2020 Session 3  1:30 - 2:40

Diane Geerlinks

Room 101

Self-control or Self-regulation?

Learning to self-regulate your emotions may take more brain and body power than you think! When we are in a "fight or flight", our reserves are drained  and our prefrontal cortex is side-lined. We simply are not thinking clearly! In this workshop, Diane will help us learn how to identify the possible stressors for our students and consider some alternative strategies and interventions to help our students navigate these emotions.

Diane is passionate about helping kids learn, developing their strengths and improving their weaknesses. She has worked in the field of education for the past 25 years, pursuing her passion for learning, with a particular focus on the neuroplasticity of the brain and how we can improve our capacity for learning at any age. In 2009,  Diane trained as an NILD Educational Therapist and opened up her own practice, GeerLINKS Educational Therapy & Consulting. Diane is an Exceptional Needs Consultant for HSLDA Canada.

Alex van Donkersgoed

Room 102

Online Courses for the Homeschool: How Do I Choose?

There are a huge number of online course options out there. Online courses can allow you to homeschool in ways you haven't before, or keep homeschooling when the content gets beyond you. But how do you choose? How do we honour God's call on us as parents to raise our children to know him? This workshop will give you the questions to ask, so that you can be well informed about the online options open to you.

Alex has found himself at the intersection of Faith, Education, and Technology. His journey into education has not been straight and neither has his journey through it. He spends his time asking how we can best serve the students and children God has placed in our care. He dreams of disrupting the Factory model of education and being part of an education system that takes each child's God given uniqueness into account. He has recently been appointed the principal of the first fully online Christian school in Ontario.

Val Riegle

Room 103

How to Homeschool without Ruining Your Marriage

A homeschooling mom is daily stretched beyond her limits.  So many tasks, people, and activities vie for her attention. Often it is her husband that can feel left on the outskirts of her heart. The one she vowed to love and to cherish, no longer feels adored or the focus of her attention. Val will share her personal experiences and many tips on how to prioritize your most important earthly relationship and have a marriage that thrives, not just barely survives the homeschooling years.

Val has survived homeschooling three children, but more importantly so has her marriage.  She has stories to share that will encourage you and practical tips that you can put to use immediately.  She is currently working as an ESL teacher with the WRDSB.  All three of her children are in the Arts Program at Eastwood Collegiate in Kitchener.

Cori Dean

Room 104

Doing Family, Home, and School Together

Homeschooling is a 24/7 job! Planning is essential for maintaining sanity and order and must go beyond setting a schedule, making a chore chart, creating lesson plans, or pinching pennies. Let's walk through the basic, but challenging process of planning for our busy households. We'll also look at strategies for involving the whole family in the care and management of the home and family, so that our young people will gain life skills that they will need and so that parents won’t be overwhelmed.

Cori is an author and speaker and the owner of Maple Tree Publications.  The Deans have homeschooled their 4 daughters for over 17 years. Cori loves cycling, camping, and boating and as well as a good book, some dark chocolate, and a cup of tea.

Lisa Schiedel

Room 105

Finding Rest and Margin in Our Days

We live in a culture that says we can and should do it all. Social media encourages us to believe the lie that other home educators have perfect lives. Exhaustion and burn out threaten to overcome all of our best efforts. In this session, we will explore ways to identify priorities and to prayerfully find rest and margin in our days, so that we are able to live and serve with joy. Lisa finds joy in the ordinary and delights in encouraging others along the way. She has the privilege of co-leading a community learning group, as well as a book club for children.

Sabrina Adair

Room 106

Making Printing Fun. Building Blocks For Printing Success

There is so much more to printing than holding on to a pencil.  We often work on the end goal, before we build the skills needed to get to this point.  It starts with learning where our body is in space, to knowing our directions, to being able to coordinate two hands and be able to pinch with 3 fingers.  There are so many activities that you can do to prepare a child for printing and help them gain the skills to be able to succeed.

Sabrina is a mother, Occupational Therapist and CEO/Founder of Enabling Adaptations. Enabling Adaptations is designed to put access to therapists and resources directly in the hands of parents to empower parents to help their children now.

