The Dads Only session is a casual, conversational look at the issues and questions Dads have regarding how to support, be involved, and understand more about homeschooling.
Yes, you CAN have your cake AND eat it too..... just not at the same time.
Do you want to homeschool but don't think you have the time for it? Perhaps you've been homeschooling and find it all too time consuming and thinking it's not working out. Having a difficult time trying to make the dirty little word, “balance,” look pretty and under control? Maybe it’s time to recalibrate your balance scale. Learn to identify what drives you to overcommit and how to identify what needs prioritizing. Homeschooling shouldn't be something more you do; it should be a way of life and it starts with the renewing of your mind and rearranging of priorities.
Despite our best efforts, life can be incredibly messy, difficult and heartbreaking. As a homeschool parent these times can seem even more complex as we try to navigate life's challenges while loving, caring for and educating our children. During this session my desire is to encourage you with fresh hope on how to find peace during difficult times of homeschooling, whether managing special education needs, or a difficult season as a family, and how to gain new vision in spite of the special circumstances we are facing.
Can homeschooled students be accepted to a selective college? Yes! My homeschooled daughter won academic scholarships and is now thriving in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University. I share my experience to encourage and advise fellow homeschooling parents. I will discuss how I prepared my child to be accepted to a selective college and positioned my child to win academic scholarships. I will explain:
Sonlight is a Literature-based Christian homeschool curriculum. It is built around real books (the ones you could buy in a bookstore) more than textbooks. The Instructor’s Guides include thorough lesson plans and notes, turning a stack of engaging books into a fully-planned, flexible curriculum. Sonlight’s flagship product is the History/Bible/Literature curriculum. They also make superb Language Arts and Science curriculum, as well as offer every subject. Sonlight makes curriculum for every age, from preschool to advanced high school. You can teach multiple children of different ages with one level of Sonlight.
I will answer questions on choosing and using Sonlight. Bring your questions!
We have been a Sonlight family since my first child started kindergarten 14 years ago. I have used just about every curriculum Sonlight offers, from preschool to level 600. My favorite things about Sonlight? Lasting family memories created while curled up on the couch with a good book. Deep discussions with my teens over books and everything else. Compassionate globally-minded children who are excellent critical thinkers.
When I searched for a history curriculum, this was my dream list:
After much research, I discovered BiblioPlan. Biblioplan met all my criteria and much more. BP is a classical history curriculum for home schoolers, grades K - 12. BP utilizes a classical survey of history; students read from an excellent, full color history text, illustrated with maps, art and photographs contemporary to the era, and historical literature is abundantly planned into the schedule.
Whether you already have an entire library of historical books or are just beginning to build one, BP will allow you the flexibility to use the books you and your children love and will remember for years to come.
The Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) has, as its mission, the goal to ‘equip... teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers.’ Everything the folks at IEW do is in line with their goal to encourage you, the parent, as you tackle language arts with your children - no matter how much previous writing experience (and confidence) you have. Their programs begin at the beginning, helping families navigate the process of moving from the ‘terror of the blank page’ to polished essays and paragraphs to be proud of, as well as providing paradigms for ‘natural writers’ to follow, who may not be sure how to instruct others. The curriculum uses a unique outline structure to facilitate many kinds of writing, whether it’s a dreaded book report, an original story (also known as ‘creative writing’), a research paper, or a formal essay. User friendly units are paired with easy-to-implement stylistic techniques that can be added at the student’s pace. This session will offer a preview of IEW’s ‘source to outline to student paragraph’ process, a demonstration of the incredible results the application of stylistic techniques produces, and suggestions for embracing the support IEW offers
through video lessons and podcasts.
One of the great myths about children learning to read is that it will just naturally click by the time they are 10. That is a disservice to our children. There’s no guarantee that will happen and, in actuality, we should care and identify the gap that should be filled. Even though most of us use great phonics programs, often there is a gap in phonemic awareness. In fact, dyslexia is an auditory and not a visual learning disability. While only 5% to 15% of Americans are dyslexic, 60% of all people need systematic, explicit instruction in reading, (i.e. structured literacy).
If your child isn't learning to read as easily as you expect and things just aren't clicking, come hear what Lisa has been learning this past year to help her dyslexic son fill his phonemic awareness gaps and her older son increase his reading comprehension. Let’s equip our kids for reading success!
