SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

Homeschooling a Struggling Learner? We Can Help!
Faith Berens, Dianne Craft, and Betty Statnick, HSLDA Special Needs Consultants
In this introduction to HSLDA's Struggling Learners program, the consultants will discuss diagnostic checklists for struggling learners, three roadblocks homeschool parents face, and strategies for success with your children who learn differently. Includes an overview of the many resources available through HSLDA.

Getting Started
Vicki Bentley, HSLDA Early Years Coordinator
Are you overwhelmed by the options? Not sure where to begin? Good planning is the key to any successful road trip, so Vicki will walk you through a planning checklist to help you prepare for this homeschool journey! Topics include research, goal setting, supplies, schedules, and more, plus Six Tips for Success.

10:30 GENERAL SESSIONS—Your session choice is listed in your registration packet.

Identifying and Correcting Blocked Learning Gates (Glitches)
Dianne Craft, HSLDA Special Needs Coordinator
This is for your child who has to work too hard to learn. This child is telling you that one or more of his Four Learning Gates is blocked. This workshop will help you identify which of the learning gates is blocked and, more importantly, what you can do about it at home! This blocked gate can present itself as a glitch, a dysfunction, or a learning disability like dyslexia. Learning doesn’t have to be so hard for your child! Find out specifically how the brain processes information, and where that processing can break down. Then, receive the corrections for each processing area. This can be done by the parents, at home. For example if you have a child who groans and fusses about writing, or still writes reversals, or is using way too much energy for the writing process, thus is reluctant to put pencil to paper for anything, this workshop is for you! This child’s math papers are so hard to read because they are lined up so poorly. These children are often thought of as sloppy, lazy, or unmotivated, when they really have a writing glitch. You will learn specific ways to work with your struggling learner at home to take the strain out of learning and make the gains in reading, writing, and spelling you are looking for.

Organized (Well, Almost!)—Time Management for Busy Moms
Vicki Bentley, HSLDA Early Years Coordinator
As a busy mom, do you sometimes struggle with lesson planning, keeping the house somewhat presentable, teaching, keeping up with the laundry, and getting dinner on the table the same day you homeschool? Come hear practical tips and encouragement from a fellow homeschool mom of many. Your husband and children will thank you, and you will have hope for another day of science and language arts!

Multi-Level Teaching
Vicki Bentley, HSLDA Early Years Coordinator
When you had one child, it seemed easy, but adding more children sometimes makes homeschooling feel like a zany plate-spinning act. Vicki shares ideas for keeping the homeschooling “plates” from crashing to the floor! Practical tips for teaching multiple ages from a mom of 17 homeschooled students (seven school-age at a time).

Kids with Auditory Processing Problems
Dianne Craft, HSLDA Special Needs Coordinator
A child with ADD and a child with an Auditory Processing Problem can have many of the same characteristics (such as problems sequencing the alphabet, days or the week or month, or sounding out the same word over and over again). How can you distinguish between the two? We can dispel the 2 most common myths about auditory learners and auditory processing. Learn right-brain strategies to use their photographic memory instead of auditory memory to help with spelling, reading, and math.

Testing 1-2-3—Tease Out Some Things About Testing
Betty Statnick, HSLDA Struggling Learners Coordinator
Betty explains various types of tests, tips to prepare for testing, terms used, some temptations to avoid, and how to use those “abominable” achievement tests as a teaching tool.

Tackling High School Issues: Practical Help and Guidance
Faith Berens, Special Needs Coordinator
In this session, we will tackle some of the challenges associated with homeschooling struggling or atypical learners in the high school years. We will discuss alternative course work, transcript options, specialized curricula and learning materials, possible graduation guidelines for special learners, post-high school options, as well as offer tips for navigating the process of applying for testing accommodations for the college boards.

I Think I’ll Quit Homeschooling: Five Reasons Why Moms Quit School (and How You Can Keep from Becoming a Dropout)
Tracy Klicka
Tracy hasn’t met a homeschool mom yet who at some point in her homeschooling experience doesn’t desperately want to quit. Sometimes it seems the challenges are more than we can take, but there is hope. Be encouraged not just to survive, but to thrive in raising children for the Lord.

