Homeschooling while dealing with challenges – learning, health, or more – is challenging! Seriously, it can be tempting to quit and let the “experts” take over, but homeschooling offers some benefits that no school can match at any price. Hal & Melanie have homeschooled through learning disabilities, children with chronic medical conditions, and bouts of serious illness themselves. They’ll give you hope and practical encouragement to leverage the flexibility of homeschooling to bless your family.

What do you do when you know your child is bright, but school is way harder than it ought to be? We’ve been there! One of our boys didn’t learn to read until he was eleven, but he’s a very successful college graduate and entrepreneur now. One of our kids had migraines that lasted weeks, sometimes making school impossible, but is able to use her God-given gifts in amazing ways. This encouraging session discusses how to keep hope alive in you both, how to adapt your homeschooling to the child in front of you, how to help them through the social embarrassment that can come with being a struggling learner, how to know when and how to get help, and how this trial can ultimately bless your child. Get hope for the future!

We may hope our kids are really smart, but what happens when they are? It’s intimidating homeschooling a kid who’s racing ahead and seems to need more. Can you really meet his needs or would he be better off with professionals? How can you help her fit in socially? Should he graduate early or not? Hal & Melanie both went through gifted programs in school and now, having raised precocious children of their own, they have the insider’s perspective about the academic, social, and spiritual needs of talented kids. Learn how to teach, parent, and enjoy your bright kids!

At eleven, one of our boys was just learning to read and at fourteen he still struggled to spell three letter words. Little did we know that he’d be reading ancient philosophers for fun at seventeen and that he’d go to college on a full academic scholarship! In this workshop, we’ll talk about how to help your struggling learners through high school (and give them a love of learning!), how to get accommodations on the SAT and ACT, and how to find out what help a college can give them – and you’ll be surprised just how much they can do! Our struggling learner was on the Dean’s List at his college and getting accommodations that really help. Find out how!

The turmoil of the tween/preteen years between nine and thirteen usually catches parents by surprise. Diligent students become addled and distracted. Kids raised in church start questioning the existence of God. Sweet children seem to climb on an emotional rollercoaster – and then invite you to join them. Don’t get a ticket for that ride! Instead, learn to resist the temptation to lose it yourself and to shepherd our children through this challenging age at this funny and all-too-real workshop — and lay a foundation to make the teen years great!

“What’s your secret for staying together?” That’s the number one question younger couples want to ask veterans of long-term marriage, according to a recent study. There are bonds which are tighter than the strongest glue, and they’re not dramatic – just very, very powerful, and what’s more, Biblical. Join Hal and Melanie as they share what they’ve learned in 38 years of marriage and years of talking to other couples about the things that stick us together - and help us enjoy it!

So many parents ask, “Why doesn’t my son enjoy reading? I want him to love it!” We look at ways to help your boys read better (because it’s hard to love it when it’s hard!), enjoy reading more, and find joy in stories and in research. From the parents of six adult sons, all of whom learned (eventually) to love reading! Many boys struggle with writing, too. They complain that it's too hard, that they can't think of anything to write, that they don't know why they have to do it anyway. Hal & Melanie homeschooled all six of their boys all the way through. Their boys learned to love writing and won writing awards. You can pull it off, too!

The Bible tells fathers to teach their children the things of God - and tells the kids to be sure and ask! But even if you come from a great family, there will always be things you have to learn on your own - from the sublime to the ridiculous. For a lot of us, we're trying to do things a little (or a lot) differently than our fathers did. Hal's dad was an only child and father of two. Come hear what Hal's learned raising eight homeschooled kids of his own and laugh with him about the strange turns our lives take when we take on this adventure.

Preteens and teens crave connection and acceptance, while media of all kinds are telling them that identifying as a different gender or sexual orientation will solve all their problems. Even kids not tempted by these things are affected by the kids and culture around them, sometimes believing their parents are hateful or unloving in their response to that culture. Find out about the influences reaching out to our kids, learn how to respond in a way that will preserve your relationship, and get practical help in guiding them through the clamoring voices of our society.

“He never talks to me.” “My teens are so disrespectful.” “I have no idea what she’s thinking.” “They’re so ugly to each other.” “I wish we could just talk.” We hear these things all the time from families. It’s easy to get into a cycle of communicating badly with each other, but it doesn’t have to be that way! The Word of God gives us a lot of really practical advice about communicating with one another, but it’s hard to know what that looks like in real life. Come learn how to turn that advice into action, change your family culture for the better, improve your other relationships, and laugh a little, too.