Homeschool Highs

Hubby and I were fortunate enough to attend our very first homeschooling conference this past weekend, and it was AWESOME! I know I am still on a high from all the wonderful things that I’ve heard and learned. It was truly inspirational and further convicting to us why we feel that this is the best choice for our family. We got to hear Ken Ham and Voddie Bauchman speak and they are both truly gifted speakers. I just cannot believe that some truths are not taught in our schools and that theories are being taught as facts...anyhow, I digress. But if you want to learn more about it, you can read more about Ken and his mission at http://www.answersingenesis.org/
It can really shake the foundation of science on which you and I were taught. I really felt God by my side as I experienced the conference. It can get overwhelming at times when you are presented with so much information and stuff but I believed that God would lead me in the right direction. Even now, I am at peace with the idea of homeschooling and feel ready to start even though I still haven’t gotten all my ducks in a row...don’t know that I ever will. This phrase shared by Vicki Bentley at the conference will stay with me, “My home is clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy.” I didn’t get to listen to Todd Wilson speak in person, but I did get his CD of the session and it is titled “Lies all homeschoolers believe”. I think it should be titled, “Lies all parents believe”. In fact, most of the sessions at the conference, I felt should be heard by parents everywhere, not just homeschooling parents, because we all want to raise children in a way that trains them for life and to raise Godly children. Todd Wilson has a great and humorous website that is geared towards Dads but I’ve enjoyed reading it, too. http://www.familymanweb.com/ I signed hubby up for the weekly newsletter. Don’t worry. I told hubby about it...after the fact.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

I am just so pumped about it all. Someone at the conference told us how she asked her young child (the oldest of 3, I think) one day whether he wanted to take a nap or learn to read. Well, he chose to learn to read, and she got to snuggle with him and teach him how to read while the others napped. I tried that and it worked! I asked E-pie (who doesn’t like to nap even though she could) the same question and guess what she picked? So, we sat down on the couch for about 30 minutes to learn how to read. We first used Boggle Jr. to build some -at words by sounding it out. At first, E-pie would remove all the letter tiles after she built a word and build the next -at word from scratch. Then, she got to the point where she realized that the A and T stayed and only the first letter changed. Then, we read 2 BOB books about Mat and Sam. She struggled at first because she wanted to remember their names instead of sounding it out when she forgot but with a little pep talk and hugs, she was able to do it. You should have seen her face when I told her she read a book ALL BY HERSELF!!! I was so happy for her but also felt like it was a victory for me.