Our panelist had a great time sharing homeschool info and answering your questions. We hope you enjoyed getting to know us and learning more about your children’s school options.
We are here to help support you in navigating all of the information on homeschooling in California.
Do you want to learn more about homeschooling and have your questions answered by long time homeschool parents and homeschool community experts? Then please keep reading.
For anyone who missed it or wants to rewatch it, below you will find the details about our live discussion, a recording of the event, and links to resources that you may find helpful.
RECORDED PRESENTATION
RESOURCES
Session one topics:
Legal options for homeschooling in CA and details on how each works.
Common ideas about what traditional education looks like compared to homeschooling styles.
Open Discussion (Q and A) with attendees and panelist
Panelist:
Mariah Gage
Nancy Major
Cristine Rainer
Shauna Reisewitz
Denise Santangelo
Heather Deyden-Littrell
Director of Operations at Homeschool Concierge
Personally, I want to encourage and inspire others to live their best life while being as kind and compassionate as possible. My children take the lead in my life and I am so fortunate to have a truly caring husband right by my side.
Professionally, I direct amazing teams of individuals who help support homeschooling families as well as charter schools and the vendors they are partnered with.
Coming into the world of homeschoolers, I brought corporate experience and aimed to learn as much as the students on a daily basis.
In the past 5 years, this community has welcomed me with open arms and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences. I am very fortunate to be able to continue supporting this charismatic community.
In my past life, I aimed to rule the real estate world. But these days that is nothing more than a past life.
Windi Eklund - Host
I am a long-time homeschool mom with a passion for child-centered education and family support. We have been homeschooling for over 11 years through the public charter school system. My two youngest are currently enrolled in an independent study public charter school. This school year we moved my oldest out of the charter school and we now homeschool him independently through a PSA.
Since starting our homeschool journey as a family I have dedicated myself to being an integral part of our unique and diverse community. I have worked to broaden educational choices and knowledge of the programs available to our families through:
Volunteering at Celebration Education, where I was able to help families from all over the world find alternative education options for their children
Organize and lead field trips for homeschool families
Set up new education programs and learning centers for homeschoolers
Organize National School Choice Events and Charter School Choice Open Houses
Speak on the homeschool options available to families at homeschool and alternative education conventions
Run numerous homeschool and charter school social media groups, covering all of California with 1000s of members in each
Organize our community to oppose anti-charter school legislation
Founded a non-profit to serve the diverse needs of homeschool families
Helped pave the way for family choice at charters by founding multiple family-focused programs serving our community
I am here to help support families in finding their homeschool path. I am representing myself as a homeschooling mom, offering information from my experience.
Always happy to help, please feel free to email, call, or text anytime.
Windi Eklund
714-310-2213
Mariah Gage
Mariah Gage, mother of seven children, has been homeschooling for the past six years. After enrolling her children in the public school setting, she realized that each of them learned differently, and knew there had to be a better way to help her children feel successful in their education. After being overwhelmed in the first few years of homeschooling multiple children, Mariah created a hands-on learning approach for her children. This approach, has boosted her own children’s confidence and has helped them develop a true love of learning. In 2018, Mariah saw a need in the homeschool community, and opened Crafty School Crates to share the resources she developed with other families. Being an active member in the community, Mariah launched the annual Central Valley Homeschool Convention in 2019, to bring resources and speakers to local homeschool families. Mariah is passionate about education, teaching her children, and helping others through their homeschooling journey.
Nancy Major
Nancy Major loves working with students, parents, and families to help craft and support their homeschooling journey.
She homeschooled alongside her three twice-exceptional sons for grades 1-12 and has taught and administrated in the independent study/ charter school arena for 30 years.
Nancy is also a Certified Optometric Vision Therapist working with developmental vision and brain injury patients at Central Coast Vision and Learning. Her passion is to empower parents by equipping them to work with their children with confidence.
Meg Navarro
Meg Navarro is a homeschool graduate, who helps kids develop character, confidence, and creativity through online classes in art, photography, and creative writing.
She developed a step-by-step, brain-activating method to teach students how to draw with lifelike realism while infusing their art with their own personal style and creativity - even if they previously could barely draw stick figures. Meg has a double BA in Communications and Humanities – Art and Writing. She is a vendor for most of the charter schools in California. In her free time, Meg enjoys painting murals, dancing, and exploring the beach.
To learn more about Meg or her online art school Megapixels School of the Arts, visit: https://www.megapixelsart.com/about
Cristine Rainer
Cristine Rainer is a single, homeschool mom of 7 years with an 11 year old daughter on an IEP through a charter school. Her teaching style is creative, eclectic and dynamic utilizing real world and field trip opportunities as often as possible. She works as a Child & Family Therapist at Discover Counseling Center in Orange County CA. She is a vendor offering Learning Success Coaching thru Imagine Achievement, where she blends her experience in Educational Therapy, Behavioral Therapy and Marriage & Family Therapy to support learners and their families with specific obstacles; for example, ADHD, Giftedness, Sensory Integration disorder, Reading Problems, Speech Disorders, Anxiety, ASD, behavioral challenges, setting up a successful homeschool program, and assessment & IEP support.
Cristine also offers fieldtrips, parent workshops, and classes thru the vendor Homeschool Concierge. She runs multiple FaceBook groups and is active in the community sharing resources, information and supporting legislative advocacy. Cristine was nominated as the Committee Chair for the California Homeschool Parents Association (CHPA) in 2019 and strives to help the community to collaborate and advocate for their local needs.
She was raised in a child-led home daycare, has attended 25 schools in her life for a broad understanding of culture & education, and has worked in 7 public and 2 private schools in various capacities with all age ranges. She has also received many years of training in Speech & Occupational therapy working in a clinic for children 5 and under with developmental delays, Autism Spectrum Disorder and problem behaviors.
Certifications & Contact:
Cristine Rainer
B.A. in Human Development, M.A. in Counseling Psychology,
CA Registered AMFT & Integrative Life Coach
949-357-8912 Please text for questions regarding classes or services!
*Subscribe to YouTube channel “Momming at Midnight” for Parenting, Homeschooling, and Therapy tips!
Shauna Reisewitz
Shauna homeschooled (largely unschooled) her young children. Her teens have now rejected homeschooling and are on academic paths of their own.
Shauna has worked in several homeschool programs since 2002: district Independent Studies programs, Charter Schools, and is the director of Pacific Sands Academy, a private independent studies program for out of the box thinkers.
This program offers mentoring, transcripts and diplomas for teenagers, and family support for younger homeschooled students (new coming this year). She deeply believes in childhood, family, community, and the importance of nourishing free spirits.
Denise Santangelo
I have been a homeschool mom for over 20 years. I have 4 children, 3 of which have been homeschooled at various times in their lives for various reasons. The beauty of homeschooling my children has been that I have been able to school them uniquely while addressing each of their unique learning styles and supporting their challenges through both my own resources and charter school special ed departments.
I have worked in the Charter School Industry for 6 ½ years.
My current position as Vendor Development Administrator has given me the great pleasure of working alongside vendors serving the homeschool community. Through my Vendor Round Table meetings, we have been able to help the homeschooling vendors stay informed, build awareness and community with one another and lending support to help vendors create programs and services that serves our independent study and homeschooling students.
Denise Santangelo
805-400-4732
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