Map Your Future 2013

Yesterday, a few of us attended the Indiana Foundation for Home Schooling's "Map your Future" conference.  The conference teaches homeschooling parents and teens how plan and carry out homeschooling through the high school years.   

Last year's conference was incredibly helpful to me, as I had a student in 8th grade and was preparing to begin high school.  I attended several workshops on planning for high school, which covered topics such as how to create a four year plan, how to make a transcript and diploma, and how to prepare for college entrance exams.

This year's conference had some different offerings.  Dr. Jay Wile spoke on how our role as teacher changes over time.  When our children are younger, we really must teach them everything, but as they get older, we slowly become more of a tutor, and then a fellow learner.  He emphasized that independent learning is the most productive kind of learning, and gave some examples of how he encouraged independent learning with his own daughter when he homeschooled her.

Dr. Wile gave another workshop addressing critical thinking.  He spoke of the need to teach critical thinking in all subject areas, and gave us some practical ideas for how to do that.

HSLDA representatives also led several workshops.  I attended one called "Teaching Options to Diversify your High School Program," which addressed different types of classes that parents might choose for their high schoolers (co-ops, private tutors, dual enrollment, online, etc.) and the advantages and disadvantages of each.  Another HSLDA session talked about what we need to teach besides academics to prepare our teens for life (how to do laundry and home repairs, how to handle money, ins and outs of car ownership, study and computer skills, how to interview and write a resume for a job, etc.).

The conference has a separate teen track, which this year included workshops on speech and debate, ROTC, budgeting for teens, essay writing, and choosing a career.  My daughter and her friend attended these workshops together, although there were several sessions to choose from that were open to both parents and teens. 

This conference has been both educational and encouraging for the past two years.  I would recommend it to any families who are currently teaching high school or planning to begin teaching high school within the next year or two.