Home Education Conference Update.  11-12 September

Last week for early registration prices is coming up. Get your rego’s in by August 21^st

We have an exciting night for the whole family planned on Friday evening including **Music Festival Choir’s Got Rhythm ** Teen Drama Group** Circus Act from CIRCO Arts students** Music from the Band with no Name** and more. Then Diana will take us all through the Middle Ages like you’ve never heard it before.  Bring the whole family for an entertaining and educational evening.

The Vendor list is growing and includes:

Learnex, Kids Journal, Celebrate Art (Helen Pearson), Christian Education Services, Homeschooling NZ, Home Education Foundation, Institute for Exellence in Writing resources, Creation Science resources, Voice of the Martyrs, CSM (Chch School of Music), Diana Waring Presents

We also have more info on all the workshops below including the ERO review workshop being replaced!

Registration forms and contact information at www.dianadownunder.com

See you there!

Update on Workshops

Reading, Writing and Maths in the Early Years Lennie Harrison
Practical tips, activities and games that help with learning to read, write and do maths, and a logical sequence for introducing them. They will be useful no matter what curriculum (or non-curriculum) you’re using, because they’re often quick and easy and don’t require a lot of preparation, and they can lighten up the day. Feel free to bring some ideas of your own to share with the group.

“Meat for Teenagers” Lennie Harrison
Questions tend to pop up during the teen years. Teens themselves have questions like: “What is God’s will for me?” or “Why should I bother with what God wants?”  Parents may ask: “What resources have others found helpful for their teens?”, “What kind of parental involvement are we looking at and why?” or “What can we expect from our teens?” Lennie will share her perspective, followed by discussion.  Predominantly Christian content.

Character Training. Linda Gage

The Home Education environment is a wonderful opportunity to focus on our children’s character. Linda will explore what character is, what affects its development and practical suggestions to support your character training through everyday life. The goal is to have an abnormal teenager! Start now!

Time Management. Linda Gage

Are you juggling too many balls while wearing hats of all shapes and sizes? Life is very busy as a mum at home. This workshop will look at the practical, emotional and spiritual sides of running your home, raising and educating your children, organizing all the stuff, training the Clean Team and keeping it all in balance.

“Avoiding Burnout – Keeping Going When the Going Gets Tough” Barbara Smith
This workshop will include a discussion of the symptoms of burnout and specifically causes of home school burnout. Strategies for avoiding burnout will also be discussed in detail.

NEW!! Developing Good Thinking Skills in the Course of Life. Led by Helen Pearson

This seminar gives ideas to help us to extend our children’s thinking past the recall of the “right” answers through to research, reasoning, reflecting, responding and reviewing. It will be practical, and immediately useful in whatever unit study or subject you are learning about. Helen will also briefly introduce the Interact Curriculum, a flexible, integrated, Christian curriculum based on these principles.

Helen and Dean Pearson have been home educating their five children for 15 years. Helen has worked as teacher and principal, she has trained student teachers and led seminars for homeschoolers and she is the author of the Interact Curriculum.

The History of Interact

While still a very young teacher, Helen Pearson, author of the Interact Curriculum, became the founding principal of KingsWay School in Orewa, New Zealand.  Through this experience, though it was quite overwhelming at times, God birthed in Helen a great enthusiasm for education that seeks to honour God, and a joy in developing curriculum to this end.

After leaving KingsWay School, Helen was asked to develop material to assist others to integrate Biblical faith and world view into a dynamic learning programme.  In answer to this request, the week before her first child was born, Helen created a curriculum overview – a four year cycle – for KingsWay School, believing that it would one day be available for wider use.

Between 1991 and 2001, Helen gradually developed sixteen units of work, each suitable for one term’s work.  She has also had five children!  Her husband, Dean and her mother have been a wonderful support with the children during the times she has worked on curriculum development.

The Interact Curriculum is now in use in approximately one third of schools in the NZ Association of Christian Schools.  A number of homeschoolers also use the curriculum.

In 2008, in response to the new NZ Curriculum and recent educational thinking, Helen began updating the previous Interact Curriculum manuals.

The Interact Curriculum is now being written by a team of educators, and frequent input and critique from educators, advisors,  and experts in various educational fields (both Christian and secular) who have been so willing to invest time and advice into the curriculum as Helen has developed.