HomeschoolConvention.com--soooo coooool!

I really do love homeschool conventions and conferences. Let me tell you about the newest, coolest one, yet.


HomeschoolConvention.com is what I'm talking about! 
It also does Home Educating Family Blog, The Well Planned Day Planner, and more.


It's 365/24/7.  That's right. You can attend this convention whenever you want. Monday night when you can't sleep. The middle of July when it's over 100 degrees. Thanksgiving morning when you're still trying to get your bird to thaw. Anytime!


It's free. Yup. I don't think I really need to expound on this one much. I know there are a lot of conventions I'd like to attend, but can't financially. This convention is for my budget. No gas, no lodging, no child care, no admission charge.

Vendors. There are four exhibit halls where you can go from booth to booth with only a click of your mouse. You can speak to people in the booth "real time" or through messaging. You can put fliers in you tote for later download and sometimes the vendors will give you freebies or convention deals. Again, this will be year round, not just one weekend a year.
This is a picture of on of the exhibit halls:

Workshops. It looks like there will be at least four workshops a week. Again, they will be available 24/7, so you don't have to worry about which one to attend or which one to miss. You can attend them all!


Homeschool 101. A source for the questions you have about homeschooling.


Explore Curriculum has links to all the great reviews done by Home Educating Family. 


AND MORE


The Homeschool Convention just opened on Monday, March 26. Not everything is open quite yet. Most of the workshops, for instance, won't start until April and some resources until May. Even so, it is a great online resource and refreshment anytime you need it.


All you have to do is register and you have a Homeschool Convention at your finger tips!

De-Schooling Dynamics



Laurette Lynn

 Last night I listened the the HECOA teleconference with Laurette Lynn, the "Unplugged Mom".  I'm going to share the basics of what I gleaned here.

De-schooling is not related to un-schooling and unplugging is not related to electronics. 

Now that all that is settled, let's talk about what it is. 

Unplugging or de-schooling means removing the artificial reality of the school model from our minds and replace it with the family learning design which is natural and organic.  It's basically a "de-toxing" process!!

She mentioned five basic concepts that often challenge the unplugging process.  Here they are and just a few comments on each.

Home education is for you. 

Everyone.  Single. Married. Religious. Secular.

School is an artificial process that has only been around for a little over 100 years.  It was developed by industrialists (who happened to have been educated at home and within the community) in order to develop their work force. 

School is strange; you handling your child's education at home is not.

Home education is not school at home. 

Don't try to replicate the school experience at home, because you're not supposed to.  It brings down anxiety when you realize you don't have to "do school". 

You can teach your child. 

You are not on your own.  There are so many resources available.  Most importantly, you are not being a teacher, but merely doing a natural extension of your parenting. 



http://www.unpluggedmom.com/

One excellent point she made was concerning standards.  She questioned who set the standards which state your child needs to be able to do certain things by a certain age.  That standard is set by the school model!  If you are unplugging from that paradigm, why use it's standard??

We don't socialize. 

She encourages us to first be honest about what is meant by the "socialization" question.  It actually means, "Is my child going to be weird, awkward and have no friends?" 

The answer is no, because instead of socializing, we just have relationships.  Again, a natural and organic thing.  In fact, the relationships our children will develop this way are more valuable and varied because they weren't forced through mandatory demographic groupings which result in limited choices in developing friends.

Home educated kids can go to college and succeed in life. 

What was interesting was, again, to watch for the school mindset.  If you go to college just because it's what you're supposed to do, then it's probably part of the conveyor belt mentality of  "schooling".  She mentioned that college is not for everyone, nor does everyone need to go to college at the same age or same way.

So, a lot of things to think about!  I definitely still am!

Don't forget, you can still jump into the rest of HECOA's conference.  Check out my other post for more details.

HECOA Teleconferences

Home Education Council of America has scheduled many great teleconferences in the upcoming week.  They are free for HECOA members, and it's free to join.  The first one is tonight.

