Discover the factors leading to the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the new American Government system by the People.

Second mile leaders are those counter-intuitive servants of God who earn the right to be heard by developing a consistent love of virtue, a disciplined approach to gratification, and a submissive love for the authority of God’s Word. Male leadership is essential to the success of marriages, families, the church, and society. This session will teach men to Earn The Right To Be Heard, Prefer Proactivity, Reject Reactivity, Learn To Elevate Virtues Above Feelings, Build Moral Muscle, Seek Forgiveness, and Develop A Finisher’s Attitude.

Joyce addresses homeschooling and working, teaching multiple ages, scheduling the day, and practical teaching strategies to use regardless of your curriculum program. Multi-sensory teaching methods, direct instruction, modeled teaching, and “scaffolding” instruction will be shared.

Everyone can relate to food and clothing, it is something that we have always needed throughout time. This workshop will explore the food and clothing of one select time period and how they can shape understanding of a historical point in time. Recipes and other ideas will be provided for use in the home educational setting.

How does Common Core impact home education? This presentation will describe how the Common Core Standards were adopted by the states and provide six reasons to avoid Common Core. Learn to differentiate between exemplary Type #1 education and poor Type #2 Common Core education.

As a teacher, it’s so easy to give the answer, isn’t it? How long do you allow a child to think before you start helping them? Sometimes we need to be quiet and let the child wrestle with the problem to find the answer. Do you know that children will learn better and remember things longer when they discover or think through? The goal is to provide a way for them to learn how to problem solve.

Where we started and how we have progressed. Learn what the founding father’s said about American education and the importance of teaching children biblical morals and virtues.

If we homeschool simply to achieve high academic marks, we are squandering the opportunity to influence our children for Christ. Character healthy leaders are those children who have learned to elevate virtues above feelings. If we spend our homeschooling hours simply on academics and activities, we may win the praise of man, but we risk losing the hearts of our children. In our few short years with our children we must focus on the first things first and character is always the first thing! In this conference, Megan, a homeschooling mother of eight, will challenge your homeschoolers to use every opportunity to teach their children to serve God by loving others and to love others by faithfully serving God.

Does your child often forget information from one day to the next? Does she struggle with mental arithmetic and memorizing multiplication tables? Is she easily distracted? This workshop addresses the challenges of homeschooling a child with memory difficulties. We will discuss the critical role that working memory plays in learning and attention, common roadblocks that parents face as they homeschool a child with memory issues, and practical ways that you can come alongside your student by implementing teaching strategies to match the latest research on how the brain functions.

Does everyone else know more than you do? Learn from honest discussions about pornography, predators, cyber-bullying, and cheating on school work. Is your home internet secure? Do you have cybersecurity for email, social media, phone, YouTube? How can I protect my identity?

The signs of risk for dyslexia in preschool and early elementary children will be discussed, along with the definition of dyslexia and the differences in the brain’s pathways for reading in dyslexic individuals. Information and activities to intervene early in highrisk individuals to increase print awareness and phonological awareness and to improve handwriting skills will be shared.

Learn the three essentials every student needs to make colleges want him or her. Excelling in these three areas can save thousands of dollars and help your student graduate with little or no debt. Watch colleges compete for your student, and make the college dream a reality.

Have those nagging questions answered: Did dinosaurs go on Noah’s Ark? Where did Cain get his wife? How could people live 900 years old? How does a Young Earth affect the Gospel of Jesus? What does the doctrine of creation have to do with so many leaving the church today? Was ancient man really primitive? What happened to the dinosaurs? Where did the different races come from? How can I teach creation in the classroom? Geared for all ages and all subjects this educational but entertaining presentation will leave you excited and confirm the authority of the Word of God and its inspiration. This presentation gives you the tools to share the message of creation and connect the Bible to the World around you, allowing kids to know the Bible is God’s Word, an authority, inspired and accurate theologically as well as scientifically.

Intensely practical and Bible based, the Nine Practices of The Proactive Parent is designed to give parents both the tools they need and the hope necessary to build a Christ-centered character-driven home environment. The Nine Practices are a great way to revitalize parents in the all important task of parenting. This session will take highlights from the 10- week Parenting Matters small group study. Steve will unwrap the Three Pillars of Parenting, The Motivation Model, The Growth Continuum, The Proactive vs. Reactive Parent, and more.