Matthew Turton

Room 108

How Memory Works  and How to Develop It

Memory is one of our most important brain skills, critical for all forms of learning.  Many struggle with at least one of their memories.  Come explore 6 types of memory and how they impact learning and daily life and how you can develop these skills in your children (or yourself!). Matthew offers ideas you can implement right away, as he shares from his experience helping children, youth and adults optimize their memory skills through his work as Director of Breakthroughs in Learning.

Growing up with learning disabilities and overcoming them, Matthew sees his work as Director of Breakthroughs in Learning as a chance to give back.  Matthew is a dynamic speaker who shares his experience from both sides of learning disabilities.

Anne White

Room 110

Charlotte Mason's Power Tools: Reason And Will

Charlotte Mason reminded us that true character, which influences conduct  is better than good conduct without true character. We will examine the ways in which early habits transition into a mature will and learn to use the "power tool" of Reason and Will without cutting off our fingers.

Anne homeschooled her children for two decades. She is an Advisory member of the AmblesideOnline Curriculum and the author of Minds More Awake: The Vision of Charlotte Mason.

Holly Williamson

Room 203

Reeling In Resistant Writers

If you want to learn about the mechanics of writing or how to encourage your child to use more adjectives or teaching them to write a clear beginning, middle, and end to a story, you should probably look for a different seminar. This seminar will not address any of these things.  Encouraging children to write effectively and expressively involves so much more than that. Instead, Holly will be sharing her experiences of homeschooling two children who were incredibly resistant to putting their thoughts down on paper. She will share some tips, tricks,  and resources to help get the words flowing, without tears and damage to your relationship. After 11 years, her family is now finished their homeschooling journey, so she can tell you about her now young adults' attitudes toward writing. Spoiler alert - it’s a happy ending!

Holly homeschooled two wonderful children for 11 years. She is now working in social services.

Melanie Glassford

Sonya Sommerville

Room 204

Unit Study, Unschooling And Eclectic - Making Sense Of The Choices

What does a unit study look like? What is unschooling? Doesn’t eclectic mix up philosophies? Sonya and Melanie will walk-through the underlying ideas behind these 3 philosophies,  itemize specific curriculum for each style, and discuss how to incorporate the method or even blend different styles together to find a fit for your family. There is no wrong way to teach, but understanding the options can help navigate the ever changing homeschool journey.

Session compliments other methods explored in session 2.

Over the past 8 years,  Melanie Glassford has adapted her teaching style for her 2 very different children's learning styles and challenges. She's passionate about encouraging others to enjoy the journey and teaching the joy of art & sciences to all.

Sonya has been homeschooling her 3 girls, 2 with dyslexia, for over 17 years.  In that time, she has used a wide variety of curricula and experimented with a number of different homeschooling philosophies in order to find the best fit for her family.

Ronald Morrish

Dining Room

Success Skills For Children With ADD

Children with attentional problems often struggle with the completion of both academic and everyday tasks. However, many highly successful adults have these same traits. The key is to understand how people with ADD traits succeed and teach these skills to your children. In this seminar, Ronald provides many insights which will help you to understand the issues and the skills which your children need to learn.

Ronald is an educational consultant from Fonthill, Ontario  and has provided over 2000 seminars for parent groups and teachers internationally. He has written three books on effective discipline for raising responsible children.

Lena Emo

Round Room

Character Counts

What does character look like in today's world? A person’s attributes, traits, or abilities is what defines character. Can we teach it out of a book, or is it something children pick up in their environment? This seminar will cover this important topic.

Lena has been homeschooling for over 23 years, with 2 grown adults and 3 children still in high school. Love, laughing, perseverance and a whole lot of coffee helps her endure to the end of her homeschooling journey.

Brett Ullman

P3

Media, Fath, Culture - The Disconnect

When we interact with our culture,  we take action and  when we think about what we are absorbing,  we connect it to ourselves and our lives. As Christians,  we need to actively be involved with our culture, without blindly accepting it as true. No more thoughtless watching. No more thoughtless listening. No more thoughtless online activity. No more thoughtless anything. Christianity is a strategic, intentional daily pursuit.

Husband to Dawn and father of Bennett and Zoe  Brett and his family make their home in Ajax, Ontario where Brett leads and directs Worlds Apart, a charity focused on empowering individuals to re-align their lives with Biblical core values.