workshop shows how to use picture books to teach literary devices and writing with all ages. This is a fun, practical workshop that equips parents with tools for engaging their children with literature and writing skills. I’ve taught and tutored essay writing and literature for many years, and even at the high school levels, using picture books simplifies the process of finding literary devices and understanding them. This workshop is great for all levels from elementary through high school.

If given the opportunity, Carrie would sit down with her younger (and more idealistic) self and give her some much-needed sage advice! As a retired homeschooling mom, Carrie shares five important lessons she has learned after 20+ years of homeschooling. She candidly shares herepic fails and what not to do when homeschooling. She shares advice and hindsight that she wished she would have known before starting this homeschooling journey and what she has learned along the way.

Gameschooling…. Yes, it’s a thing! And it is a great way to homeschool too. Shhh! Moms, don’t let your kids know they are doing school! Play is the work of childhood so don’t skip the play in your homeschooling. In this session, Carrie focuses on how to put the FUN back into learning the FUNdamentals. Carrie shares how to incorporate games into your lessons, how to gameschool on a budget, and shares tons of game recommendations for all subjects and all grade levels.

Want to transition your young adults from simple obedience to mature responsibility? In this session, Dr. Steve shares the important phases teens need to learn to take responsibility for their lives. Watch your kids move from childish irresponsibility to becoming young adults who embrace ownership and initiative as they move up the “Responsibility Tree."

Can your students read between the lines? Decode advertisements? Interpret political cartoons? Make judgments about logic? Discern between inevitable biases and compromising agendas? Take counterarguments seriously? Pinpoint ideology? Contextualize events in history? Tease out nuance? Define subtlety? Take apart rhetoric? Account for psychology? Distinguish between intuition and reason? Assess the impact of the medium? Discuss images vs. text vs. video? Read laterally? Research reliably? Uncover original sources? Identify circumstantial evidence? Tolerate boredom? Frame and characterize charitably? Distinguish between facts, opinions, and value judgments? Distinguish between readily-available sources, well-financed sources, aesthetically-pleasing sources, and good sources? Breakdown satire? Unpack persuasiveness? Co-exist with misinformation, disinformation, and fake news? Literacy with today’s media requires a world of insights from history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and media studies. Come learn how to structure a course that targets all layers of a student’s needs in today’s information and media environment.

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.

Protecting children on social media is a critical issue in today’s world, where online platforms are increasingly becoming a part of everyday life. With the rise of cyberbullying, online predators, selling of drugs laced with Fentanyl, and exposure to inappropriate content, it is essential to establish new approaches and guidelines to safeguard kids on social media. In this speech, Connie will discuss what parents can do to protect their child from the dangers of social media.

X-Boxes, Game-Cubes, the INTERNET, Facebook, and iPhones have changed the way we live, have fun, and interact. Children quietly glued to game monitors for hours have replaced laughter and creativity. They beg to play, whine when they can’t. Teens and pre-teens spend most of their waking hours texting, chatting on Facebook, or ‘tweeting’ on Twitter. Today’s latest-breaking technology becomes tomorrow’s obsession, demanding more time, attention, and sacrifices. Maybe you feel like you’ve lost control in your own home. Does this tell you that something is terribly wrong? Do you feel like a beast has invaded your home, but you don’t know how to handle it? If so, listen to Todd on the timely topic of taming the TECHNO-BEAST!

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 hour.

Learning to read shouldn’t be unnecessarily hard for our children… or exhausting for moms! Learn some practical things that can help open the door to understanding for your child in the area of Reading. We’ll cover small changes you can make using any curriculum, including what you are already using, that can help both mom and child find success.

When asked, “What are the language arts?” people may respond by listing numerous subjects: spelling, phonics, grammar, penmanship, copying, dictation, narration, and composition. But actually it’s much simpler! For those adhering to the classical model, those ascribing to a Charlotte Mason approach, or those who just want a common-sense curriculum, there are really only four core language arts: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and attending well to the first two makes teaching the latter two so much easier. Come prepared to have your educational paradigm adjusted, your load lightened, and your commitment to excellence renewed as you focus on the most important things in the limited time you have.

