Description
All OCHEC members who attended the convention can access the full Convention MP3 Set through our Shop for free, using the discount code provided to their email address. This replaces the $5 member discount at time of registration in years past. Pre-ordering is not necessary for OCHEC Members attending the convention.
Friday
Parenting and Homeschooling Beyond the Rules – Connie Albers (Keynote)
Like you, we began our homeschool journey not knowing what to do or where we would end up. I created rules, set limits, and established boundaries, but learned valuable lessons when things didn’t go as planned. God was working amid it all. Learning to parent the heart of my kids made us stronger. As our children changed, we did too. We watched in humbleness as God used our homeschool journey to change our family legacy forever.
Homeschooling with Confidence – Connie Albers
Ever feel like you are not doing enough or doing it all wrong? If you are like Connie, you’ll be nodding your head right now. Comparison, doubt, fear, and regret are familiar to homeschool moms. We scroll through Facebook, view Pinterest, read our favorite blog, and then get discouraged and go to bed feeling like failures. Your online friends seem to be doing everything, and all you could muster was the dishes, oh, and maybe math. This mother of five is empowering moms with her message that you are equipped for this calling. You will leave this presentation confident that God equips those He called.
The Race of Man – Calvin Smith (YOUTH)
Headlines touting the prevalence of racism permeating western culture continue to jam news and social media feeds around the world. How should Bible-believing Christians interpret these ideas? Are people being programmed to view people that look different than they do as inferior- and are Christians susceptible to being influenced to think that way as well? This presentation will examine how the Bible should shape our beliefs about human anthropology- ‘race’, racism, the origin of man and most importantly- the message of the Gospel!
Getting a Good Start – Robin Gilman
Homeschooling does not have to be intimidating – it is simply a continuation of parenting. In this workshop Robin will give you helpful, practical tips, some do’s and don’ts and lots of encouragement as you begin this wonderful journey of educating your children at home.
Words that Give Life – Stacey Weeks
What does it mean to think practically about the power of words, the gift of language, and how we use it to glorify God in our everyday lives? Words that Give Life will walk through James 3:1-12 and examine four types of words: Responsible words, revealing words, powerful words, and life-giving words (James 3:1-12).
Christian Faith as the Foundation for Education – Michael Thiessen
Classical Education emphasizes truth, logic, and rhetoric. Everything concerning truth must start with Christ.
Choosing Curriculum – Cori Dean
Choosing curriculum doesn’t start with the right books but with acknowledging your family’s uniqueness. Until you know what you are working towards how can you choose the right tools? When you are ready to assemble your tool kit, you will need both standard tools that are similar to everyone else’s (language arts and math) and those that meet the needs of your particular situation. (Gaelic, anyone?) There is no magic bullet for getting homeschool right but there is a way to optimize the plan for your family. This workshop will be full of both big picture planning and ground level preparation tools for getting the right resources to serve you as you travel along on your homeschooling journey.
Parenting with Confidence in a World Gone Mad – Chap Bettis
You started your family with high ideals. But now your day is filled with problems. Basic parenting principles have become fuzzy. Or maybe you never had any Biblical teaching on raising children. Do you need to hit the reset button? This session will take you back to basic biblical precepts from God’s Word. You will leave with hope and a plan.
Teaching a Biblical Worldview – Joanne Kress
You don’t have to be a Bible college grad or a Super Mom/Dad to attempt to teach your children a biblical worldview. Join us for some practical strategies and resources to enable your children to answer the big questions of life and have a sure foundation for making decisions in their future.
Organizing Your Space – Joanne Schreuders
Do you feel frustrated or maybe anxious when you start your school day? Does stuff seem to be piling up around you while you do school, causing your brain to feel foggy and full? Joanne Schreuders, a retired homeschooling mom of 10, will show you different ways to organize your space while decluttering. She will show you ways to evaluate the space you have available, as she goes with you through your cupboards and closets in all areas of your house. Great tips will also be shared on how to maintain your stuff, once you have sorted through things. Come on out and see what cool tips you will take home with you.
The Early Years – Jake and Heather Zwart
Raising children in the Lord is a passion of all believers. When we look at very young children, we see them thriving under parental attention. This attention results in a strong trusting relationship. We will take a look at the role of relationship in learning in the early years. This includes the importance of play to learn the laws of physics, kitchen to learn chemistry, and walks to learn about biology. All these are crucial building blocks for later academic courses. From there we will discuss the value of homeschooling in these endeavours and provide encouragement to continue the walk.