Graduate Recognition Keynote speech

Recognizing that a healthy marriage is the basis of a healthy home, this marriage session is a fun and fruitful way to invest in your folks. Steve and Megan teach from their book The Eight Rules Of Communication For Successful Marriages and finish the session with a fun loving look at marriage and F-R-I-E-N-D-S-H-I-P Practical advice in a guilt free environment make the teaching real and applicable to all those in attendance.

Parental rights and religious freedom have been the two foundations to establish a constitutional right for parents to teach their children at home. The U.S. Supreme Court some years back weakened the free exercise of religion claim as a foundation for homeschooling so that in order for homeschoolers to claim a fundamental right to home- school, they must be able to combine the free exercise right with the parental rights claim. In other words, both rights have to co-exist. Currently, this is not a problem,but because of the fragile nature of freedom, moral decay, complacency and apathy, homeschooling freedoms are in jeopardy. An additional threat that is brewing but not well known, is the opposition to homeschooling from the intellectual elites, e.g., law and college professors. This opposition is based on a belief that the state, through public schools, should have access to all children to teach tolerance for others, which leads to collectivism. Homeschoolers are in their cross-hairs. We are clearly at risk.

THINK Dyslexic! Learn the facts about dyslexia. If trying to teach students with dyslexia/S.L.D. is fresh for most teachers, consider what it must be like from the student point of view. Engage in tasks that simulate the dif?culty a student with learning disabilities might have when asked to perform typical classwork. You’ll look at your role a little differently.

To teach art, do you have to be proficient at drawing? Or painting? Or sculpture? What if you have barely moved past the stick figure stage? Well, the teacher of this workshop can relate. In fact, her former classroom students used to giggle at her drawing attempts. Yet she still considers herself to be teacher of art. Too often we focus so much on the production of art that we miss the appreciation and criticism aspects. Plus any study of history will always be enriched with the addition of art, not to mention all of the great books featuring artists. This workshop will be build on the “Art Across Nebraska” workshop from last year and will again feature some field trip suggestions.

Is your math program ailing? Does it need a bit of TLC or maybe you and your children feel it would be best to bury the math book? Whether your child is slowly sinking in the mire of math facts or they are fast tracking through the lessons as you scramble to keep up, join us in this workshop before you abandon your current program for another. We will discuss practical ways to stay the course, ways to know if switching curriculum is bene?cial in your situation and the simple tools necessary for a successful transition.

As your child grows older, you may be considering high school at home — but you’ve got your doubts! Why is homeschooling high school a crucial decision for your teen? How is it possible? What help is available? We’ll answer your questions; but more importantly, we’ll encourage and challenge you to explore the steps you should take as you weigh the possibility of teaching high school at home.

Children like to do what they can do, they want to do what they think they can do, and they hate to do what they think they cannot do. If you want excited and enthusiastic children who learn well, you must understand these key laws of motivation, and focus on the essential requirement of relevancy. If it matters, children will learn it, and if it doesn’t, they won’t. This session will enlighten you with speci?c ways to ?nd and create relevancy for children, even when they have no apparent interest.

Help! I can't seem to get anything done! Have you ever asked yourself how those families on the covers of homeschool magazines and catalogs actually get schooling or anything else done? Do you always feel frazzled and behind? How can you teach your older kids when you have busy preschoolers and toddlers interrupting all day long? This workshop provides ideas to engage, educate, integrate and when needed, occupy young ones. Learn how to create a family learning lifestyle that meets the needs of everyone in your home.

In this overview of ASD (Autism Spectum Disorder), participants will learn about the prevalence and characteristics including cognitive ability, social/emotional development, communication, ?ne and gross motor skills, and sensory processing, together with simple strategies for supporting individuals on the spectrum.

Common Core impact home education? This presentation will describe how the Common Core Standards were adopted by the states and provide six reasons to avoid Common Core. In this workshop, the attendees will learn to differentiate between exemplary Type #1 education and poor Type #2 Common Core education.

