I have been homeschooling for 7 years now and I don’t feel I need homeschooling support per se. I’d rather focus my attention on effective teaching rather than curriculum specific discussion.

1. A speaker on the forecast of future high demand jobs and required skill sets. It is obvious from this recession that our children will need to have multiple skill sets and experiences from various career fields to fall back on rather than relying on that one college degree to carry them through life.

2. Speakers from both community colleges and public universities on the probable normal college life in the future. Our local community college (I am a faculty member) has discussed how the enormous growth rate of the college, limited funding sources to the college, the need for students to work at least part time and economic constraints of the student and family has lead to phenomenal growth in distance education. An administrator and I even agreed our 1st graders, upon completing high school, will probably go in their room, turn on their laptop and complete their coursework. Students will probably only go to campus to attend labs, meetings, presentations, or group study. As parents we want our children to have the same college experience we did, but that may not be realistic considering economics and our children’s comfort with technology we are still trying to learn.

3. Teachers of all levels of art, music and theatre. Since these programs are usually electives and under the constant threat of being cut due to budget difficulties, these teachers may happily want to network with homeschooling parents. The thought of teaching these subjects scares me the most because it requires creativity which for me was crushed by many, many years of math and science training. I also would need a workshop on how to set up a basic art kit with plenty of supplies to make most art projects or crafts for holidays. Again, please see statement about my creativity level being zero.

If I meet anyone willing to do the above workshops, I will happily forward the contact information to interested persons.

Yes, there is a need for alternatives to conferences focused primarily on faith and parenting. Susan is right in saying that veteran home educators could make these types of conferences happen (and this would be a good thing). Susan is even more spot on to point out that we need to pay attention to teaching. Of course we do, and not only at conferences. After all, this is what we (should) get up and do each day with our children.

I think that in this generation, the emphasis among home educators will (hopefully) shift from curriculum/philosophy to the nuts-and-bolts of excellent teaching—the deeply satisfying knowledge and skill of how to possess and pass on knowledge and skill. It’s about time that the spotlight does shine on teaching, because too much credit for learning is given to mere curriculum and materials. There’s not enough discussion of what it means for us as parent-teachers to truly know our course of instruction and to teach (tutor) our children well in academics at home. Are we, as a community, past the point of believing that learning comes in a box? Can a “teacher” who doesn’t know the subject at all truly be a teacher of it?

I’ve heard and read a lot of what I consider to be flippant, cavalier answers to this issue, such as, “Oh, I can learn (insert subject) right along with them,” or “I don’t need to know it, I just need to resource it properly,” or “We love and live and learn along the way…. We don’t need to master subjects, we’re just living life and loving to learn….” Some of these answers are valid, in a way and to a point, but they also miss the point—that, as we are parents, so are we teachers, if we take on the responsibility of teaching our children at home.

Parenting is hard work, but conventions for home educators should not focus on parenting. Teaching is hard work, too, and we need the most help there. I, personally, don’t want someone telling me how to parent my children. Doing just fine there, thank you very much! What I do want is to learn the content of the subjects I will be teaching a few years down the road, how to teach those subjects, how to evaluate my students’ grasp of them, and how to record their learning in such a way that someone else can see where my students are academically.

Most professions require and provide continuing education. My husband works in a medical profession, and he is always learning and improving his skills. I am a home educator – a teacher – who is also always learning and improving my skills. Our three daughters think it is perfectly normal for their father to be studying neurons and spinal cord anatomy and evoked potential responses… and for their mother to be studying history and Latin and how to teach elementary math. 
Susan’s discussion rightly points out the lack of opportunities for home educators to participate in workshops that develop their knowledge and skills as teachers. While my husband can go to any number of seminars for his profession, I am hard-pressed to find a workshop to help me in my role. Yes, we do need alternatives.

However, let’s not overlook the alternatives we already do have at our disposal, nor lament the fact that one solution—a line-up of academically-focused conferences—may not be immediately available to us. We are responsible for making ourselves into better teachers, with or without the perfect conference.

Probably all of us have access to a library; we can read, and learn to read better. We can read Great Books and make our own timelines. We can read excellent books on teaching. We can listen to music and study music theory (Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory). We can study how to teach math (Elementary Mathematics for Teachers, Parker & Baldridge; Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics, Ma). We might be able to join a book discussion group, or form our own group and work through The Well-Educated Mind. We might work our way through a lecture course from The Teaching Company, or another similar video course. We might be able to enroll in a college, correspondence, or online course. We might study teaching methods in other countries, to compare and contrast how education is done in another context (The Teaching Gap, Stigler)—and to see how much of a difference good teaching makes!

I’m not saying that we have to do it all, or know everything before we begin. That would be an impossible demand. What I am saying is that for too long, in my opinion, the homeschool mantra has been “line up the right set of resources and plug the kids in.” Never mind the need for a teacher. Susan is right to say that we need workshops devoted to teaching—because, ultimately, we need to be committed to becoming excellent teachers.

We should begin to have more of these folks around now that there are a generation or two who have completed homeschooling.

Tap into local Christian schools. Their teachers might be available for seminars or even as support in an ongoing way. Also retired teachers for their subjects.

Admissions counselors from area colleges can teach about the college application process too.

In fact this last matter, college admissions, is to me as valuable as instruction on direct teaching of subjects. There should be homeschool conventions for colleges to come and meet our kids, and a team of admissions experts available to teach about the process.

Sandra

But I digress…besides community colleges, where else would one look for the type of speakers we are talking about? Any suggestions out there?

In my recent years of classroom teaching, our most productive times have been when we have learned how to teach particulars more effectively and learning the best methods of test review, etc. Rather than seminars covering why-when-where, teachers (whether home or classroom) *need* the what and how seminars.

I agree with the previous poster who said that many conference seminars favor vendor-led seminars. I’ve also offered and been turned down.