Conference Featured Speakers


Vicki Bentley is the mother of eight daughters, foster mom of over fifty and grandma to fourteen wonderful grandbabies (so far). Vicki has homeschooled seventeen children since 1988, with the strong undergirding of her husband Jim, and led a local support group of over 250 families for fourteen years. She has served on the executive board and convention committee of the Home Educators Association of Virginia and has addressed state and national conventions, university teacher organizations and many mothers' groups. She is the author of My Homeschool Planner, Everyday Cooking, The Everyday Family Chore System, Home Education 101: A Mentoring Program for New Homeschoolers, High School 101: Blueprint for Success and other homeschool and homemaking helps and coordinates HSLDA's Early Years program. Vicki has a heart for moms and offers strong practical wisdom and encouraging words.

  • Session 1, M    "Jump-Start" to Joyful Motherhood, Vicki Bentley—What comes to mind when you hear, "Joyful mother of children"? If you aren't sure this describes you right now, come learn four steps to guide you to the joyful path! We will also discuss practical strategies to help us stay tuned up.
  • Session 3, M    Organizing Your Home—Creating a Lifestyle Learning Environment, Vicki Bentley—Vicki will help you decide what is important to your family, where you need to begin and will discuss organizational challenges unique to homeschoolers. Vicki shares practical ideas that have helped her manage her household.
  • Session 4, M    Getting Kids to Help at Home, Vicki Bentley—Children need to be more involved in helping at home—it trains them in character and practical skills and helps your sanity! But where do you begin? This foster mom to almost fifty children will share tips and practical helps that have enabled her to homeschool seventeen children and still be able to open the front door to guests.
  • Session 6, M    Organized (Well, Almost!)—Time Management for Busy Moms, Vicki Bentley—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 on a typical homeschool day? Come hear practical tips and encouragement from a homeschool mom of many. Your husband and children will thank you, and you will have hope for another day of science and language arts!
  • Session 8, Leaders       Families Encouraging Families, Vicki Bentley—In this interactive session, Vicki discusses four basic needs of homeschool families and shares practical ways for leaders to encourage other families without discouraging their own!
  • Session 9, G     A Mom's Sentimental Journey, Vicki Bentley—Fifteen years and seventeen kids later, a veteran homeschool mom discusses what she would repeat and what she would do differently on this homeschooling journey!
  • Session 11, G   Multi-level Teaching, Vicki Bentley—With one child it seems 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 are offered by a mom of seventeen homeschooled students (seven who were school-age at one time).

 

Dr. Brian and Betsy Ray have been married thirty-one years and have eight children, all home educated, (two of whom are married) and three grandchildren. Brian is an internationally known researcher and president of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI). He has taught at both Christian and secular universities. He has published numerous times in journals and books, is frequently interviewed by the media in the US and internationally, has appeared twice on the NBC Today Show, serves as an expert witness in courts and legislatures, and regularly makes presentations at professional meetings. Brian and Betsy have worked together in local, state and national homeschool leadership for about twenty-four years. Betsy enjoys exercising her gifts of hospitality and teaching and counseling women.

