Conference yes or no? YES. YES. YES. We live in an electronic day and age. We shop, pay bills, balance our checkbooks and connect with old friends on line. These are just to name a few; there are even homeschool classes, conferences and workshops online. Certainly, we and those around us can be blessed by not only the things mentioned but by the convenience they offer. Beware – convenience can be a trap. Be fully aware – these things are blessings indeed but not meant to be replacements. It is nice to have things in convenient order – but it can’t take the place of real interaction. In the very beginning God gave Adam an Eve; throughout time – He continued to bless His children with the touch of others in their lives. There wasn’t a single disciple; there were 12 disciples. They sat in fellowship and prayer with one another, they wrote letters of encouragement and sent promises of their coming visits. We are supposed to be around people. Imagine falling and skinning your knee as a child and having your mom offer you a band aid via computer? It wouldn’t do much for the bleeding wound or the aching heart.
Homeschooling conferences are growing in number and in nature. There are many to choose from in the southeast. Georgia has 2 conferences of its very own. The GHEA conference takes place May 3, 4, 5 and The Southeast Homeschool Expo takes place July 26, 27, 28. They are worth the trip.
The easiest way to make you aware of this or bring this to your attention is to make the preverbal list.
1. GHEA is the only conference that I have found with a used book sale that encompasses the curriculum sold by families from a minimum of 4 states. There may be others but if there are they are not in any of the states that connect to mine (Georgia).
2. Southeast Homeschool Expo has incredible workshops led by people just like you and I. At the Cobb Galleria Center you can hear homeschooling moms who have been through years on the journey share their passions, tricks of the trade, encouragements, etc.
3. It is an opportunity to put in your hands the curriculum that you have been wanting to know more about. Not to see only the samples that a publisher has chosen to load to his/her website but to actually hold it and choose for yourself the page numbers you will look at.
4. It is the perfect time and place to be among other homeschoolers. You can stand in a room filled with literally thousands of people and know that you are NOT alone. Not because you are one in one thousand but because each of these people represent homeschooling families. People who have chosen a very similar (if not the same) venue of education for their children and families.
5. Blessings. It is the perfect environment to be blessed by others who can identify with your particular set of circumstances. Better yet, it is the perfect environment to bless others who need to know that other families have circumstances that they are dealing with as well.
6. Opportunity. The conference provides an opportunity to meet others, make educated and informed decisions, to hear folks impassioned and empowered by God to be champions of homeschooling and the homeschooling family.
7. Training. Vendors offer training and example for their products. You can see first hand examples of how it works, what makes it successful, and so on. In many cases you meet not only the company that carries the product but the creator of the product itself.
I have been homeschooling since 1997. Certainly, I am NOT a pioneer; there were folks doing this long before I had even heard of it. There are people who are better organizers, better managers of the households, and probably much better examples. There are none who are more blessed. I have been so incredibly blessed. I will, in complete sincerity and honesty, tell you that even on my most difficult day of homeschooling – there is nothing that has made me wish I were doing something different. There is no better option that I am waiting on. I will also tell you that I do not do this. God does it and I hang on for dear life and dear love.
I hope that you will consider this post to be your personal invitation to join me at GHEA and Southeast Homeschool Expo. Bring your list, your budget numbers and your love of family with you and find a smile among those who have also been called to take this homeschooling journey.
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