Forging Ahead—Apprenticeships in the 21st Century
Mike Donnelly, HSLDA Staff Attorney
College? Homeschoolers may be better prepared for it than many other college-bound teens, but that doesn’t mean they should automatically get sucked into the “college conveyor belt.” But if not college, what do we do with our bright, well-educated, well-socialized homeschooled students? And where do we find resources and apprenticeships to help guide homeschoolers through this process of vocational preparation and calling? Get practical tips and insightful advice in this talk by HSLDA attorney and homeschooling father Michael Donnelly.

2:00 WORKSHOP SESSIONS—Your workshop choice is listed in your registration packet.

Organizing Your Home for a Learning Lifestyle
Vicki Bentley, HSLDA Early Years Coordinator
Vicki will help you decide what is important to your family, where you need to begin, and will discuss organizational challenges unique to homeschoolers. This veteran homeschool mom shares practical ideas that have helped her manage her household of ten.

AAAS: ADD, Asperger’s, Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder Dianne Craft, MA, Certified Natural Health Professional and HSLDA Special Needs Coordinator
What do these four labels have in common? They all describe a child whose nervous system is in various stages of disequilibrium. We can reduce these symptoms at home, when we know what the cause is. For example, Johnny is a constant motion machine. Tom cries in frustration over minor matters, such as the seams in his socks. Susie has mood swings. Joey is nicknamed, “Eeyore” because of his negative attitude towards things. The three year old gets so angry that his rages are almost scary. Carol acts “spacey” and forgets the things she knew the day before. Your teenager wants to only stay in his room, or lies awake a long time each night before he can fall asleep. You have a child with Sensory Processing problems…every tag, noise and change in routine bothers him! Your child with Asperger’s has such difficulty socially. His odd behavior is getting in the way of making friends. Could common physical symptoms such as athlete’s foot, constipation, canker sores, sinus problems and stomach aches be related to these children’s behavior and learning issues? The answer is a resounding, “YES”! Find out what other parents have been learning: that there is a direct connection between the physical well being and learning ability and behavior of a child. This fascinating workshop provides you with clues to your child’s internal learning environment, and how to change that environment for the better.

Crates and Critiques
Betty Statnick, HSLDA Struggling Learners Coordinator
In this session, expect to see resources you won’t find at other homeschool conferences. You will see crates of tests, books, and curriculum materials—plus get Betty’s critiques to use these materials to reduce your workload.

Reading Difficulties: Remediation Strategies and Techniques
Faith Berens, M.Ed./Reading Specialist, Special Needs Coordinator
Do you have a student who is having some reading difficulties? This session will introduce the 5 Pillars of Reading: phonemic awareness, phonics (decoding and word recognition), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. We will offer guidance in how to identify the area, as well as level of reading difficulty, and also share practical teaching tools, strategies, and techniques in order remediate your child’s reading struggles.

Keeping the H.E.A.R.T. in Homeschooling
Tracy Klicka
As Tracy has experienced, it is not always easy for a homeschooling mom to keep her focus, her joy, or the hearts of her children. More than academics, homeschooling is about growing in God’s grace for both parents and children! If you are feeling discouraged, come and be renewed in five crucial areas of your homeschooling adventure.

For You, Dad—Leading Your Homeschool Family Mike Donnelly, HSLDA Staff Attorney
In most homeschooling families, Mom carries the biggest burden. How can Dad pull a share of the load when he is gone all day earning a living? There are so many other good works dads are asked to do—how can we influence our families as God calls us to do? Come listen to HSLDA attorney and homeschooling father Michael Donnelly, as he discusses Kingdom priorities in homeschooling and practical ideas to balance the increasing demands on your time and resources.

3:15 CONSULTANTS’ Q&A SESSIONS (Open-house style)

All of the consultants are available for many different types of questions, but here is a list of topics in which each coordinator specializes:

Faith Berens
Faith specializes in reading, math, multi-sensory teaching, effective teaching strategies for special needs, and documentation of progress.

Dianne Craft
Dianne’s passion is to help parents of struggling learners, especially those with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADD/focusing issues, AAAS, as well as those kids who are “gifted with a glitch.”

Betty Statnick
Betty has years of experience in curriculum modification, IEPs and SEPs, as well as general spiritual application to special needs situations and general encouragement.

Vicki Bentley
A Parent’s Sentimental Journey
Twenty-plus years and 17 kids later, what a veteran homeschool mom would repeat and what she would do differently on this homeschooling journey! Q&A to follow—most homeschool topics, from time management and choosing curriculum to mentoring.