Linda and her husband Bruce, a registered nurse, have five children. Their three oldest children were educated in the public school system in the United States. The Hansons made the decision to home school their two younger children in Honduras because of the poor quality of the Honduran schools and the particular needs and personalities of their children.

To the Hansons surprise, when they returned to the US, they found that their children were unable to adapt to the public school system. Linda will discuss the difference in the Honduran and US school systems, the challenges of home schooling overseas, the challenges her family has faced in home schooling children with special needs, and the journey of a family that never would have dreamed of home schooling, to a family that wouldn’t dream of not.

Workshops

--10 Worst Homeschooling Mistakes, And How to Avoid Them- Ed Dickerson

--Eight Ways to Learn, And How to Help Ed Dickerson

Ed Dickerson, Ed is a pioneer in the home school community in Iowa having involvement with the home school laws passed in 1990. Ed is a writer for various magazines in the US and abroad. He lives in Iowa with his wife, children, and is a second generation home schooler-home schooling his grandchildren. He is also the legislative lobbyist  for the HAIL organization.

--Controlling the Writing Muse: A Method for Understanding Sentence Structure and Punctuation
- David Klein - In the writing process, the technical aspects of writing, such as word usage, punctuation, and spelling can get in the way of the expression of good ideas. These issues can often be the most painful part of learning to write for young writers. This session will discuss the writing process and offer ways of teaching these technical details in a naturalistic way, as opposed to conventional worksheets and drills.

--Tests, Standardized Tests, and Assessments: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but thetruth.- David Klein - Home educators are faced with choices. They have a variety of ways of understanding where their children stand in their education. Some choose tests prepared by professionals; others create their own tests; some don't worry about testing. Many home educators eventually have to face preparing their children for standardized tests, such as the SAT or ACT. Many incorporate testing or assessment as part of their state requirements. This session will look at the underlying ideas behind testing and assessment. We will discuss ways to prepare children for standardized test. And we will talk about strategies that will help home educators decide what types of assessments they want to use in their homeschooling. (Morning session)

David Klein Ph.D., David is an instructor for Capella University, he also works for the University of Iowa in the field of instructional design. His specialty area is computer assisted instruction. He lives in Icoralville with his wife Dr. Bette Klein, his 9 children, and 3 grandchildren.

--Unschooling - Katy Diltz - How to achieve "Child-Led Learning" without going crazy. What is the Unschooling philosophy? Start up – Relax, don’t overload yourself, Detoxing, How to build a "curriculum" , organize yourself as an Unschooling family, unschooling math, reading and other subjects, Complying with the law as an Unschooler, How to approach the assessment options as an Unschooler.


--Go Political! - Katy Diltz - Let your representatives and other elected officials know you homeschool.
How to find out who your representative are, How to approach them about homeschooling, How to build a friendly relationship with them, how to work to gain support for homeschooling in your community.

Katy Diltz is the yahoo group mediator for the IDEA_list group, the organizer of the HAIL organization, and mother of two home schooled children.

--Get the Word Out- Andrea Farrier -The surest way to beat stereotypes is by providing accurate information! Come get ideas about positive ways to promote home schooling and the good things you are doing with your local media, friends, and extended family.

--Answering the Tough Questions - Andrea Farrier-- How do you have the patience to do that? Aren't you afraid you're going to ruin your child? How do you know that you're doing enough? How can you succeed if you're not a "real" teacher? WHAT ABOUT SOCIALIZATION!? -- Come discuss tactful and honest ways to answer those hard questions home schoolers are often asked. This is especially good for new home schoolers so they can be prepared for such situations.

Andrea Farrier is a home schooling mother of 3, a supervising teacher in a Home School Assistance Program, and a lobbyist for Iowa Home School Assistance Program Professionals.

--What Great Home School Teachers Do Differently-Andrea farrier, Bette Klein, (Possibly Crystal G.)- Based on the book What Great Teachers Do Differently by Todd Whitaker this workshop will focus on those aspects of the teacher-student, parent-student, and parent-teacher relationships and what matters most in the home school setting. Great Teachers have many attributes in common with great parents. Learn how to maximize both relationships.

--Brain Based Learning - Bette Klein -We all know that each student learns differently. This, after all, is one of the cornerstones of home
schooling, in both the reason for and methods involved in a home education. However, this general assumption has been backed up by fascinating and important neuroscience research, which may help inform your choices and practices in schooling your child. Find out about how learning potential is decided, when neuron growth (and death) take place, and what learning looks like on a cellular level in the brain. This session will include solid science broken down into useful and easily-integrated information. Come prepared to be a part of the discussion, and share your knowledge and experiences to enrich the conversation.

--Paper Crafts/Organizational tools II-Bette Klein- Based on the work of Dina Zikes-These are tools you can use not only for yourself and your students, but to help them organize and retain information. Besides being wonderful for crafting, these techniques will boost your child's ability to entertain him or herself, as well as make any piece of paper a potential learning tool and activity.

Bette Klein Ph.D. lives in Coralville with her husband David Klein, 9 children, and 3 grandchildren. She teaches enrichment classes for Mid-Prairie Home School Assistance Program and is the director of Virtual Home School International. She also organizes the Eastern Iowa Home School conference.

