Oh my! Here I am again, with the dilemma of what to share and what to not.....there was so much to take in, yet I was not overwhelmed I was so fed by all of the remarkable things to think about! We started off the morning early, as we drove down the canyon my madre and I got STUCK in the traffic from the marathon that was being run down the canyon. OH, KILLJOY! It made us late, but we had a great time anyway. We got to chat and ponder, we ate at Cafe Rio and went to a tent sale as well! All in the name of FUN! Which if anyone knows us, fun doesn't happen much we usually WORK :) HA! So it was a glorious way to start the morning, then we went to the convention. Our first workshop was again the amazing Nicholeen Peck this time she taught "How to raise Youth not Teens" her children get highly offended when you call them teenagers. I LOVE IT! Because my youngest brother was homeschooled I get the difference between youth and teens. My experience of teenagers is arrogant, self absorbed pre-adults who want to be treated as adults yet have no intention of behaving like them. (Yes I am sure I was partly teenager at one point ha!). But when my baby brother was homeschooled I saw something different in him, he cared, he was kind, curious, responsible. He wasn't idle (well not all the time), he worked hard, he paid for things he needed, and he tried to contribute to society as well as our family. This is what I want to raise, Youth not teenagers. Nicholeen did an outstanding job comparing the two and even showed us a short film on the difference, her fist example was Justin Beiber with his cockiness and flipping of the hair, then she showed us a clip of Kirk Cameron interviewing two twin brothers about 18 years old that had written a book to change lives of "teens". They had read a book during an intense summer reading program their father had asked them to be a part of, they read about different cultures and how China uses the teen years to make great changes, to prepare for the rest of their lives, and how American teens are allowed to waste it, and are the most unproductive during that time of their lives. HOW SAD IS THAT? I then thought about what I did when I was of that age, I wouldn't say I completley wasted it, but I could have done a lot more. And my baby bro, yeah he did awesome things! He was able to work construction because he wasn't in public school, so he had built several homes by the time he was 18. He had so much "street smarts" and life experience by the time he should have been a senior in high school, he attended college for a year before going to serve a mission for our church. Great Kid! Any way the book those kids wrote was called Do Hard Things a teenage rebellion against low expectations. WOW! That's all I can say, they were WOW! They want teens to realize they can do things, they can make a difference and they can start now! After hearing this, I KNOW what I want, I want YOUTH, I want amazing YOUTH that do HARD THINGS, that challenge themselves and push themselves forward while others stand still. That is what I want for my children. Will it be hard? I can't imagine why not, but it will be worth every moment I spend with them, every thing I help them do and every lesson we learn together.
The next workshop we attended was about acronyms and getting children into a routine of Chores, Learning, Attitude and Planning CLAP. It was great! The message was to have interviews and meetings to plan out your week and what goals your kids need, then rate them on their chores and learning and their attitude from the previous week. The gal teaching it had a running tally of the $ her kids earned and she would use it like a debit card so to speak, never giving out real $ but allowing the kids to purchase things when they were out and she would deduct it from their running tally. Very good organizational ideas and thoughts!
The last workshop of the conference was called "The Hope chest Journey" by Donna Goff. It was so great to hear her speak. She is well known in the homeschooling world. She spoke about girls not having skills anymore and when they use to give hope chests, they would really work on building a daughters skills so she could be married and TAKE CARE of a home, cook, clean, mend, sew, be religious, raise children, plant a garden, etc. She talked about having a group of mothers and daughters gather in your home or in whoever's home once a month and have a book club, talk about a book with a value or a virtue of some sort. Then do a skill or help a humanitarian project. Something where mothers can teach their daughters, and where women can be mentors and learn to love these little girls and help them become women and learn skills that are helpful to living life. So much of our society now, is drop your kids off and pick them up later, we don't teach we don't mentor we don't engage ourselves in their lives then we wonder why they don't know what they need to know. Also if you have a group of people your children are mentored by or spend time with they will become more like those people and less like the people you wouldn't want them to spend time with. It was a great message and she actually teaches this lesson in peoples homes for free!
I have been so fed by this amazing conference that I got to attend with my mom! It was so fun to spend time with her, for she truly is the greatest influence in my life! I am so glad she was my mentor, and so glad she will be my children's mentor. I am excited to implement the many things I have learned and start new things with my children as we embark on this Homeschooling adventure! The waters will be rough, I have no doubt, it will be hard at times and we will think we won't make it, but we will! We will persevere and steer our little ships up the creek finding our own way and enjoying even the rough waters we encounter! I can't wait!!
I am truly thinking of starting a little hope chest group of my own, meeting as women and daughters and learning life skills and being mentors to each other. If any of you are interested please let me know I would love to have you be involved, we can learn so much from each other and we each possess talents that are unique and can be enjoyed by all!
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