The Family as Economic Unit (AKA The Entrepreneurial Family) – Paula Maretzki
Have you ever wondered what it would look like to run your own family business? Are you interested in having a “side hustle”, but aren’t sure what that would look like? Do you have children in your family who are interested in running their own business, but you don’t know how to encourage them? In this seminar Paula Maretzki will describe how she and her family have started multiple businesses, run many “side hustles” and have encouraged their children to do the same, all while homeschooling. By listening to her family’s experience you will hear many key principles they have learned along the way.
ADHD: Disease, Normal Childhood, or Something Else? – Mary-Lou MacLean
Statistics today indicate that 5-15% of school-aged children are affected by ADHD. But what truly is ADHD and are there other conditions that mimic the ADHD symptoms or can lead to it? This workshop will educate you on how to identify whether or not your child has ADHD as well as looking for therapeutic solutions to symptoms that may impede your child’s academic performance or social well-being.
Starting and Growing Your Own Unique Homeschool Group – Sharon Michel
Information and tips to create connection and build your homeschool community!
Rules Minus Relationship Equals Rebellion – Connie Albers
Have you made a list of rules only to get discouraged when your teen doesn’t follow them? Do you feel your attempts to create close relationships feel one-sided? Rest assured, mom, you aren’t alone. While every family needs rules, limits, and boundaries to help protect your child, and keep order, they cannot come at the expense of your relationship. It’s not the rules that cause our children to rebel. Often something is missing. Connie Albers, the mother of five adult children, shares how to create rules, build relationships, and reduce rebellion.
Sharing the Gospel in Today’s Culture – Calvin Smith (YOUTH)
The Gospel message never changes, but missionaries seek to contextualize that message in different cultures in order to make it more understandable and to better demolish the strongholds preventing the hearers from accepting it. Walk through the book of Acts to see a biblical example of how the Apostles adapted to the various cultures the early church dealt with in order to better share the Gospel and what that means for us today.
Bringing Learning to Life with Unit Studies – Joanne Schreuders
Are you on a tight budget? Do you want to save money on the curriculum but not shortchange your kid’s education? It CAN be done! Joanne Schreuders, a homeschooling mom of ten, has been using Unit Studies for 25+ years and will be sharing the pros and cons of teaching this way. She will be showing you what Unit Studies look like as well as many samples to give you ideas of your own. But you will not leave empty-handed as Joanne will SHOW you how Unit Studies work and are made, with a hands-on approach as you make your own!
Patient Parenting: Overcoming Your Anger in the Homeschool – Chap Bettis
Anger is one of the most common sins in the home. And yet it is hidden away. The only people that see it and feel it are our family members. Could the reason you are caught in a sin-confess-sin cycle be because you never understood all of what God has to say about this issue? Come get a handle on this common, but defeatable foe.
Raising Readers – Jil Koller
Jil will explain a tried-and-true method for teaching children to read. Far beyond that, she will share strategies, resources, and tips for fostering a lifelong love of reading and developing proficiency in reading comprehension and literary analysis. Jil will close by sharing the unprecedented academic impact, family blessing and joy of reading aloud to your children.
The Big Picture – Joanne Kress
As a mama to four young adults, Joanne has the benefit of hindsight to recognize some things that were (and would have been) very beneficial in their home education journey. With a heart to encourage parents, Joanne will share both big picture ideas and practical examples. Join her, ‘steal’ some strategies, and consider the end goal as you educate and train your children to become capable adults.
Reading Disabilities: The Missing Link – Grades K-4 – Matthew Turton
The number one cause of reading difficulties often hides behind confusing symptoms and frequently continues into adulthood. It’s difficult to detect, often misdiagnosed and many times the child doesn’t even know there’s a problem. Poor eye tracking leads to slow reading, skipping words, reversing letters, avoiding reading, poor coordination and more. Come and discover with Matthew Turton, Director of Breakthroughs in Learning how to identify and improve eye tracking in your classroom.
The Disciple-Making Parent – Raising Your Children to Love and Follow Jesus Christ – Chap Bettis (Keynote)
The reason we started homeschooling was to disciple our children. Unfortunately, we can become so busy educating them that we forget to disciple them. In our time together, we will think about: why young people walk away from the faith, why they stay, and what we as parents should focus on. Come learn how to keep the main thing the main thing.
