Conference Recap Day 2 #hsttd

Session #1 was with Sharon Hofer, founder of Creating a Masterpiece. She was such a delightful speaker and shared with us the ways in which art can teach life lessons.

She encouraged parents to give students projects that “seem” to hard but then break it down for them into simple steps. When they finish they have created a masterpiece that they can be proud of.

Session #2 was “Secrets that Teachers Never Tell” with Joyce Herzog. She has over 60 years of experience in education and definitely won my vote for spunkiest speaker. She reminded parents that our culture is rushing children out of infancy faster than any time in history. We are forcing them to accomplish reading, writing, and arithmetic before their brains are truly ready to comprehend the information. She encouraged me to have a more laid back approach to education and focus on the things that are most important in life, which is why I wanted to homeschool in the first place.

Session #3 was my favorite of the day. Carol Barnier was hilarious! She says she put ‘snark’ into homeschooling and her sense of humor kept me engaged the entire time. She gave so many practical tips for teaching a child who is easily distractible. Her tips included mindless and repetitive tasks to keep your child’s hands and/or body busy so they can learn at the same time. She calls it active learning. One tip that I plan to implement ASAP is to give tLG headphones with instrumental music for doing her individual work, plus many other great ideas that I can’t wait to try.

“You can’t squeeze out of someone 
something that wasn’t in them in the first place.” 

Before the end of the day, I did finally make it into the vendor hall. Wow! It was crazy big and crazy busy and VERY overwhelming.  The only reason I ventured down there was because my 7-year-old put me on a mission: FIND OUT ABOUT SKrafty MINECRAFT!! I went to their booth, chatted with Holly, got the info, and then wandered aimlessly around until heading to session 4. For starters, I honestly didn’t come here to buy curriculum. I still don’t feel educated enough to make a purchasing decision that I won’t regret. Secondly, we have no funds for expensive curriculum right now but the deals were pretty good. I will definitely be more prepared for next year.

The last session of the day reminded me that I will constantly feel like a failure in this homeschooling journey unless I let go and let God control this adventure. As the primary educator, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to make this child turn out ‘right’ but, realistically, my only job is to let her become the person God intends her to be.

At pick up, tLG reported that the TTD Children’s Program was a lot of fun. She was particularly happy that the girls had more points than the boys. 😉 Despite the chaos at drop off, I was thankful for somewhere to put my child so that I could attend the sessions alone to soak it all in. At only $35 for both days, it is also extremely affordable!

My hubby attended 2 sessions in the evening. They were sessions that I wouldn’t necessarily have picked but I was thankful that they had topics which interested him since he was the one who talked me off the edge when I started to panic about homeschooling. After just 2 sessions he came home convinced that we are doing the right thing about home education and is not interested in ever sending her back to public school. Score for the homeschool team!