[un]Convention Speaker Sessions

Sessions:

Jeanne Faulconer 

 Choose Your Own EDventure

Your choices within the flexible framework of homeschooling can help you forge an unconventional but effective education for your kids and teens. Join Jeanne Faulconer as she helps parents consider specific ways to lean into the uniqueness of homeschooling. Craft an educational venture that will work for you and your family

About Jeanne

Jeanne Faulconer and her husband homeschooled their kids for 20 years in three states. Along the way, Jeanne organized co-ops, wrote and edited for homeschooling magazines, and worked as a homeschool advocate and conference speaker. She is the former director of Brave Writer’s 14,000-strong membership community, Brave Learner Home. Her writing and homeschool advice is featured at TheHomeSchoolMom.com. Jeanne is a former board member of VaHomeschoolers and was named to the VaHomeschoolers Legacy Circle. A homeschool evaluator for many years (now retired from that service), she has provided annual evidence of progress letters for hundreds of families in Virginia.

Sherry Wolfe

Demystifying Proof of Progress – Unraveling Testing and Evaluation Options

Do you have questions about Virginia’s end of the year proof of progress requirement? If so, this is the workshop for you.  We will discuss what exactly is required by law, the pros and cons for choosing a standardized test or an evaluation, how to find an Evaluator, and how to prepare for the test or evaluation. We will also discuss how to navigate this process if your student has learning disabilities or other needs. 

Come listen as an experienced homeschooler and evaluator who has seen a plethora of situations and families helps guide you smoothly through the process. 

About Sherry

Homeschooling is not a journey Sherry planned to take. She started homeschooling when her twice-exceptional son wasn’t thriving in public school. At that point, she committed to learning the best ways for her kids to be successful. Ten years later, Sherry is still homeschooling her 3 kids, all of whom have various learning disabilities as well as medical needs. She holds master’s degrees in education and math and has experience teaching math in high school and colleges. This education and her experience with her own kids have come together with her enthusiasm for helping other parents bring out the potential in their children.

Catina Sweedy

Learning Through Video Games

Any parent who has heard “one more minute!” when they tell their kids to get off the computer, iPad, or other gaming console can relate to how infuriating and frustrating it is when kids just can’t stop gaming. But what if I were to tell you that video games are excellent educational tools, and not just for coding and programming? Want to teach them about history? Try Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty. Entrepreneurship, engineering, and social skills? Roblox is your game. Logic and problem-solving? Portal and Boneworks. And Minecraft? The possibilities stretch farther than an Enderman can teleport.

In this session participants will identify key points of video games that can be used to build an individual curriculum for their student. Participants will learn how to utilize easily accessible resources for education, such as the public library and documentaries, build a community of other parents and students with a common interest to enhance students’ social lives, and to find and engage educational experts to create more advanced classes for their students.

Video games can be a source of great contention within families. The goal of this session is to turn that around and use them to work for us as parent-educators instead

About Catina

Catina Franklin Sweedy has been an active member of the homeschool community since 2008, but her focus on unschooling and self-directed learning began in 2010 when her son refused to sit down and learn reading through a “proper” curriculum. Her B.H. (Before Homeschooling) pursuits consisted of performing as a professional clarinetist, teaching music privately and in public schools, leading nature classes, tutoring the SATs, and failing to beat her mother at Space Invaders on the Atari 2600. Catina joined the staff of Embark Center for Self-Directed Education in 2018, where she was finally able to combine her love of mentoring and spending time with young people with her passionate belief in the many benefits of unschooling and self-directed learning.

Catina has lectured about homeschooling, video game education, and self-directed education at the Virginia Homeschoolers Conference, the Northern Virginia Women’s Summit, MineFaire, and the Alternative Education Resource Organization Conference, and has been featured on the The Unschool Files, Working While Homeschooling, and Classcast podcasts about her work in self-directed education and homeschooling. She is a Mojang certified Minecraft educator and a Virginia qualified proof-of-progress evaluator. (And those unschooled kids of hers did eventually learn how to read!)

Tyrone Cherry

Our Home IS School and Life is the Lesson

Encouraging home educators to overcome the fear and discomforts in homeschooling 

About Tyrone

 Tyrone Cherry is a Homeschool parent of 4 elementary school aged children. Previously a professional educator of over 20yrs, he has taught almost every class public school has to offer from Kindergarten to Middle school gym to High School Pre-Calc. to Yoga at a high school. Cherry served as a principal of a charter school in Charlotte, NC as well as teaching at public, private, charter, and public charter schools in Hopewell, Petersburg, Omaha, Boston, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Sussex. Eventually , he left traditional education to spend more time with his “lil lights” and to customize their curriculum to fit our family values. Recently he has partnered his passion for the little people with his passion for plants and founded the Petersburg Oasis Youth Farm to provide experiential education in the area of agriculture. His teaching philosophy? 