Saturday
Gospel Truths and Homeschoolers Forget – Chap Bettis (Keynote)
We believe in the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. So why do so many of our homeschools not reflect that Gospel? Why having started in the Spirit, are we now homeschooling in the flesh? Come be reminded of the Gospel truths we forget. You will leave encouraged!
From Doubt to Courage: Understanding the Experience of Second-Generation Christians – Chap Bettis
Those who grow up in a Christian home have a different experience than those who came to Christ as adults. Passing the Gospel to them means that we must understand the process they will go through as well as the tools God has given us to strengthen them.
The Bible on Work, and Teaching it to the Next Generation – Stephen Priddle (YOUTH)
The scriptures teach a lot about work, and many of the current generation of young people are weak on this area, and we don’t want our kids to follow that path. This session covers biblical teaching and practical ideas on the topic.
Homeschooling in Freedom – Robin Gilman
In this workshop Robin will share four freedoms that we can enjoy as we home educate our children:
-Freedom from the pressures of parental disapproval (how to deal respectfully with parents who aren’t happy with your educational choice)
-Freedom from financial stress as a one income family (frugal and joyful living from a biblical perspective with practical tips)
-Freedom to be flexible (how disruptions to our plans can be educational)
-Freedom to pass on our values to our children
Trouble on the Way – Vanessa Brobbel
This session is for parents who want to equip their children to live godly lives in Christ Jesus despite strong reactions of the world toward Christians. Increasingly the general public is portraying the Church as the oppressor of individual freedom opening her up to persecution in all its forms: ridicule, harassment, discrimination, defamation, attack, detainment, torture and martyrdom. However, understanding of God’s purpose in and through persecution has eluded many Christ-followers and has caused confusion within the body of Christ.
This session does not promote a doormat Christianity but rather asserts quite the opposite – a victorious, resilient faith that not only survives but thrives as it encounters the very gates of hell. Points of learning will include: God’s purpose for His persecuted church, how Christ endured and responded, how his followers emulate Christ in suffering, how persecution seeks to hinder Christian faith and witness, and how to respond with confident love in the time and place of God’s choosing. If you lead… your children will follow.
How to Hope in God When All Seems Lost – Stacey Weeks
Hope in God. We know we should. We know it’s right. But how does that abstract theological statement play out in our lives? How do we hope in God when life feels out of control? What does hope look like as we live it out? In this workshop, we’ll journey together through Psalm 130, pausing at key moments to apply the truths about hope conveyed in this passage. Come ready to learn what practical steps you can take to have your hope in God impact the daily struggles you face.
The Homeschooling Warzone – Paula Maretzki
Whenever any family steps up their intentionality in raising a Christian army of children, then be warned… you become a target. Paula Maretzki calls this “The Homeschooling Warzone”. This is a spiritual battle the enemy wants you to lose, but take heart, in this seminar you will hear how you have the tools to fight this battle and win. By looking more closely at the book of Nehemiah, homeschoolers can learn from another group of people who were under attack, yet finished the goal successfully. You will leave this seminar encouraged and inspired to keep going in your homeschooling journey…even when the battle is on.
Behaviour Issues That Affect Learning (Temper Tantrums, Melt-downs and Others) – Matthew Turton
We’ve called it lots of names: lazy, rebellious, disobedient, angry, frustrated, distracted, uncooperative, and unmotivated. All of these add up to a teacher who can feel “exasperated”. What if it’s not the child’s character? What if it’s an underdeveloped brain skill? What if developing the brain skill can reduce or eliminate the behaviour issue? Come and hear how targeting brain skills can help these children change how they behave in school, and move beyond poor behaviours to learn and grow.
Teaching Our Kids about Money and Finances – Stephen Priddle (YOUTH)
A Christian accountant and business owner shares about teaching our kids about money and finances, from a biblical and practical perspective, with ideas and examples.
Modeling Virtue to Your Children – Rachel Eras
Our confession of faith is important, but we need to recognize that theology flows out of our fingertips; our deepest beliefs show themselves in what we do. In the raising and teaching of children, this means that for better and for worse, the student will be like the teacher, the child will be like the parent. In the homeschooling context, we model virtue by cultivating virtue and putting off vice so that we may show our children what it looks like to have our affections rightly ordered – loving what God loves and hating what He hates.