  • Session 1, G     Educational Authority: Where Should It Reside? Brian Ray—It is crucial to decide who holds the authority over children's education (i.e., discipleship). Dr. Ray helps you examine scripture and history to establish principled thinking. You are then presented with enticing ideas that suggest parents cannot provide a good education for their children. The effects of state-run (public) education, private education and home-based education are weighed before Dr. Ray explicates what should be the default setting regarding children's education and the state's role in it.
  • Session 2, G     Parents: Igniting the Fires of Your Mind, Betsy Ray—We all want our children to be excited about learning. That excitement can be caught from parents who are challenging themselves in new areas. Betsy will give ideas and relate her experiences that could make teaching more than just getting through the textbooks. She will encourage you to stimulate your thinking and give practical tips on how to relate topics in which you never thought you would be interested (e.g., economics) to ones that you have always loved (e.g., history) and to the light of God's truth. You can lead your young people in making these relationships, forming a biblical worldview and renewing their minds to impact their world.
  • Session 3, G     Research into a New Decade: Homeschool Research Past, Present and Future, Brian Ray—Dr. Ray provides a brief summary of homeschool research of the past that shows the successes of the homeschooled, explains current projects and trends, and predicts where research is going and where it should go. Research to date clearly shows positive outcomes from homeschooling and future research will likely show more of the same. Research should be guided by clear goals and theory that is based on sound values.
  • Session 4, G     Clarifying Your Metaphysics, Epistemology and Axiology, Brian Ray—Every parent should carefully evaluate his or her philosophy of education. What is real? What is true? How do you arrive at knowledge? What is of value? What is good, and bad? All of these affect how and what you teach your children. This session will help you clarify and articulate your philosophy of education and will help you to apply your philosophy to what you do with your students. This may appear esoteric, but it will help build the foundation that is so important to you and your children.
  • Session 5, O, P            Fruitful Preparation, Betsy Ray—The teenage years should be the beginning of the harvest as our young people come into their own. If we plan for the storms of life and prepare, we can build through these years with less frustration, wasted time, conflicts and fruitlessness. We need to make the most of the time we have (Eph. 5:15-17). Betsy will help you consider and examine important principles to prepare yourself physically and spiritually for situations that will arise.
  • Session 6, D     Nurture and Admonition¾Not Pain and Provocation, Brian Ray—You want your children to be the best in academics, spirituality and physical health. You also want to have godly compassion for your children. In striving to lead his wife and eight children to "greatness," however, Brian has found that he can fall into the sin of provoking them. He'll use scripture and experience to address the way to combine high expectations with justice, mercy and love. This session is especially for fathers—but all are welcome.
  • Session 7, G     Academic and Elite Angst over Home Education: Attacking Homeschooling without Basis, Brian D. Ray—Attacks on the practice of and persons involved in homeschooling by academics and elites who influence policy and public opinion have been recently rising around the world (as of late 2009). Their angst is in the air. Policymakers, the general public, courts, professional educators and home educators need to understand the origin and validity, if any, of their anxiety. Dr. Ray will lay an empirical foundation based on research to date, including his new nationwide study. He will then move into what the academics and elites are saying and writing, to what degree they are advocates of a state-in-control-of-children worldview, whether they have any empirical basis for their claims and proposals and how policymakers, courts and those in the private, alternative, free-education and home-education communities might respond. Dr. Ray's solutions are evidence, experience, and philosophy-based.
  • Session 7, M    Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, Betsy Ray—Life can be sweet, refreshing and joyful. Do people see God's joy in you? We are not talking about strangers in the checkout line or even friends. Do your children see God's joy in you? Better yet, does your husband get refreshed by your joyful spirit? God gives us joy (Ecc. 2:26); He is our joy (Ps. 43:4); and He commands us to be joyful (Phil. 4:4) and full of joy (Jn. 15:11) regardless of our circumstances (Heb. 10:34). No matter your personality type, God wants you to bear His Spirit to your family. Come ready to be rejuvenated and encouraged to “rejoice in all to which you have put your hand,” you and your household (Deut. 12:7).
  • Saturday keynote, G     Home Educated and Now Adults: Were the Criticisms True or False? Brian Ray—Dr. Ray's major new study examines the lives of 7,306 adults from across the US who were homeschooled. This research, a long time in the making, focuses on these adults' general demographics, attitudes toward their own home-education experience and success in life. Success was evaluated with respect to civic, social, educational, employment and worldview traits. In many ways, these adults are very “normal.” On the other hand, they are remarkably different than the general US population. Generally speaking, the findings defuse many of the long-held negative criticisms of those who doubted homeschooling's benefits, whether practiced in the US or in other nations. The findings will likely be a great encouragement to those providing and advocating  home-based education during the past two decades.
  • Session 11, G   When a Free Lunch Isn't Free: Public School Homeschool Programs, Brian Ray—“Hi, we are the local government school district, and we are here to help you to give you a free education for your children at home.” Does this positively grab you and comfort you that now all your money and self-doubt worries are over? Or does it send shivers up your spine with visions of Big Brother? It is of paramount importance for everyone to consider who should be in authority over what is taught to the minds and hearts of children. Both the concept of a democratic republic such as the United States and a Judeo-Christian worldview demand that parents and private, thoughtfully-chosen associations be the only educators. Dr. Ray will challenge you to think through this issue and consider questions such as: Should one person take from another, with the government's help, to educate his or her  children? Shouldn't we as Christians care about those less fortunate and back up the government's benevolent hands? Dr. Ray will provide you with information and insight that will help you promote the concept of liberty and biblical thinking by way of separating the government from education.

 

Ned Ryun is currently the president of American Majority, a national organization committed to identifying and training liberty-minded leaders. He is a former presidential writer for George W. Bush and son of former US Congressman Jim Ryun. Ned was the co-founder and former director of the Generation Joshua program. Ned earned degrees in English and History from the University of Kansas and has co-authored Heroes Among Us and The Courage to Run with his father and his twin brother, Drew. Ned and his wife, Becca, reside in Northern Virginia with their sons, Nathaniel and James, and their daughter, Charlotte (Lottie).

