2009 Featured Speakers

This year, we’re excited to have some of the best homeschool speakers in the country. Their expertise and experiences cover a wide range of topics, from beginning homeschooling and curriculum choices to information on how to teach specific subjects to encouragement for understanding why we homeschool and how to not only educate our children, but to impact their hearts and lives as well.

Todd Wilson, author of Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe, Help! I’m Married to a Homeschooling Mom, and The Official Book of Homeschooling Cartoons, is a dad, writer, conference speaker, and former pastor. Todd’s humor and gut-honest realness have made him a favorite speaker at homeschool conventions across the country and a guest on Focus on the Family.

As founder of Familyman Ministries, his passion and mission are to remind dads and moms of what’s most important through The Familyman Weekly (a weekly e-mail sent to thousands of dads), seminars, and books that encourage parents.

Todd, and his wife Debbie, homeschool their eight children in northern Indiana.

Scott Flansburg, The Human Calculator and best selling author has been teaching math and entertaining people with his astonishing math skills for more than 20 years.  Scott has appeared on Oprah, Ellen, Discovery Channel, The Tonight Show and is Guinness World Record holder for being the fastest Human Calculator.  Scott Flansburg knows what it takes to make YOU a Human Calculator.  His revolutionary techniques to unlocking the secret to numbers are proven to improve your mental calculation skills, just ask any of the THOUSANDS of students he has successfully taught.  Scott’s programs are packed with excitement, mind-blowing demonstrations, and hands on learning to give each student the best possible learning experience.  Every time Scott educates and reveals his methods for rapid and accurate calculations he is careful to explain each and every step in detail, giving parents and children a complete and thorough understanding of numbers.  Unlock the Human Calculator in You.

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Valerie Bendt and her husband, Bruce, have homeschooled their six children all of their school lives. Valerie has written the following books of interest to homeschoolers: Unit Studies Made Easy, Creating Books with Children, The Frances Study Guide, Successful Puppet Making, Easy-to-Make Bible Story Puppets, Reading Made Easy, and Making the Most of the Preschool Years. Valerie and Bruce’s five oldest children have graduated from homeschooling, and the Bendts continue to homeschool their youngest child. The family resides in Tampa, Florida.

David C. Gibbs III grew up in a legal family. His father, David C. Gibbs, Jr., is the founder of the Christian Law Association. As a boy, he tagged along with his dad to court and developed a love for the law, the Bible, and God’s people. Attorney Gibbs graduated from Duke Law School in 1993 at the top of his class. He then joined his father serving as an attorney for the Christian Law Association.

Attorney Gibbs attained national recognition when he represented the family of Robert and Mary Schindler in their fight to save the life of their disabled daughter, Terri Schiavo. Attorney Gibbs has represented many Christians in their fight to retain their religious liberties, especially those related to providing a Christian education for their children.

David has been married to his wife, Carin, for over 15 years. They have four children: Heather, Heidi, and twins David and Danielle.

Larry Schweikart is a native Arizonian who went to Arizona State, then, upon graduation, played d rums in a rock band for many years, opening for such acts as “Steppenwolf.” After some time on the road, he returned to ASU, and during a summer course, abruptly changed careers, deciding he wanted to be a professor. He received an MA in history from ASU, then a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1985, he joined the faculty of the University of Dayton.

He has published over 30 books, 50 articles, and hundreds of editorials, book reviews, and op-eds. His 2004 book, A Patriot’s History of the United States with Mike Allen, has become a best-seller with over 60,000 copies in print, and his most recent book, 48 Liberal Lies About American History is already in its 8th printing in just over six months. He has appeared on the “Hannity” show, the “700 Club,” BookTV, and most recently is a regular guest on “Fox and Friends” doing a series on textbook errors. He has been on the Rush Limbaugh Show, the Dennis Prager Show, the Laura Ingram Show, and almost every other major radio show in America.

In addition to history, Schweikart writes historical fiction, with two novels out, September Day (a 9/11 thriller about a professor who uncovers the plot to finance the 9/11 attacks) and Halsey’s Bluff, a counterfactual story of the Battle of Midway in which the Japanese win the first exchange and Admiral Bill Halsey has to save the remaining American fleet.

Randi St. Denis, Director of Home Educators Encouragement Alliance (HEEA), is an educator, popular homeschool speaker, and a seasoned homeschooling mom. Using her degree in Educational Psychology, Randi works as a consultant to public, private, and homeschool families; providing teaching expertise and assistance for all types of children. She is recognized as an expert in the technical aspects of learning that allow every type of child, from special needs to gifted, the opportunity to learn well.

Some of Randi’s seminar/conference topics include: Beginning Homeschooling, Homeschooling the High Schooler, Early Learners, Parenting: Fun or Frenzy, and Special Needs.

Randi and her husband have homeschooled their seven children for the past 22 years; six of whom have gone on to college. The youngest is currently homeschooling.