Here are the basic information.  Go HERE for summaries about each class and to register. 

"De-Schooling Dynamics"--Thursday, Sept. 8, Time: 3:30pm Pacific Standard Time

“Ordering our Crazy Lives”--Thursday, Sept. 15, Time: 12p PST 

“Principles of Happy Home Educating Families”--Wednesday, Sept. 14, Time: 2p PST

“Juggling Homeschool and Household”--Thursday, Sept. 15, Time: 2p PST


“Happy Kids who Love to Learn”--Wednesday, Sept. 21, Time: 4p PST

Special Needs Presentation:  “Is Homeschool better than Public School?”--Tuesday, Sept. 27, Time: 2p PST

A Thomas Jefferson Education

I've been listening to the HECOA Super Summit the past few weeks.  I actually missed last Thursday's teleconference, but was able to semi-listen to it this morning.  I'm sure any homeschooling mothers reading this will understand what I mean about semi-listen!

The speaker was Rachel DeMille.  Her husband wrote the book A Thomas Jefferson Education.  She and her husband, Oliver, now do Thomas Jefferson Education or TJEd. 

There was a lot of information to share.  Some things were just mentioned in passing, but she did encourage the listeners to go to the website for more details.  I visited briefly just to flesh out a few of the Keys.

She described TJEd as "leadership education." It is "an education to match our mission."  Rachel compared the educational mindset of our founding fathers compared to now.  Now, you learn for the outcomes like good grades, good job, etc.  During the founding of our country, education was looked upon as a duty: to ourselves, our country, our God, etc.

They break education down into 3 types.
1.  Conveyor Belt (stick).  Everyone is "herded" into meeting the same standards.
2.  Professional Conveyor belt (carrot).  Encouraged to learn because of the benefits or rewards.
3.  Leadership (Love Affair).  Love of learning using classics and mentors.

The next thing touched on were The Keys of Great Teaching.

1. Classics, not Textbooks.  This concept falls in line with Charlotte Mason and classical teaching.  Basically, it's the idea of using "living books."

2.  Mentors, not Professors. The idea here is that professors (teachers) teach and grade while a mentor guides and encourages.  Mentoring deals more with working with the child's strengths and weaknesses instead of certain ideas and standards.

3. Inspire, not Require.  Instead of "What can I do to get them to learn this?"  ask, "What can I do to encourage them to want to learn it?"

4. Structure time, not content.  Have a consistent schedule our amount of study time, but don't micro-manage the content.  This is also based on what learning phase the child is in.

5. Simplicity, not Complexity.  When you start something complex, it requires an expert to explain/teach it.  On the other hand, something simple allows the child to think and learn more independently.

6. Quality, not Conformity.  This key means you avoid grading and use personalized feedback to encourage quality.  George Wythe (one of Jefferson's mentors) College used A and DA. "A" meant acceptable while anything less than quality would receive a "DA" for "do it again."

7.  You, not them.  You set the example for them by your learning.  If they see you loving to learn, it will encourage them to love to learn.

Rachel went into the learning phases they use.  I didn't get all the details on these, but I'm sure you can find more details on their site.  One phase I will mention is the "Core" phase which is from birth to 8 years old.  It's when the "core" of the person is developed.  Personality and moral character develop.  The core is very important because it will stay with the individual his whole life.

When you go to the TJEd website, you can sign up for the monthly newsletter.  They also send you 5 downloadable gifts.  Most describe all this and how to put it into practice.  One of the gifts is "Let's Learn Times Table."  It's cool and informative and well worth the sign up.

Super Summit Tonight



Heather Laurie

 We listened to the HECOA's Super Summit tonight.  The speaker for tonight came down with the flu, and Heather Laurie was the replacement.  Her website that was mentioned was Special Needs Homeschooling. 

The topic was special needs.  There were a lot a good points which could be useful even if your child isn't special needs.  I'm jotting them down before I forget them!

