So much more than just a conference - it’s a celebration, a party, a statewide gathering of homeschoolers and their families for learning, friendship, support, and fun!
Featuring some of the best known speakers in the homeschooling and parenting community, HSC’s annual conference is a place to explore, relax, learn and find time to meet with new friends. It’s a place where everything you need to know about homeschooling is under one roof for an entire weekend!
Please note that you must be a current HSC member now and at the time of the conference to get the member rate. If you get an error trying to register, check your membership expiration date - if it is before Aug 5, 2012, you will need to renew before registering.
Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are:
Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Spatial
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalist
Learning Styles
In Discover Your Child's Learning Style, Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle-Hodson ask, "Is your child a thinking/creating, performing, inventing, producing, or relating/inspiring person? Does he process information best through visual, auditory, kinesthetic, verbal language, or printed language means? Does she learn best in an environment that is quiet, noisy, includes music, while sitting, reclining, alone or with others?" They point out that trying to fit every child into the same mold often leads to underachieving students and frustrated parents.
Is the HSC Adventures in Homeschooling Conference right for you?
Are you new to homeschooling? Do you want to learn more about getting started, legal options, and homeschooling methods and styles? You will find speakers, discussions, extensive information and lots of opportunity to get all of your questions answered. You'll be especially interested in our special "Adventure Series."
Do you have young children? The conference has many ongoing activities and workshops for families with young children to enjoy. We even offer a "Caregiver Pass" and parents can trade off attending adult sessions and having fun with the kids. You'll be especially interested in activities like the water play area, the art deck, and the extensive playroom. The venue has lots of grassy space for your youngsters to play and, of course, there is swimming and dancing and all kinds of family fun.
Are you a continuing homeschooler? If you've been homeschooling a while and you are looking for ways to enhance your homeschooling experience, you'll find all kinds of information and inspiration at the conference. With over 150 workshops and speakers, you will especially enjoy the specialized speakers, in-depth discussions, and extensive information as well as the exhibit hall and recycled resource room.
Do you want to enjoy a fantastic family vacation? The conference is one of the few whole-family activities available that really satisfies family members of all ages. Attendees range from little babies to grandparents! There are special funshops designed for younger and older children, teens, and adults, and many activities for families to do together.
Are you looking for networking, support, and community? Join over a thousand children, teens, and adults as we learn, play, and dance together. You will love being surrounded by close-knit happy families and will have plenty of opportunity to make connections.
Are you a teen looking for peers who are interesting, creative, and a whole lot of fun? The conference teen program is planned by and for teens, themselves, and is legendary throughout the homeschooling community. There are workshops, games, discussions, dances, and so much more. Many teens come back year after year and look forward to it as one of the highlights of their year.
Check our General Info page to find out everything going on at the conference!
Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis, M.S. is an author, speaker, consultant, and trainer.
For the last 20 years Mariaemma’s passion has been to bring out the star in every person - adult and child. She is especially concerned about adults who have grown up with negative school labels (Learning Disabled, ADD, lazy, not working to potential, average, below average, even gifted!), and the number of children who continue to be diagnosed with learning disabilities and/or medicated.
For 20 years now, Sandra Dodd has been involved in learning more about the potential of unschooling to improve lives. With two books, weekly chats, a daily-inspiration blog and a blog, the ideas are shared in all directions. Sandra is a former English teacher whose other jobs have all involved words, ideas and learning, and whose avocation is helping other parents find ways to live more richly and peacefully with their children. Sandra maintains an online collection of writings, notes, examples, and great quotes collected from over 15 years of online discussions. Sandra's unschooling website is here:
Lisa Cottrell-Bentley lives with her husband Greg, two daughters Zoe and Teagan, and five indoor cats in Milpitas, California.
On October 14, 2011, Lisa and her family appeared on The Today Show in a segment about unschooling.
Lisa has been writing since she was a child, winning her first writing contest at age 9. She's been writing professionally since 2002. Lisa and her daughters spent many hours searching for children's books about homeschoolers, but found very few. So, they decided create their own. As they discussed their dream storylines, the Wright on Time series took shape. While they haven't found any mysterious devices yet, they have done lots of field research trying out many of the activities described in the books.
In addition to writing, daughter Zoe recently won second place in the NASA/USA Today "No Boundaries" contest for her "Exogeology Rocks" project.
Jim travels extensively throughout The United States, giving live performances at stores, libraries, schools and community events. He has hosted and starred in a PBS television pilot that won a Northern California Emmy for "Best Children's Show," and has even performed at THE WHITE HOUSE Annual Easter Event.
As a storyteller, Jim's performances have been described as exciting and enchanting. His connection to his audience is magnetic and interactive, proof positive that storytelling today rejuvenates one of the first and most personal forms of entertainment. Adults and children alike leave the performance feeling that they have really met characters from a wide range of classic literature and folk tales.
Jim's presentations garner heightened respect for the art of storytelling and the literature itself.
Wes Beach has 40 years' experience in education. He spent 32 years in public and private schools as a teacher in grades K-14 and as the director of several alternative education programs. He is currently Director of Beach High School, a private high school that offers a wide variety of alternatives to traditional schooling.
Some BHS students skip a substantial part of high school and enter college or trade schools, go to work, start businesses, travel, engage in independent learning and pursue unique creative endeavors. Others put together high school programs that include formal coursework, self-teaching, study with tutors, work, distance learning, volunteering, travel and inventive projects.
Wes has served on the board of the HomeSchool Association of California (HSC) and is at present HSC's Teen Advisor.
John Bennett is a math teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area and a homeschooling father of four. An outspoken advocate of education reform, he has presented lectures and workshops throughout California, including a talk at TEDxManhattanBeach. John has authored three volumes of Pentagrid Puzzles, a new puzzle form he created to challenge deductive logic and visual-spatial reasoning. His current project, BrainGames, is a collection of logic puzzles, abstract strategy games, and other math activities designed to bring deeper analytic reasoning to the classroom. For more information, please see iwannabigbrain.com and pentagridpuzzles.com.
Lisa Cottrell-Bentley lives with her husband Greg, two daughters Zoe and Teagan, and five indoor cats in Milpitas, California.