Interest-Led Learning: Developing Skills and Passions – Christian Weller
What will your child grow up to be? Have you considered the calling on their life? One of the exciting opportunities of homeschooling is to allow interest-led learning and give your child the chance to pursue their passions and develop skills for possibilities in the future. Will they be a writer? Marine biologist? As a parent, you’ll be able to focus learning around a core passion while helping them grow in a field that they love.
Nature Studies – Sarah Hobbs
“We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.” (Charlotte Mason) What is Nature Study and why should it be a part of our school curriculum? With so many subjects and activities encroaching on our time, it’s easy to let Nature Study fall by the wayside. Sarah Jane Hobbs will give some practical tools for how, as well as motivation for why you want to prioritize Nature Study. It may be the most important thing you make time for in your children’s daily lives. More and more studies are showing us that being outdoors is critical for mental health, and then more than that, studying outdoors is a critical foundation for all the sciences. Observation is the key layer that must be built well so that other learning can be done. Nature Study is the perfect avenue for this skill.
Prep for Life at University and College – Rolf Nanninga (YOUTH)
Heading off to post-secondary is both exciting and nerve-wracking. Together we’ll anticipate and plan for the changes you will face. Hear from current students and an experienced staff worker (Rolf Nanninga) with Power to Change students. P2C and other student ministries like IV and Nav’s offer a connection to a Christian community, a place to grow, and a place to live on mission.
How to Choose the Perfect Curriculum for YOUR Child – Connie Albers
One of the most frequent questions Connie gets asked is about selecting the right curriculum. After homeschooling five different learners who earned academic scholarships to university, Connie shares the process of choosing what works best for each child. Connie wants your homeschool journey to be fun!
Practical Tips for Christian Entrepreneurs – Stephen Priddle (YOUTH)
A veteran accountant and entrepreneur will share biblical and experiential advice and encouragement for entrepreneurs and those working in business. The scriptures speak directly and indirectly to so many related issues. He will keep a home educator’s perspective in his presentation. Those who are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs may also want to come and listen in.
Transforming Cultures – Christopher Timm (YOUTH)
This seminar lays out a practical strategy for families to build a cultural vision in their home to develop character in their children and impact the broader world around them. Along the way, you will pick up key insights such as the ways to bring change, casting a compelling vision to inspire them, creating buy-in and prioritizing your purpose over your goals. All is designed to develop children who stand strong for God and positively impact the culture around them.
Attention Challenge in a Digital World – Todd Anderson
In this workshop Todd considers the effects of the digital age on our intellectual habits not as a means of demonizing technology, nor in order to offer a set of techniques for the proper use of smartphones. Instead, he wants to show what habit transformation means for our society as a whole, and how we as Christians and educators can prepare the next generation to be thoughtful in a world gripped by distraction, echo chambers, algorithms, and the temptation to glorify the self.
Teaching Shakespeare – Sarah Hobbs
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Unlock the world of Shakespeare today. Why study Shakespeare? What is a good age to begin Shakespeare? What will my children learn with Shakespeare? Come explore the Bard and decide for yourself the value of playing with the plays! Learn why Shakespeare is still considered the most prolific playwright of our time and why his works continue to be performed worldwide 450 years after he penned them. This workshop, led by a woman who strongly disliked Shakespeare when first exposed to it in high school, promises to inspire and give some thought-provoking arguments for why you too can grow to love him! Sarah Jane works hard to inspire young and old – she has led study groups, directed, performed and edited many Shakespeare plays over these last 20 years.
Raising Writers – Jil Koller
Jil will share her love for writing, and the critical way that writing proficiency impacts children as they learn and develop. She will explain strategies, resources, and tips for encouraging children to write, and ways to adjust your homeschool program to create an environment in which writing thrives.
Preparing Transcripts for College and University – Diana Blachar
Parents can be encouraged that they can homeschool through High School – without ON curriculum or Ontario PS online classes – and their children can still go to college and university.
Picture the Possibilities – Connie Albers (Keynote)
Parenting children is more than painting by numbers. Your children are masterpieces in the making. Join Connie as she unpacks truths from God’s Word about how to discover the hidden masterpiece within each child.