One thing her family does is to homeschool year-round.  This allows them to slow down during the day, and to avoid forgetting through the summer.

She also said don't be afraid of Saturday.  For instance, if math is an issue, don't be afraid of taking 45 minutes on Saturday to review.  Another option would be to ask your husband to do it.  It allows your child to hear the same thing from a different perspective, and also allows your husband to see what you are dealing with.

Heather noted the difference between diagnosing vs. labeling.  Diagnosing is helping.  It may give you a description of a symptom.  It doesn't give any excuse not to succeed.  It allows you to find out how to adapt and work to overcome.

Using a public school system to diagnose is not a great way to go for several reasons.  First, their only focus is addressing issues that effect educational goals.  It's definitely not holistic.  Also, depending on the school district, it can really get the public school system into your business. 

She mentioned that some insurance will pay for special needs evaluation.  Also, don't be afraid of getting a 2nd or 3rd opinion.  As Heather mentioned, you have a master's in your child.  You need to go in with a question and come out with a plan.

Her family also has a website for their ministries.  She wrote a great piece that really spoke to where I live.  It's Making a House a Home When You Are Chronically Ill. 

There was a lot more, but I can only write so fast!  I've friended her on FB and bookmarked her sites, so I'm looking forward to finding out more!

Home Education Super Summit--My recap of day one

I've been "attending" (if you can attend something that is a teleconference) the Home Education Council of America's Home Education Super Summit the I mentioned a few days ago.  I could call it the "supper" summit because it comes on at 6 PM Central time which is when we've been eating or cooking supper!

It's been "ok" so far.  Nothing mindblowing, but somewhat informative.  Of course, each speaker is promoting their own product/website, so it's somewhat of an extended commercial, but some of the things are useful.

The first day was Donna Goff.  Her topic was "First Steps and New Beginnings", and that was pretty much what it was.  She gave guidelines on how to prepare your family before you start homeschooling in PreSchool or start homeschooling period. 

She shared a few websites.  First was her own, which is The Princess Academies.  Its purpose is to encourage woman and their daughters as they grow from princesses of God into queens.  The website offers various things, but the idea is that you form groups of "Princess Circles" where mothers and daughters meet for "Princess Training."  Their focus in training is:

Painting: Le Gouter by
William A. Bouguereau

Beautiful Girlhood

Equipping through

Love and Learning

Ladies of

Eloquence, Generosity, Comeliness, Grace, and
Sisterhood
(taken from the website)

Donna Goff began this whole idea in 2006 with her daughter in mind.  She wanted to develop something that would assist her helping her daughter become a godly woman. 

This sounds interesting to me.  I'm going to find out more about it!

Another website she mentioned was Living Math.  If you are familiar with Charlotte Mason and "living books,"  you have the concept of Living Math.  It suggests books and activites to use to teach or reinforce math concepts. They are integrated with history, science, and art.  There are even lesson that can be purchased.

Apart from the lesson plans, I find this site rich with ideas and information.  I'm probably too "old-school" to use "Living Math" exclusively to teach the subject, but I definitely like the resource of ideas to add to my teaching.  It saves this old brain from all the work!

In fact, I found about it Monday evening, I went to the site and looked up multiplication since I just introduced it to my daughter, one of the first things listed was "Play Yahtzee," so that evening we did.  My daughter got the thrill of playing a game with the family AND reviewed some skip-counting/multiplication skills. 

So, while I didn't necessarily gain a lot of new information from day one, I did gain two new websites to explore and use!

Free Conference

Just found out about a free home education conference which starts on Monday, Jan. 3.  Telesummit will be for 10 days, one speaker each day.  I've never heard of Home Education Council of America before, but it sounds really interesting.  You can listen in on your telephone, computer, or cell phone.  you have to register beforehand to listen in or to listen to the recordings.  I signed up although I knew there would be some I'd miss due scheduling or lack of interest.

                                 So, just go to Home Education Super Summit for more information and to sign up.