Some 24-hundred Iowans who home-school their children are expected to attend a two-day conference starting today in Des Moines. Barb Heki is spokeswoman for the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators, which is sponsoring the event.
“We have about 70 exhibitors of all kinds of materials, textbooks, resources, just a wide variety of hands-on learning tools,” Heki says. “We’re going to have about 80 different workshops and we’ll have speakers on every topic imaginable.” She says it’s those workshops that keep thousands of people coming to the conference, year after year.
“A lot of people come who aren’t home-schoolers just because we have topics on parenting, teaching distractable children, special needs, grandparent involvement, single-parent home-schooling,” Heki says. “We have workshops on legislative matters.”
Heki says home-schooling is growing in the state, nation and internationally at a “phenomenal” level. In Iowa, she says about 30-thousand students are now home-schooled.
Heki says a special award will be given to state Representative Jodi Tymeson, a Republican from Winterset, during the conference. Heki says Tymeson is being recognized for her “strong, active support of home education,” and for helping to see good legislation passed and to have bad legislation shut down that would “take away freedoms.”
The conference at the Polk County Convention Center in Des Moines runs through Saturday and is open to anyone. Learn more at: www.homeschooliowa.org
Thanks to Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City