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Nicole Neeley

Member since 01/2011

Nicole is a homeschool mom to four great kids, ages 10, 9, 4, and 2. She has homeschooled for about 7 years, since her oldest was 3, using a very eclectic method. She and her husband live, with their house full of kids, in the Deep South. Besides teaching her own children, she teaches 3 classes at her local homeschool co-op, and she and her husband are the children's ministers to some great kids on Sunday mornings at their church. She very much enjoys writing for her blog, pouring over seed catalogs, spending hours in her garden, perusing the local library, and drinking lots and lots of hot tea.

My mission as a speaker is to encourage new homeschool moms to stay with the calling God has given them to teach their children, and to encourage new and veteran homeschool moms to think outside the textbook.

So often, moms and dads accept God's calling on their lives to have mom stay home and school the children, only to have well-meaning friends and family tell them that, by doing this, their children will probably not turn out well, won't be able to function in society, will never have friends, and will, overall, fail in life. They suggest that, by teaching your child at home, you are doing them a disservice, and should just go back and enroll your children in the school system where "qualified teachers" can see to their education. I want to encourage moms to not give up on the calling God has placed on their lives and their children's lives, but to persevere through all these hard times. Also, I want to give practical and real examples of how to handle people who think it is their right to tell you what you should be doing concerning your child's education. There is a right way and a wrong way to approach people, and we want always to exhibit the love of Christ while standing firm in our decisions.

Also, I would like to show moms that there are more ways to teach your children than with only textbooks, workbooks, and tests. There are numerous ways to teach your children the same information, but with a much greater chance of them remembering what they have learned. I want to teach moms how to use their local libraries to gather the information they need, to use unit studies to make learning fun, and to relax and let their children lead in some of the learning decisions. I am a strong supporter of delight directed learning, and I believe in using living books as opposed to textbooks. Many moms are afraid to think beyond the way that they were, themselves, taught, for fear that, by straying from the norm, they may miss some crucial element to their child's education, or for fear of what others will say concerning their teaching methods. I want to empower moms with the confidence they need to teach their children in the way God intended without fear of failure or negative comments from others.

Negotiable plus travel expenses.

"Christian Homeschool Association Unit Study and Lapbooking Workshop" West Monroe, LA - 3/2011