April 9, 2003
Expo teaches parents about homeschool
TEACH Homeschool Expo offers seminars and curriculum shopping
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
The Second Annual TEACH Homeschool Expo taught everyone a little something.
Held Saturday afternoon at the New Hope Community Church, the expo drew 130 attendees from around the region for seminars, networking and curriculum shopping.
The seminars covered a range of topics for students of all ages as well as all levels of parental experience. For newcomers or those considering homeschooling, topics included Getting Started, Legal Issues, What's Dad Got to Do With It? and Teaching Students with Learning Difficulties.
Topics for high school age students included career guidance, preparing for college and High School: The Fruit of Homeschooling. One seminar featured a panel of homeschool graduates who discussed their experiences and answered questions.
Six vendors brought material to share and parents also presented information on a favorite curriculum. Attendees also browsed tables focusing on resources for phonics, art and music, geography and foreign languages. In addition, representatives from area homeschool sports teams were on hand, including the boys and girls basketball teams and boys soccer team.
"Our hope is that we will reach people exploring the idea of homeschooling," said Cheryl Susan, a TEACH director who helped coordinate the Homeschool Expo. "Our workshops cover a wide range. Support and encouragement are a lot of the reason that TEACH exists - and there are two or three other groups in the area."
Some attendees came to the Homeschool Expo with a specific goal in mind.
"I'm really trying to find a math curriculum for my son, he's going into second-grade and it is hard to find something challenging," said Vickie Bensen of Traverse City, who is homeschooling her son, Joey, 6. "He's dyslexic and struggles with reading but in math, he wants to do fractions and is asking how to carry ones."
Others had general or philosophical questions about homeschooling: what's it like, how do you do it and should I?
Andrea Romeyn of East Jordan came to the expo to answer the 'Should I continue?' question. She has a six year old son and a toddler and is not sure about homeschooling her older child next year.
"I came for the seminar in part because I am not sure if I am going to continue," she said. "My son is so social, he cries when he has to leave his friends, maybe he would be better off in school."
The socialization question is a big one for prospective and even current homeschoolers. One of the afternoon's seminars focused on this topic, delving into myths and what the reality is for homeschooled students.
Mike Riness and his wife have nine children, ages three to 26; all have been homeschooled and so far four have graduated from homeschool. During his seminar on The Truth About Socialization, Riness noted that the support available to homeschool families has grown exponentially over the decades, where there is now a proliferation of groups, curricula and information.
"Back when we started, in 1982, there were only two books we knew of, we heard of them when our daughter was 3 in 1979," Riness said.
Jonathan Cottrill knows about socialization first hand. An 11th grade homeschooler, Cottrill was homeschooled in second- and third-grade. He attended public schools through ninth-grade, when his parents pulled him out to finish high school at home. Cottrill participates in West High School's choral program, landing a leading role in the production of "Les Miserables," but he completes all academic work at home or in a special advanced math class offered by a homeschooling mom.
"I consider it a farce that homeschoolers aren't socialized enough," said Cottrill as he volunteered Saturday at the Expo. "Almost immediately I've been thrown in with a group of friends and I now do more stuff with these homeschool friends than I did with my public school friends."
Cottrill said he initially did not like returning home for school and resisted his parents' decision. Now he is pleased with it, academically as well as socially.
"I like the way you can go at your own pace in homeschool," he said. "In public school, I tended to be a lot faster at things and I felt like I was slowed down a bit. Other times, I'd just get something and they'd move on or there would be something I was really interested in and they would skip it."