How do you plan a program for your high school home-schooler? What subjects do you teach and when? Do you follow a basic high school plan, a general college prep plan, or a rigorous college prep plan? How do you evaluate credits? Determine grades for a course? What about the need for a transcript and diploma? If you are just beginning to think about homeschooling during the high school years, this seminar will help you organize your thoughts and begin laying the groundwork for a viable four-year plan.

Evaluating a student’s writing can be very dif?cult for anyone, but especially for the parent who may feel less than perfectly con?dent in her own English or grammar skills. Learn how to provide speci?c models and stylistic goals for each composition, giving speci?c assignments to your students for both ?ction and non?ction. 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 con?dence 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.

Come hear answers to some of the most confusing questions people have about creation and the Bible. How did people live to be 900 years old before the Flood? Was ancient man really primitive? What caused the Ice-age and when was it? Where did Cain get his wife? What happened to the dinosaurs, when did they live and are they in the Bible? These and many more questions will be answered during this session.

20/20 eyesite is one of many visual components that contributes to the ability to take in visual information for learning. It’s thought that up to 80% of learning relies on the visual system through components of eye tracking, focusing, teaming, and processing of visual information. This presentation is to raise awareness of the impact visual de?ciencies can have on learning, signs that may indicate your child has an underlying vision disorder impacting their ability to learn, and treatment options for these visual de?ciencies.

Are you tired, drained, and feeling like you want to throw in the towel? Homeschooling is a priceless endeavor that can be both invigorating and exhausting. At times it can be hard to see the fruit of your labors when you're in the midst of planting the seeds. Join Carol for a time of encouragement as she shares what God has taught her through nineteen years of homeschooling her ?ve children, each with radically different gifts and abilities.

Teaching reading is as easy as A-B-C…or is it? Join us as we examine the popular approaches of teaching children to read, current research on reading success and provide an overview of the wide range of available curriculum. Pre-reading exercises and tips designed to develop reading ?uency and comprehension will be shared to equip your emergent reader.

The high school years are a prime opportunity to equip your teens with skills they will need for future success. If your teen is headed to college, the workforce, or the military, they will bene?t from study and time management skills. This session provides parents with ideas to incorporate these skills into high school coursework and lists resources to help teens cultivate these essential skills.

Many children (and some adults) have dif?culty learning to spell, but the diff?culty may not be with the student so much as with the method of presentation. Find out in this workshop how spelling information is most ef?ciently stored in the brain, and why. With a greater insight into the nature of spelling and neurological function presented in this workshop, parents and teachers will be well- equipped to meet the needs of all their children, not just the naturally good spellers.

Do you ever wonder if your child's development is on track? Four areas of development are essential for your child: social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and speech- language. Research-based activities and intervention as for optimal brain development will be presented in the ?rst of this two-part workshop.

Does everyone else know more than you do? Learn from honest discussions about pornography, predators, cyber- bullying, and cheating on school work. Is your home internet secure? Do you have cybersecurity for email, social media, phone, YouTube? How can I protect my identity?

Creating a high school transcript is easy yet a vital part of your child’s records. In this interactive, practical seminar you’ll create a transcript that can be used as a pattern when designing your own. We’ll guide you through transcript essentials, evaluation of credit, grading guide- lines and scales, and calculation of grade point averages (GPA’s). In addition, you’ll receive sample transcripts depicting other formats for you to consider.

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 the attending well to the ?rst 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.

Which car was inspired by a ?sh? What animal has made better dentures? Can evolution explain the design in animals? Come see God’s ?ngerprints in the design of animals and how it reveals that we are not just a highly evolved mammal but unique and special in God’s eyes. Because of this fantastic design in nature your children can now go into a new ?eld of science called biomimicry. You will learn of God’s design in animals and how it reveals man to be unique, especially loved and cared for while God is glori?ed in the details of His creation.

In part two of this work shop we will continue to determine if your child's development is on track. Four areas of development are essential for your child: social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and speech-language. Research-based activities and intervention as for optimal brain development will be presented in the second part of this two-part workshop.

