Thinking About or Just Beginning Homeschooling? Attend Homeschooling for Excellence 101, a one-day conference on July 24, 2008, before the Expo opens on July 25-26, 2008. Children (6-12 years) can attend KidsZone while parents learn all about homeschooling. Learn how to homeschool, about homeschool laws, schedules, destressing and transitioning children from public school to homeschool, where all the good books are and more!

While parents attend Homeschooling for Excellence 101, their children can attend KidsZone, a variety of workshops given by speakers who will challenge them to become active and excited learners. Our goal is to remind children that learning is rewarding and interesting and that learning can happen anywhere, at any time.

Parents not attending Homeschooling for Excellence 101 can also bring their younger children to this fun, exciting time for young learners!

Featured Speakers:

Susan Wise Bauer has published numerous books, including The Well-Educated Mind (Norton, 2003), The Well-Trained Mind (Norton, 2004), and the Story of the World series (Peace Hill Press). Publishers Weekly described The Well-Educated Mind as a "brilliant guide" and "a timeless, intelligent book."

Susan was born in 1968, grew up in Virginia, and was educated at home by pioneering parents, back when home education was still unheard of. She learned Latin at age ten, worked as a professional musician while still in high school, and wrote three (unpublished!) novels before she turned sixteen. Since then, she has toured with a traveling drama group; galloped racehorses at a Virginia racetrack for spending money; taught horseback riding; worked in ghostwriting and newspaper ad sales; learned enough Korean to teach a Korean four-year-old Sunday school; and served as librarian and reading tutor for the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Center in Williamsburg. Susan and her husband now live in rural Virginia, where Peter serves as the minister of a nondenominational church. They have three sons and a daughter.

Jessie Wise, mother of Susan Wise Bauer, is a home education consultant, speaker, and writer. She is co-author of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (with co-author Susan Wise Bauer), published by W.W. Norton in July, 1999. Jesse taught three children at home from elementary school through high school; all three completed college degrees, and two went on to complete graduate degrees as well. Before educating her own children, Jessie taught preschool at a private school in New Orleans. Over the years she has also taught second, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classes at public schools in three states; Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Jessie is currently working on her own home school book — the story of her journey into home education.

Jessie grew up in isolated rural Virginia, raised by elderly relatives who were subsistence farmers. They had no indoor bathroom, and traveled to town only twice a year — for Christmas presents and spring shoes. She was the valedictorian of her 1955 high school class, and the only girl to go on to college. Jessie met her husband Jay in college, and taught school for six years while he went through his medical training and subsequently entered the Navy. When Jay got out of the service, they moved back to the Virginia farm where I Jessie had grown up. Jay began a rural general practice and they started homesteading — raising livestock and tending had an enormous garden, while she taught three children at home. Over the years they have given a temporary home to numerous people — including a South American doctor who wanted to learn English, and ex-CIA officer who needed a place for his entire family, ex-flower children, and students of all kinds.

More about Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer

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