Teach Them Diligently Opryland Homeschool Convention

I had the opportunity to go to the Teach Them Diligently Homeschool convention again this year in Nashville at Opryland.  My husband and I enjoy going and always come away encouraged.  This year we also brought our daughters and a friend.       If you homeschool and have not been to a convention, I highly recommend Teach Them Diligently!!!!

The highlight for me is always the exhibit hall.  There is nothing like the biggest room you've ever seen full of exciting books that interest you.  It makes my heart race a little just thinking about it. Perusing the books and curriculum is always great to get ideas from and make decisions for curriculum for the new school year.   

This year, I took time out to go to 3 sessions as well.  To give you an idea of what the convention is like....at any given moment you can choose from TWENTY possible sessions to attend that are going on simultaneously all over the Opryland Convention Center.  Every hour there are 20 NEW sessions.  Whew. 

This year, I went to a session by Kevin Sorbo, Hollywood actor (Hercules/God's Not Dead), director, producer.   His talk was called "Fame, Family and Faith." He talked about the costs of being vocal in his faith in the secular world of Hollywood.  He is a very outspoken Christian and homeschool dad of 3 as well. 

The next session was by Ann Dunagan titled, "Training Girls to be Mission-Minded Women."  She encouraged homescoolers to not just let their girls sit like pretty princesses but to be warriors for Christ....reaching a lost world and focusing on the women, children, orphans and other needs that women tend to have more of a heart for than men do.  Their family has visited 116 countries with the gospel...so they are living what she teaches.  She gave a lot of examples of how they have incorporated their entire family in missions/evangelism/church planting.   

The 3rd session was by Israel Wayne entitled, "How not to Educate (like a heathen)."  He explained the Biblical view of education vs the cultural view. He showed that we need a family mission statement.  His is, "Know, love and serve God and to love and serve others."  He says every area of our lives need to be focused on this one mission.  Education is no exception.   He described our life as a piece of pie.  As Christians, our spiritual life is the foundation of the whole pie.   When we "cut" into our life, pieces like education, money, friends, entertainment etc...should all point towards God and our mission as a Christian.  Just like a blueberry pie...every piece is full of blueberries, so every area of our lives should reflect Christ. 

He also talked about how far from Christian roots American education has moved.  He showed a Harvard College Mission statement from 1636.  Wow..has it changed a lot!!!

I wish I had time to go to more sessions. Every one impacted me in a new way!

Thankful for this time to be encouraged to press on, to re-align my goals again and to be excited for a new homeschool year coming up!  

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 

 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?"