--Waldorf: from inner work to celebrations - Angela Chenus-This workshop will take you on a journey of how Waldorf fits into one family's life and provide ideas of how to incorporate aspects of this peaceful, child-centered approach in your home.  Beginning with dinner time and daily routines, through weekly and yearly rhythms, festivals and celebrations, we will look at the importance of rhythm. We will then consider the basic premises of world cultural literacy, a cornerstone of Waldorf education.  In Waldorf, this is acquired through steps ranging from fairy tales for the very young to history and geography and even mathematics for the older child.

--Organic Family Foreign Language - Angela Chenus-Learning a language when one is three or ten is nothing like learning it when you are thirty-four or fifty-six and planning a business trip to China.  Learn to tailor a language program for the new 3 Rs: Relevancy, Repetition and Real Fun.  After almost two decades of teaching foreign languages, I humbly submit my conclusion that children learn best through interaction with real humans and real situations. It is an organic approach to foreign language, making it less foreign, more efficient, more fun, and relevant to the life of a family.  Come discover this revolutionary, simple way of learning to speak, read and write another language.

--Home Schooling and Work- Helen Schartz - How do you fit it all into a very busy day and life? How do you and your husband connect? How one family fits the demands of a busy life together with home schooling and meeting everyone's needs.

Helen Shartz Ph.D., J.D., works in the field of education and conducts research. She, along wih her husband, is the home school mother of two young children. Helen lives in Coralville with her family.

--Beginning to Home School- Rachel Kerns - When you begin to homeschool you are overwhelmed by the enormous supply of homeschool materials out there. These few basic books and ideas will get you started on the right path to finding your own style and pace with homeschooling.

--Choosing Curriculum - Rachel Kerns- How can you know what to choose? Rachel will help you figure out what is out there and what might suite your needs.

Rachel is the mother of three young children and is a coordinator with MPHSAP. She and her husband share home school duties with their young family.

--Organizing Information Overload-Kristie Karima Burns-With all the info that is on the Internet lately we get overwhelmed with the great stuff out there and we get overloaded with information, possible lessons and more. I have a simple notebook system and way of sorting, categorizing and organizing that allows me to use a variety of programs, materials and resources but to keep them all in once place. I share this with the members of my program and they love it. Lot of tips on how to save money printing out E-books and online materials - some tips I learned from my own members! It is basically a class in how to take all that overload we get from Yahoo groups, Google searches and more...and put them into a coherent structure.

--Educational Crafting with Natural Materials- Kristie Karima Burns- Since I am mostly following a Waldorf educational model (although we get the Montessori and unschooling too) we work with all natural crafting materials - pure sheep's wool from a local Iowa farm, beeswax, natural clay, natural crayons, wool, cotton, etc...Using these materials you can create so many unique things.

Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND is a teacher, healer and artist. She runs www.waldorfschoolonline.com and www.thewaldorfchannel.com as well as a natural healing consulting practice. Kristie ran a Waldorf Enrichment School overseas for 4 years. Her and her children have had what she calls an "eclectic education". Her children have attended Waldorf and Montessori schools, an International School, have been homeschooled full-time for three years and part-time in the present.

--Thrifty Homeschooling -Ann Ryan- Where can I find good deals on homeschool materials? How can I reduce
the books and materials we use to learn? This session will focus on local and Internet resources you can
use to engage in bargain homeschooling. Homeschooling does not have to cost a lot.

Ann Ryan is the homeschooling mom of 3 kids with another on the way to keep things exciting. This is her 4th year homeschooling

--Your Right Brained/Creative Learner II- Jan Childress and coordinators of the Mid-Prairie Home School Assistance Program-Are you frustrated by your child's lack of learning progress or his rejection of the approaches you are trying to use? We will explore how some children learn verses how most curriculum approach learning? Find out what ADD, dyslexia, and giftedness all have in common. We will visit one explanation of what may be going on in your child's brain and some tools you might use in educating your child who is rejecting or not progressing using a standardized approach to learning.

--Homeschooling the Intellectually Gifted Child -- How to handle intellecetual needs, resources and books. How do I, and how can I, homeschool my gifted child from gifted and meet his/her needs?

Jan Childress is the director of the Mid-Prairie Home School Assistance Program. She started the program in 1997 and homeschooled her youngest son through his junior high and high school years. She is certified as a K-12 art instructor, and has her masters in Special Education with an endorsement for teaching children with Learning Disabilities, Behavior Disorders, and Mental Disabilities. Jan is a mother of 4, and a grandmother of 5. Over the 11 years of directing the Mid-Prairie program, she has counseled many parents in how to work with their children's unique learning needs. She wholeheartedly believes that parents are the most important teachers their children have!

--Careers in Science and Medicine- Bethany Harpole This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -Do you wonder how you are going to get it all done and get your child into a career in science or medicine. Bethany will explain how you can and suggest resources for forging ahead.

--Planning for Your Child's Future in Higher education-Bethany Harpole-Resources and ideas for getting from here to there.

Bethany is a former home school student who is now successful in the college environment.

--Jumping in Mid-Stream -Teresa Ott-So you've decided to Homeschool, but it is mid-year, mid-education, now what? Teresa will guide you to resources and support. Don't panic! Help is out there.