Homeschooling For Excellence 101

August 5, 2010 – 10 AM to 4:30 PM

Dates, Times, Cost ::  Register Online

Many parents considering or just beginning to homeschool would like to have personalized help. Homeschooling for Excellence 101 is a one-day conference where homeschool parents can get individualized answers for their own personal situations from other seasoned homeschooling parents. Children ages four and up can attend the Homeschool Kids Zone while parents attend the Homeschooling For Excellence 101 Conference.

• Where do I begin?
• What materials should I choose? There are so many!
• How can I encourage my child to learn?
• How will I fill my child’s time – will he be lonely?

The homeschool lifestyle is so much more than just ABC’s and 123’s. It includes a lifestyle that encourages learning all the time and learning together. Bringing frantic, fragmented family lives back together can seem inviting and at the same time mystifying. Not knowing what to do throws parents into a whirl of confusion and concern. Each parent is uniquely qualified to educate their own child. The Homeschooling for Excellence Workshops are designed with extra time and personalized attention for your unique situation. In a friendly and encouraging small group environment, top notch, enthusiastic homeschool parents will share their wisdom and pass along lots of information on how you can make the best decisions for educating your own child.

Conference Schedule

Each Session, you decide which one of two options you want to attend .  If you aren’t interested in one, you can move to the other. It’s that easy!

10:00 AM – Beginning Homeschooling: Most Asked Questions – Christine Field enthusiastically helps parents learn how to get started, where to find educational materials, other activities including sports leagues for homeschool children, how to occasionally locate someone else to teach subjects such as chemistry and the value of homeschool support groups. Learn to take the guesswork out of choosing curriculum by assessing each curriculum, determining whether or not you need a curriculum, and what will meet the specific needs of your child and family.

10:00 AM – Bringing Children Home and DeCompartmentalizing Your Life – Randi St.Denis -We live such fast, fragmented lives, often having one personality for home, one for work, one for church, and one for our friends. Sometimes we feel like we actually have multiple personalities, and too many lives pulled in too many directions!  Children who were in institutional schools often need some special attention and time to destress from past situations.  DeCompartmentalizing our lives make them so much easier to live.  Homeschooling is NOT a recreation of the Public or Private School.  It is a much different and easier life! Randi shares how homeschool families can begin to think in a new way, bringing all their individual parts into one comprehensive whole, allowing more efficiency, integration and relaxation.  When we quit compartmentalizing, we get rid of the “I’m overscheduled” syndrome and the “fake” lives.  Our lives can start anew in a whole different and better direction.

11:45 AM – Lunch (on your own).

1:00 PM – Beginning Right: Developing a lifestyle that promotes homeschooling togetherness and a family team for success and load sharing – Christine Field. Homeschooling is so much more than academic subjects like Math and Science. It’s also about raising children to be responsible, honest, hardworking and helpful people. While it’s a lovely thought – having children who happily help out at home, it actually takes some effort on the parent’s part to get this to happen. Learn how to go from chaos to a family team that shares the work.

1:00 PM - Choosing Curriculum Like a Pro - Randi St.Denis. Entering a curriculum hall can be like being run over by a steamroller. Confusion, frustration, and a feeling of being overwhelmed by a myriad of choices sets in. Randi, a homeschooling mom of 25 years, shares her ideas that allow parents to take the guesswork out of choosing curriculum by assessing each curriculum and determining whether that particular curriculum meets the specific needs of their child and their family.

3:00 PM – Relationships, Relationships, Relationships: They Are Forever – Christine Field. It is right and prudent to set academic, work skills, character and spiritual goals for our children when we begin homeschooling. It is right that parents should follow schedules and maintain standards and exercise consistent discipline to mold their children. But sometimes relationships with our children, spouses, and friends, those precious jewels of eternity, get scheduled right into oblivion when we homeschool. Learn how to establish and maintain those most important items – relationships.

3:00 PM – Computers Enhance Effectiveness and Enjoyment of Homeschooling – Randi St.Denis. Homeschooling isn’t just with pencil and paper anymore. Now, there is a remarkable array of computer based curriculum materials and other homeschool helps. Randi helps participants understand what to look for and how to avoid getting ripped off when purchasing software programs. She arms participants with specific information and tips to help make wise choices and avoid costly mistakes when choosing materials for their homeschool. Discussion includes a variety of homeschool software programs, computer based curriculums, record keeping, and other programs to help all students.

4:30 PM – Homeschooling for Excellence 101 Conference adjourns.

Homeschooling for Excellence 101 registration automatically includes registration for the Chicago Homeschool Expo. Return Friday and Saturday for the Chicago Homeschool Expo and workshops.

Conference Speakers

Randi St. Denis, Director of Home Educators Encouragement Alliance (HEEA), is an educator, popular homeschool speaker, and a seasoned homeschooling mom.  Using her degree in Educational Psychology, Randi works as a consultant to public, private, and homeschool families; providing teaching expertise and assistance for all types of children.  She is recognized as an expert in the technical aspects of learning that allow every type of child, from special needs to gifted, the opportunity to learn well.

Randi and her husband have homeschooled their seven children for the past 22 years; six of whom have gone on to college.  The youngest is currently homeschooling.

Christine Field practiced law for eight years as a criminal prosecutor, then private practitioner before becoming a full-time Mommy.  She and her husband live and home schooled their four children in Wheaton, Illinois where her husband serves as Chief of Police.   Three of their four children are adopted, one through a private adoption and two are from Korea.  Two of them have graduated from home school high school.  She is the author of several books, including Coming Home to Raise Your Children (Fleming Revell, 1995), Should You Adopt? (Fleming Revell, 1997)  A Field Guide to Home Schooling (Fleming Revell, 1998), Life Skills for Kids (Harold Shaw/WaterBrook, 2000), Help for the Harried Homeschooler (Harold Shaw/WaterBrook, 2002), Homeschooling the Challenging Child (Broadman & Holman , 2005) and Homeschooling 101: The Essential Guide (Broadman & Holman, 2007).  She has served as senior correspondent and Resource Room columnist for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and as contributing editor for www.Home-School-Inc.com.  Currently, she is a consulting attorney for wwwHomeschoolLegalAdvantage.com, a ministry of the Christian Law Association.