Kelly Ling is a homeschooling mom of five children and has been very active in the Georgia homeschooling community for over 15 years.  She started and continues to run one of the largest email lists for Georgia Christian Homeschoolers with over 800 members across the state. 

Her common sense approach to child raising has made her a popular homeschool support group speaker.  She also encourages and mentors moms who both homeschool and work at home. 

Kelly has worked from home for over 20 years while homeschooling her children.  Currently, she is a web site designer specializing in WordPress designs and also the family’s disc jockey business with her husband.  Some of her most popular homeschool websites include Homeschool-Articles.com and HomeschoolTopSites.com.

Dr. Durell Dobbins is President of Beginnings Publishing House, makers of award-winning The Rainbow science. He holds B.S. degrees in Biology and Chemistry from the University of North Alabama, an M.S. in Environmental Microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a Ph.D. in Microbial Ecology from the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

A Christian for many years, Durrell and his wife have homeschooled their five children. In addition to writing science curriculum for junior high and high school students, he also speaks on subjects where science meets faith.

Kim A. Howe has been an educational consultant for school systems in North Carolina where she taught certification courses for elementary, middle and high school teachers pursuing licensure in gifted education. She also served as a Curriculum Development Specialist at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Kim is co-author of Making Choices: A Social Skills Development Program.

Kim received her MS from Texas A&M University College Station in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Gifted and Talented Education. Kim has served as a gifted and talented teacher and coordinator in schools in North Carolina and Texas.

Kim is a homeschooling mom and she lives with her husband and three children in Durham, North Carolina. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, singing, reading, hiking and playing tennis.

Bill Page is the author of Making Money Work: A Christian Guide For Personal Finance. He is a Stephen Minister, a Stephen Minister Leader, Alpha Course Leader, has served as church Welcoming Advocate and currently serves on the church finance committee. He is a contributing money article author for Christian Broadcasting Network.

Bill graduated from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC with a double major in Business Education and Distributive Education earning North Carolina teaching certificates in Basic Business Education and also Marketing Education. He and his wife, Lee, have a daughter, Courtney, and a son, Justin.

Kristie Brown is an Education Representative for LEGO Education. A former high school science teacher, Kristie is responsible for her home state of Georgia, as well as North Carolina and South Carolina.

Kristie has worked with several homeschool group Lego teams on their Lego competitions and LEGO educational needs.  She assists students from all backgrounds by exposing them to the concepts of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math as she offers her knowledge, time, and LEGO Education materials and supplies.

Ashley (Strayer) Wiggers grew up in the early days of the home schooling movement taught by parents, Greg and Debbie Strayer, who are authors of numerous home schooling materials. Ashley recently retired from a 10-year career as a national champion synchronized swimmer, is a swim instructor at the YMCA, and coaches the Pulaski County (KY) High School swim team. In her “spare” time she speaks at home school seminars across the country, edits a monthly online newsletter for Geography Matters, and has written a book entitled Profiles from History.

Ashley makes her home in Somerset, KY, with her husband, Alex, and their faithful Golden Retriever, Mandy.

Wendy Dahlgren is the associate director of admissions for Berry College near Rome, GA. She is also the admissions representative for homeschooling students applying to Berry.

She is a Berry graduate and has had six years of experience in private college admissions.  While at Berry, she studied Communication-Journalism and Anthropology.  She graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication-Journalism. 

Wendy has two nieces who are currently homeschooling.

Dr. David Bedell was principal of West Florida Christian School in Sarasota, Florida for 20 years. After receiving a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Florida, he turned his attention to a long-held conviction that the Bible should be the focal point of every class.

Because he had an undergraduate degree in biology, he first surveyed the entire Bible for illustrations of biological principles. He was delighted to discover that every aspect of biology was illustrated in scripture. He repeated the survey process for chemistry and physics, and again was amazed to find illustrations of every concept taught in these courses in the Bible. In like manner, courses in the social sciences were developed.

Since 1985, Dr. Bedell has been writing Bible-based, Christ-centered textbooks. He expects to complete a series of books by the end of 2009 that cover the entire Bible and the content of nine academic subjects. These subjects include three courses of Bible, three courses of science, and three courses of history.

Eden Vaning-Rosen, nationally acclaimed author of The Violin Book Series, has a striking list of musical accomplishments as both a teacher of violin and as a concert performer, Concertmaster, and Lecturer.  She has developed methods for learning three of the four instruments in the string section. Only the doublebass is omitted.

Ms. Vaning-Rosen demonstrates her skill as a teacher and musician in the great care she has taken to cover everything a young student needs to know. Her course is composed of books and Videos/CDs, to provide visual explanations of the material covered in the books, and then some.

In 2006, she was named “Teacher of the Year” for the State of Florida by the American String Teacher’s Association.