“A child doesn’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” – Charlie Sposato

Alycia Wright

Building Community: Creating the Co-Op of Your Dreams

The African proverb says that “It takes a village to raise a child.” When you choose to home educate, you now have the power to create the village you need for yourself and your children. In this session we will discuss how to create your co-op vision, discuss the various types and structures of co-ops, how to find like-minded families, and of course some helpful legal tips to consider when launching a co-op.

About Alycia

Alycia Wright, M.Ed is a former educator turned homeschool mom for the last ten years. She founded Cultural Roots Homeschool Cooperative, a nonprofit located in Richmond, Va. Alycia has spoken at numerous homeschool conferences across the nation on the topics of building community, cultural pedagogy, and anti-racism. She and her husband have four daughters, ages 18, 14, 13, and 9. You can find Alycia at her cooperatives website: culturalrootsco-op.com

Cynthia Holt and Justine LoMonaco

Are You Thinking Like a Homeschooler?

The vast majority of parents homeschooling today were schooled in a traditional (non-homeschool) way. As we educate our children, it is natural to reflect back on our personal experiences with education and our parents’ methods of parenting a traditionally schooled child. But homeschooling is not the same as traditional schooling in many ways, and we must first address these differences to find success in home education. Welcome to deschooling! In this workshop, we will face head-on the biases or faulty expectations many of us bring to our lesson table because of our backgrounds and explore subtle mindset shifts that can help us homeschool with success and joy.

About Cynthia & Justine

Cynthia Holt is the mom of three boys, ages 20, 18, and 5. She started homeschooling in 2007 and has over 15 years of homeschooling experience.

Justine LoMonaco started homeschooling in 2019 and is the mom of two adorable girls (with one more on the way.) Justine has worked in journalism and marketing for several brands supporting women and parents through a variety of challenges.

Together, they are the co-founders of the Learn + Live Letter, a hands-on, play-based, faith-neutral unit study program for children ages 3-12. Our flexible program is designed to help you bring joy back to learning while providing you with empowering guidance and support.

Cynthia Justine headshot

Adrienne Ashby

Self-Care for Homeschooling Parents

Yeah, yeah we’ve all been told that we “can’t pour from an empty cup” and to “place the oxygen mask on our own faces before we put them on our children” but what does it even look like to care for ourselves in the context of homeschooling?  In this session we will candidly explore the concepts of homeschool parent fatigue and burnout and learn about tools and strategies for bringing self-care into your home and your homeschool, regardless of how young/old your children are; how many children you have; or how much time/money you have. Before the session please consider taking this self-test on burnout, and bring your results to the session. Please note that the self-test references the workplace. When taking the test you should consider your homeschool as your workplace and your family as your “co-workers/colleagues.”  Burnout Self-Test – Checking yourself for burnout (https://www.mindtools.com/auhx7b3/burnout-self-test)

Adrienne Ashby has been homeschooling since 2012 and attempts to balance homeschooling with practicing law. She has three children (ages 21, 19 and 13).  Her two oldest children are now college students (United States Coast Guard Academy and United States Naval Academy).  Adrienne is grateful for the freedom and responsibility of teaching her children at home. She served for 5 years as a board member of a Norfolk homeschool co-op, and in 2021 she helped co-found KINDRED Homeschool Collective. She has practiced law since 1998, and she has offered homeschool coaching services since 2020. When she is not homeschooling or working, she enjoys learning ballet, reading, and drinking tea. 

About Adrienne

Adrienne Ashby has been homeschooling since 2012 and attempts to balance homeschooling with practicing law. She has three children (ages 21, 19 and 13).  Her two oldest children are now college students (United States Coast Guard Academy and United States Naval Academy).  Adrienne is grateful for the freedom and responsibility of teaching her children at home. She served for 5 years as a board member of a Norfolk homeschool co-op, and in 2021 she helped co-found KINDRED Homeschool Collective. She has practiced law since 1998, and she has offered homeschool coaching services since 2020. When she is not homeschooling or working, she enjoys learning ballet, reading, and drinking tea.