Who is going to build a house by starting with the walls? Without a solid foundation, those walls may hold up for a bit but eventually will come crashing down. Math is a lot like building a house. We need to start with a strong foundation and build up from there. It doesn’t have to be hard! See how easy it is to teach math.

Evaluating a student’s writing can be very difficult, especially for the parent who may feel less than perfectly confident. Learn how to provide specific models and stylistic goals for each composition, giving specific assignments to your students for both fiction and non-fiction. Solve the “How long does it have to be?” problem. Never again hear yourself say, “Don’t you want to add a little more detail?” With confidence and precision, you can design and communicate to your students goal- and model-based writing assignments, and can have a concrete tool to objectively evaluate their efforts.

How long do you allow a child to think before you start helping them? Sometimes we need to be quiet and let them wrestle with the problem. Do you know that children will learn better and remember things longer when they discover the solution? The goal is to provide a way for them to learn how to solve problems. Find out how to help your child think their way through math.

As an experienced homeschooling mother of four children, Jeannie Fulbright shares tips and ideas to make homeschooling children of different ages and abilities a breeze.

Is your second grader building a fusion reactor in your backyard or calculating rates of speed and velocity? Forrest and Beth Mora’s daughter, SmartCookie #1 received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in three short years at 21 years of age and is a certified teacher. Their son, SmartCookie #2 and twin to #1, received a 104% in Calculus 2 in his senior year of high school and reads C++ programming textbooks for enjoyment. Beth candidly shares her journey of home educating her two academically advanced children and learn how she kept the wheels of opportunity turning. Learn what worked and what didn’t. If you have a “Smartcookie”, you won’t want to miss this unique perspective.

Why can my gifted student calculate geometric ratios but he can’t find his shoes? One moment you’re conversing with your student about the research on genetics and the next moment he’s arguing with you that his Superman cape can sustain flight because it has super powers. Gifted children often experience what’s called “asynchronous development.” How do you meet the developmental and academic needs of a gifted learner? Beth Mora will address this in detail from experience with her two academically gifted children.

People, especially children, are visual learners. Approaching math from a visual perspective using an abacus is a sure-fire path to success! Learn how an abacus fosters quantity recognition and develops addition strategies. Investigate place value in a crystal clear format. Explain “borrowing and carrying” when adding and subtracting numbers. Discover the simplicity of multiplication. Find the easy way to learn the math facts.

“If you control yourselves, then your parents don’t have to.” Did you realize that you have incredible power over your life…not by controlling your parents …but by controlling yourself? Listen and learn how to calm yourself down and deal proactively with stress, peer pressure, anxiety, focus, attention, and more. Jesus wasn’t some weak guy—he was very powerful precisely because He controlled Himself. This is hard-hitting advice and strategies that most adults don’t even know how to master, but you can!

This is a new era for the Maker. A maker is anyone who loves to build and figure out how things work. How can the parent with the kinesthetic learner keep a stash of supplies and activities readily available for that creative mind?

Homeschooling can be a lot of things, but most assuredly it is the adventure of a lifetime. This workshop begins by helping you build a road map for your homeschool journey, and concludes with practical suggestions on how to follow that map.

With a unique and humorous approach, Steve demonstrates how to use hands-on manipulatives to illustrate important math concepts such as algebra, place value, exponents, regrouping (carrying and borrowing), double digit multiplication, fractions, and factoring.

Use Pinterest as a springboard to design simple inquiry-based STEM activities that teach real concepts and engage your at-home learners.

This highly practical workshop will compare and contrast the many different teaching methods and styles commonly employed by homeschooling parents. Linda seeks to share advantages and disadvantages within each method, without preference. Bring your questions.

Jr. High and High School Robotics – Introduction to FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge: 1) Introduction to the game; 2) Hardware and Software; 3) Starting and coaching a team; 4) Stay tuned for the 2016-17 Season

This session will outline a practical approach to developing basic foreign language skills at home, using free digital resources. You will see examples of various resources, walk through a sample daily lesson plan, and discuss both the advantages and limitations inherent in this approach. Ideas will also be presented for the next steps if your student wishes to further develop in foreign language proficiency.