Conference Recap Day 1 #hsttd

I came away from Day 1 of Teach Them Diligently feeling very encouraged. All of the speakers I listened to were fantastic and, as anticipated, all of the attendees are very nice.

I went to the pre-conference session by Sonya Shafer, which gave a practical overview of the different methods of homeschooling and their primary focus.

She also gave us a little survey to help determine which “flavor” is right for you.  It can be found online and only takes a few moments to complete. She also shared this link for FREE resources and suggested the “Getting Started in Homeschooling” ebook.

The most beneficial part of the session was having her go through the extensive list of vendors and classify them into categories. I wasn’t brave enough to venture into the exhibit hall just yet but, knowing what I could eliminate helped save me a lot of time.

I was privileged to have my mother-in-law with me for the day. Before I started this homeschooling journey, I needed to know that I had the support of our family. Otherwise, this would never work. I was thankful that she tagged along to learn more about homeschooling.

Next, we listened to Josh Duggar speak about taking a leap of faith. I was less star-struck this time since I met his entire family last year, but he’s a very good speaker and prayed the sweetest prayer over the convention.

 “The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” 

– author unknown

Session #3 was with John Echols who educated us on Grades and Transcripts. This is something that I’ve been really worried about but I was encouraged by him along with other veteran homeschool parents.

– John Echols

I was reminded to teach my child to her level to help her become the person God wants her to be rather than forcing her to fit into a box that says you HAVE to learn THESE topics and subjects. Best of all, everyone in the session received a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP to the Teach Them Diligently Planner. Score! It’s an awesome program. I have a custom code for a free 90-day trial if anyone wants to check it out. Email me. (I will remove this image once the my code is gone)

The best session of day #1 was my last. Becky Spence (This Reading Mama) gave our class some very practical and hands on tips for teaching spelling to a variety of ages. I learned about word sorts, patterns, prefixes, suffixes, and a whole bunch of other things. She even showed us ways to make spelling fun with things like bottle tops, magnets, legos, post its, paint, highlighters and more. It was my favorite of the night and I have some good notes to look back on.

– Becky Spence

Overall, it was a great first day. Conferences are always a lot of information but I didn’t feel too overwhelmed, just encouraged. It was exciting to have God mentioned in every single session I attended and many of the speakers opened with prayer. Quite refreshing! Looking forward to Day 2.

As always, you can follow along on this journey with in real time via Twitter and Instagram. Hint: I’m @bishopstaci in both places. 😉