The Homeschool Conference

Once again I am grateful to Nina Chachu for keeping me in the loop. She was gracious and kind enough to send the link to one of the most significant history making conferences in homeschooling.  It took place on August 23-24, 2013, where homeschoolers from all over the world united for two days. I was glad to see homeschoolers from Africa participating. This indicates that homeschooling is also growing on this continent. You can listen to recordings here. http://www.homeschoolconference.com/page/welcome

Needless to say, I learned a great deal about teaching style and technique. One important technique is to make education and learning culturally relevant. Even when teaching math. We can employ stories, names and songs to equations and teaching different topics. For example, to help a student remember the Quadratic formula, , use a story that they can easily remember and makes culturally relevant sense to them.

For example, Boateng often made bad decisions, (-b). One day, an opportunity came for him to attend Homowo. He was afraid that he if he decided to go that he may not get there in time to see the Ga chiefs “shame hunger.” But then again, he was hopeful to get a ride into Jamestown, so that he wouldn’t miss any of the festivities. That he may miss out is represented by the negative sign (-). And that he may get there in time to see everything is represented by the positive sign, (+). And the story goes on and on until the student feels connected to the symbols because of the story that accompanies their explanation.

Another important lesson I learned was on the plethora of useful and free websites established to make homeschooling possible and make learning fun for our children. We have joined Minecraft, where they are learning engineering skills and community building.

And while common knowledge to us as homeschoolers, we are the experts in this field. We are developing curriculum, planning lessons, teaching, and maintaining happy, healthy children today for a better tomorrow. We are sacrificing today so our children can become global citizens tomorrow. Homeschoolers are making the world a better place, one child at time and that revolution is taking place in our living rooms, kitchen tables and dens. How are you making the world a better place for our children tomorrow? Kiss a homeschooler!