My Conference Notebook: 8 Years of Listening

Posted by Debra | 0 comments

I’m thumbing through a full composition book packed with notes, lists and ideas that date back to the very first days of homeschooling my firstborn son. It spans 8 years of conferences, the bullet points of 4 different states’ homeschooling laws, and grade level ideas for Preschool through 6th grade.

It’s my very favorite resource to turn to for ideas and encouragement and for recalling what I set out to do in the first place.

Do you have a notebook like this? A book full of nuggets of wisdom, planning, scribbles, notes to yourself, lists of books to buy or skip, and memories – lots of memories?

Before I move into a new notebook this month I take time to review the contents of the first one and remember the feelings and challenges I had at every stage: as I began, persevered and then customized our homeschooling.

Thumbing past the very first page – the list of the alphabet and how we would cover each construction paper letter with things that started with that sound — and glancing through my lists of early reading activities, curriculum to explore, and educational books to buy (including Tobias, Bennett, Duffy, Klicka and Quine) I find the notes from my first conference in California in 2003.

This SCOPE conference was where Jessica Hulcey asked me point blank, “What is your philosophy of education?” I looked at her blankly and said, “Well, my son is only four. I don’t really know.” She snickered and excused me from answering the question and asked another workshop attendee who sweated out an answer. I took copious notes from Jessica who said, “You’re teaching a child, not a curriculum,” “Growing brains are shaped by experiences,” and “Cover the bases in the morning.” At the same conference, Jennifer Steward inspired me in the way of Unit Studies. She said, “If it’s there and natural, teach it,” and I’ve never looked back.

Next in the notebook I find the first unit I ever planned (kittens), ideas for teaching about the Fourth of July, literature units, and a failed attempt at tracking with Five in a Row (I returned it to the publisher). At my second conference, this time in Oregon, Greg Harris and Carol Barnier were the featured speakers. Carol said, “take writing out of everything but writing,” and that I needed to “find the way his mind works.” I’ve been doing just that ever since.

A turn of the page brings me to Sono Harris’ workshop and, due to her recent passing, I pause here to re-read her wisdom. She identified some of the negative feelings homeschool mom’s encounter: loneliness and isolation, weariness, frustration and disappointment. She said to “let our difficulties be opportunities for God to work for and through you.”

Sono said that “parent/child relationships are not for ease and happiness but are the context for the change God works in and through us… God is working in you and you may not be cooperating yet.” I can still feel how my toes felt (gratefully) stepped on by her gracious message.

The pages reveal my angst over my son’s “glitches” based on the copious notes from Judy Russell who spoke on neurodevelopmental methods that could help him. My feelings of relief are all over my notes from Becky DeVelle whose IEW vendor workshop wowed me with the reality that “It’s okay to tell them what to write.” And Diana Waring obviously inspired me with her creative, learning-style sensitive approach to teaching history because I barely took any notes, enraptured by her magnetic and warm personality.

The notebook goes on and on with field trip ideas, books for me to read, a phone number for my homeschooling friend Hillary (how have you been?), “drawings” from my second two-year old son, and thoughts on how school will change in our move to Colorado. It is filled to the end with notes from Doug Phillips, Joyce Herzog, more Diana, Jay Wile, Todd Wilson, Jeannie Fulbright, Voddie Bauchum, more Carol, Jan Bloom, Andrew Pudewa and more.

If you don’t have a notebook like this, I encourage you to start one. Get everything in one place so you can turn to it again and again and see how your journey has progressed, how you have grown, and how God has met your every need as you’ve plodded forward.

As C.S. Lewis wrote in Out of the Silent Planet, “A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking… as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing. … What you call remembering is the last part of the pleasure.” Take joy in where you’ve come from because it’s gotten you where you are. Then, keep listening for the words of wisdom yet to come and take note of them.

Debra Anderson has three sons ages 11 and younger. Her passions are education, mentoring, her husband, writing, church ministry and missional living — not in that order. She has her seminary Masters degree in Christian Education, is married to her pastor-husband of 16 years, and resides in their newish home in Denver, CO. In spite of moves between four different states, she has always home educated her boys — even on the hard days. She maintains a blog at www.emergent-homeschool.blogspot.com.