Thursday, May 8, 2014

Classical Inspiration from the Great Homeschool Convention

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This post is sponsored by Great Homeschool Conventions.  Don't miss the info at the end about the Ontario, California convention in June! 

Two weeks ago today, my husband and I were heading out to the Great Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati, OH.  I was so excited because we had never been to a homeschool convention before.  (Also, our kids were with their grandparents, so it was like a mini-vacation!)

We had gone over the list of sessions and written down the ones that were really interesting/relevant to us.  I had planned when we would take breaks for meals and trips to the exhibitor hall.  We had packed comfortable clothes, water bottles, notebooks, and pens.  We were ready!

I am happy to report that we did pretty well!  There was one session that wasn't what we thought it would be and another that I really wanted to go to but had to skip, but other than that, we followed our schedule!

My husband and I went to about half of the sessions together and then split up for the other half.  For some of the time slots there were two topics that just sounded too interesting, so we divided and conquered.  Also, my husband really hasn't done all that much thinking about homeschooling, so he went to a few more basic sessions that were very helpful to him.

For those of you who are regular readers here at Living and Learning at Home, you know that classical education is my passion.  I know that the same could be said of many of you!  Now, everyone has their own reason for going to a homeschool convention (what's great about GHC is that there is truly something for everyone!) but for me, it was to listen to the incredible classical education speakers.

My Favorite Sessions


Classical Education Panel with Dr. Perrin (Classical Academic Press), Mr. Cothran, Dr. Renyolds, and Mr. Kern

I plan on talking more about some of the great things I learned from these speakers in the coming months, but here is a taste.  I'll list some of the sessions that I went to and a take-away point.

  • Teaching from a State of Rest (Andrew Kern) -Wow, this guy is deep!  He talked about our inner-self, and (as Christians) having the Holy Spirit in us, and being able to be at rest.  This one is hard for me, so I definitely need to re-visit my notes!

  • What Traditional Stories do that Modern Ones Don't (Martin Cothran) - We need stories with heros.  We need to show our children stories that have clear conflict and right vs wrong.

  • Releasing Your Child From the Grip of Entertainment (Sharon Hofer) - A child should never be bored!  Replace entertainment with projects.  This is something that I've been actively working on since getting home =)  "Children should rather create than be passively entertained."

Dr. Perrin from Classical Academic Press
  • Putting Schole Back into School (Christopher Perrin) - This was the highlight of the conference for me.  Dr. Perrin talked about restful learning and taking the time to appreciate the good, true, and beautiful.  He opened my eyes to a whole deeper understanding of classical education.   It is so much more than then trivium, friends!  I will be unpacking this in posts to follow

  • The Recovery of Memory (Christopher Perrin) - Another great one!  Dr. Perrin challenged us to start memorizing for the sake of our minds.  We need to step away from our technology from time to time and think.  "Memorization teaches contemplation."

Meeting Great People!


Oh, the people!  There are just so many people =)  My husband and I ran into one couple that we knew from home, though there were others that we just didn't see.

I even met one of you!  G3Mom had her eagle eye out and spotted me in one of the sessions!  It was so nice to put a face with a name (or maybe a body with an avatar =) She had her 3 kids with her and they looked like they were having a great time!


Then I was able to have a short meetup with a few of the great ladies from the iHomeschool Network.  I interact with these girls often online, but had never met any of them before.  The only bad part about there being so many great sessions to attend is that there isn't enough time to really enjoy visiting with all the great people =)  I guess next year it would be fun to come a day early (or stay a day late) just to spend more time with everyone!

One other great opportunity is being able to talk to the curriculum folks and session speakers.  I'd rather be a fly on the wall, so I didn't really do that, but people like Dr. Perrin and Mr. Cothran were completely accessible to chat with in the exhibitor hall or right after their sessions.  I did talk to a nice lady selling violins, though =)

Still to come...Ontario, California


Do you live in the western USA (or do you like to travel)?  Then you still have a chance to catch all this classical education goodness next month at the Ontario, CA Great Homeschool Convention! 

With just a few minor changes, you can hear these sessions and more (ones from Classical Conversations for example), plus encouraging sessions and ones about all kinds of specific curricula and subjects.  Check out the dozens of speakers here.

Did you know will have the largest homeschool curriculum exhibit hall in all of California? Wow! Check out the 100's of companies!

Other points of interest:



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6 comments:

  1. Wish I could have heard Mr. Perrin's Schole talk.

    Glad you enjoyed your convention time! Maybe we can meet up next year...

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    1. I'm pretty sure you can see Dr. Perrin talk about Schole on youtube. I'm planning on writing more on the subject, so keep your eye out for that because I'll probably find the video and link to it in my post.

      I would love to go to GHC again next year, and I would love to get together! (The only problem is lack of time...did you feel like every minute was full? I really think that staying an extra day would be great for being able to meet up with friends!)

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  2. Our CC group had a Convention recap night, and we spoke about many of the same speakers you did!

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    1. It's awesome that so many of your group went and its great that you got together to talk about it! Do you live near Cincinnati, or did your group all take a road trip together?

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  3. It's funny that we both use the classical model, but ended up not going to any of the same talks!

    During part of our Catholic homeschool convention in a few weeks, Martin Cothran will be speaking - so I knew I'd have a chance to hear him then.

    I did sit in on a classical preschool talk (which was AWESOME!), and I had a friend who went to one of Susan Wise Bauer's talks.

    I just had SO many people on my 'must hear' list. Sigh.

    So good to run into you there!!!

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    Replies
    1. I know, right!? You'd think that we would have chosen something the same =)

      I'm glad we had a chance to meet in real life =) It was fun to see you and the other girls!

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