  • Session 2, T     Heroes among Us: How Men and Women of Faith Changed the Times in Which They Lived, Ned Ryun—An examination of the lives of men and women like William Wilberforce, Elijah Lovejoy and Angelina Grimke and how their faith compelled them to engage in the public arena and change the world in which they lived.
  • Thursday keynote, G    Observations on Homeschooling, from a Homeschooler Who Now Has Kids of His Own, Ned Ryun—Ned will talk about lessons learned from homeschooling, observations he has made having been involved in the homeschool community, the strengths and weaknesses from his perspective and where he is at today with his three little people.
  • Session 4, T     God Made Government, Family and the Church: The Three Spheres and Their Proper Roles, Ned Ryun—God made each one of these three entities to have unique spheres of influence and jurisdiction. As long as each stays within its proper sphere, things go well. When they don't, conflict between the three entities ensues.
  • Session 6, T     How Our Country Was Founded on Just Principles: Why America Is the Nation It Is Today, Ned Ryun—A look at the Founders and the founding of this country, their beliefs and how those beliefs influenced our Constitution and Declaration of Independence and gave us the nation we have today.
  •  Session 8, T     Mars Hill Christianity: Using Secular Terms to Communicate Biblical Truths, Ned Ryun—This session provides a look at the Apostle Paul, his encounter with the Greeks on Mars Hill and how he used terms they were familiar with to communicate God's truths.
  • Session 9, T     A Dozen Life Lessons: What I've Learned Along the Way, Ned Ryun—Ned shares the lessons he has learned along the way, from doing the small things well, to realizing that everything happens for a reason.

 

Kevin Swanson is a second-generation homeschooler, published author, radio personality and director of Generations with Vision, a ministry dedicated to strengthening homeschool families across the country. As a homeschool father of five children, ages ten to eighteen, Kevin is a nationally recognized speaker on home discipleship and education, and hosts the daily Generations Radio program heard by homeschool families around the world. Kevin has also served as the executive director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado for the last nine years. He has authored several popular books for homeschoolers, including Upgrade-10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child, The Second Mayflower, and the Family Bible Study Guide Series. Serving as a passionate supporter of home education, he has been interviewed on hundreds of media outlets, including Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family and the Fox News Network.

  • Session 1, G     Child Training in the Homeschool—99% of the Job, Kevin Swanson—Biblically speaking, the education of children is far more than books and tests. Character training of our children is the foundation of successful child-raising whether we aim for success academically, spiritually or in any other area. In this powerful, fast-paced survey of character training, Kevin lays out a vision that will help parents understand and undertake the beautiful job of child-training.
  • Session 2, G     Homeschooling—Capturing the Vision! Kevin Swanson—What is it about home education that has profoundly reenergized education and produced such outstanding academic results? Incredibly, the average homeschool eighth grader without teacher-credentialed parents tests four grade levels above the national average on nationally standardized tests—and it is not because we have taken a public school system complete with desks and bolted them to the floor of our living rooms. In this visionary, ground-breaking presentation on the homeschool concept, Kevin presents the basic elements that make up an outstanding homeschooling experience for your child. This message will give the first-time homeschooler confidence and vision and will provide encouragement and a reality check for the experienced home educator.
  • Friday keynote, G         Why Homeschooling Will Change the World, Kevin Swanson—Is it saying too much that homeschooling will change the world? It already has. This presentation will draw from history, research data and the Bible to illustrate the power of relationship-based, parent-guided learning. The real reason why homeschooling will change the world is found where it is least expected.
  • Session 5, Leaders       The Seven Termites in Homeschool Organizations, Kevin Swanson—Watch out for these guys! Kevin describes the seven species of termites that are known to eat out the core of our homeschool organizations (or even churches or families). Grasp of this information is an essential requisite to anyone's assuming leadership.
  • Session 7, T     A Vision for Your Life—Capturing the Greatest Vision of All, Kevin Swanson—There is hardly an eighteen-year-old alive who doesn't grapple with the question of calling. Each young person needs to catch the vision that God has for his or her life. This talk describes how to identify a calling for a young woman and a young man without falling into the ditch of egalitarian thinking on the one side, or an unbiblical and narrow understanding of work and dominion on the other side.
  • Session 8, O, P            The Successful Homeschool High School, Kevin Swanson—Some homeschool parents lack confidence and lose steam when their children reach high school. Can the homeschool high school be as successful as or better than a typical classroom education? Here Kevin Swanson outlines the basic constituents of a successful home school high school, encouraging parents to build on the foundation already laid. He focuses parents on their child's calling, and makes an important distinction between two tracks—the corporate track and the entrepreneurial track, pointing out the strong points and weak points of each. Wise planning when your child is twelve or thirteen years old is critical for success in those teen years.
  • Session 9, D     The Heart of Fatherhood, Kevin Swanson—Here is a rousing call for renewing the involvement, relationships and powerful influence of fatherhood. In many ways, fatherhood is a lost art. Kevin comes to this presentation with the blessing of having received a great legacy of four generations of godly fatherhood. It is more than leadership, responsibility and relationships. It is a generational vision that renews families, reforms cultures and establishes family dynasties. Dads, get ready for a huge encouragement and uplifting vision from this presentation.

 


G              Of general interest to all parents

T              Of special interest to teens

B              For beginners and inquirers

L              For parents of children with learning disabilities

Y             For parents of young children preschool to early elementary

O             For parents of older elementary age (may include middle school)

P              For parents of teens (and possibly teens)

D             For dads

M            For moms

Link to Other Conference Speakers