Common Core impact home education? This presentation will describe how the Common Core Standards were adopted by the states and provide six reasons to avoid Common Core. In this workshop, the attendees will learn to differentiate between exemplary Type #1 education and poor Type #2 Common Core education.

Hear from an expert who has helped prepare families for college for over 20 years. This discussion will also give you the tools to motivate your child to see the value of a college education.

For preventative maintenance during the high school years, learn what important “to—dos” and deadlines to keep in mind. Major pit stops will include information about various tests, bene?ts and sources of outside classes, college search and application tips, alternatives to traditional college, and career and post high school paths.

Many parents think that good readers will naturally become good writers. Others think that writing talent is just that—a natural ability—some have it; others don’t. Both are myths. History and modern research show very clearly how good writers have developed. What are the two most critical things you can do as a parent to develop a high level of aptitude, from a young age and into high school? With humor and insight, Andrew will share the two easy but unbelievably powerful things you can do to build language patterns and nurture compe- tent communicators in your family.

Almost every father has heard that he is to lead his family spiritually, physically, and in every other way. However, many fathers will tell you that no one has ever told them how to effectively lead their children, especially in the area of spiritual development. Michael Smith presents encouraging and practical tips to fathers for becoming a helpful participant in the home education program and a leader in the home. He provides insight on the mental and emotional bene?ts to mothers and children fathers can provide through speci?c activities, and offers suggestions to men on being more effective as husbands. Mike candidly shares his many failures and a few suc- cesses. The session concludes with a list of the six things homeschooling mothers have identi?ed as the primary ways their husbands can be more effective in the family’s homeschool program. In one father’s words, “Inspiring and convicting—thanks for the straight talk!”

Living History sites are a door to the past and can involve one or many structures, time periods or cultures. By using resources at a Living History site, you can tailor education- al experiences. In this workshop, explore the possibilities available through Living History sites and learn now to tap into their resources locally and online.

Come learn what to do when in middle school and high school so your child attends an excellent college within your budget. John will give you the game plan: important activities, testing strategies, etc. Be proactive and see your child and your budget reap the bene?ts.

The high school years present an opportune time to develop skills young adults will utilize the rest of their lives. Learn about the importance of teaching ?nance, health care, car ownership, job preparation, spiritual principles, and more. All of these areas will bene?t your teens when they take that giant step into independence and adulthood. A list of suggested resources will be provided.

Exploring the practical elements of the Thomas Jefferson education model, Andrew will explain the seven keys as well as the five learning environments as developed by DeMille and his colleagues. (There’s even an unofficial “eighth key.”) With humorous stories from his own family’s experience, Andrew will delight homeschooling moms looking for tips on how to escape the “conveyor belt” approach to doing “school” at home.

Revisit the challenges, burdens and bene?ts of home schooling with a veteran homeschool father and leader. Addressing the potential, new, and veteran homeschooler and all homeschoolers in between, Michael Smith outlines the success of homeschooling in academics and social- ization, describes legal and legislative advances, and concludes that homeschoolers have earned the right to be left alone. For homeschoolers who are losing the vision, he reminds them of the bene?ts of homeschooling and offers some practical suggestions for relieving the pressure on the homeschooling family, especially Mom. “Thank you for con?rming the experience of my public education,” writes one parent, “and for convicting us even more of our commitment to bettering the lives of our children

Why aren’t your Christian neighbors homeschooling? What is the number one reason that parents do not homeschool? Their lack of con?dence to believe that they can actually do the job, or, put another way—fear of failure. Many homeschoolers in the midst of homeschooling are wondering how they will be able to determine whether they are successful or not with their children. Mike will explain in very clear and decisive terms how you can know whether or not you have been successful when you get to the end of your homeschool experience where it says “The End.” One way to answer the question is whether or not our work homeschooling with our children has been in vain. The Bible gives clear and decisive direction in this area which should be very encouraging to all of us, and hopefully give us encouragement in even the most dif?cult situations.

Are the “Terrrible Twos” eating your lunch? Need help managing your homeschool day with toddlers in the house? In this workshop Megan draws on her many years of homeschooling experience with 8 toddlers in tow to help you craft a plan for success. This workshop is intensely practical and will help you transform the terrible twos into the terrific twos!