I was so blessed to attend Teach Them Diligently in Nashville! And I am planning, Lord willing, to return next year! I have never gone to a homeschool convention before, and while it was amazing, it was a little overwhelming. There were so many amazing speakers it was difficult to pick out which workshops to attend, and I decided beforehand that I would be purchasing some of the ones I could not attend on MP3 downloads from Resounding Voice (you can purchase the downloads even if you didn't get to attend the conference!). I highly recommend going over the schedule when it comes out, and again the week of the conference you are attending, and there was one point where I just felt led to go to one I had not planned on attending at all and it was such a blessing. Be open to changing your plans.
And I won't go into too much detail about the vendor hall, but I knew ahead of time what the budget was and what I wanted to get from the vendors listed. If I hadn't had that in mind, I would have cried. Seriously, there were so many great vendors with awesome homeschool items and so many great curriculum, even for preschool ages, that I can only imagine how bad and expensive going in with no game plan could be. But . . .I did get to look through several items I've been looking at for our Pre-K4 and K/1st years. It was great to speak with the representatives and have my hands on the actual items. I am excited about using Saxon as our math curriculum. And I'm not a math person! So prepare yourself mentally to look but not buy the things you don't need yet or have not budgeted for this convention. Also, comfy shoes and a big bag or rolly cart for all the magazines and such are a must!
Here are some of the goodies I snagged! I'm not a super organized person so I've been scouting out planners for the upcoming year and I decided on the Well Planned Day. I'll be digging into that in the next few weeks to get a general outline going.
I love listening to Heidi St. John and keeping up with her Busy Mom Facebook page! I bought The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Romance
for me to read, but really for Mr. J ;) The No Drama, Mama! cup was for me. I'm really working on that part of my personality.I knew before we went I wanted to get a Maestro Classics CD for us to have for the car and to use for a fun beginning music study for this year and the lovely lady at their booth helped me pick out Carnival of the Animals! It is wonderful!We are going to have a lot of fun discussing the animals and the onomatopoeias.
We have a couple other audios from Lamplighter Theatre and they are simply wonderful. I saw the book for Teddy's Button, but when I returned Saturday, they were sold out of the book so we got the audio and listened to it on the way home. I cannot recommend their audios enough. They are so well done and engaging and sweet!
One program I had heard about was The Etiquette Factory. After looking over all their neat ideas, I think we will definitely be incorporating this program into our preschool and early elementary years. It really does make manners fun! And I really think manners have become underrated. This is a fun way to reinforce good manners, which makes life more pleasant for everyone! As you can see, Mr. T still has some things to learn, but he's really pretty mannerly for a 3 year old boy!
These are just some of the other great resources I saw while I was there. Mr. T and Mr. F were enjoying lots of visiting with Mimi and Poppy. But they did do a quick trip through the vendor hall with me. Mr. T liked a lot of the robot and stuffed animal toys!
I loved the above quote. I was so blessed by so many of the speakers, I really can't tell you all of it in just one post or it would be even longer than it already is :) But if you have the opportunity, I would certainly recommend Teach Them Diligently convention. Unlike some, it is completely Christian based and the cost is extremely affordable, especially if you register early! I gleaned so much wisdom from speakers like Ken Ham, Sally Clarkson, Rachael Carman, Heidi St. John, and so many more! I really can't wait for next year!
I'd love to hear about your Teach Them Diligently experiences or other Christian homeschool conventions you'd recommend!
