Homeschool Conference 101

This past weekend I attended my first homeschool conference. I was a little worried that I would stick out like a sore thumb. Like many areas of life we’ve been trained to think of certain things in certain ways. I haven’t known a ton of homeschool families until recently so I had these preconceived ideas in my head. I thought I would be gawked at and looked down upon. I felt underdressed wearing shorts and tank top as I drove to the conference. What I found was not at all what I expected.
The first day I walked around hoping no one would notice me. Yet, I found that there were others that were very dressed up or had similar outfits like mine. Of course there were the families that wear long dresses and head coverings but most people were “normal” to me. I didn’t stick out at all!!
As I continued through the conference I found all types of families. Some families were very large having more than six children. Some couples were pregnant with their first child! There were older couples and younger couples! There were even grandparents there! I even saw several moms sporting tattoos! It was a wonderful healthy mix of a great community.
Almost every workshop I took opened and closed in prayer. I know there were 95% Christians in attendance. I did see that there were some non-Christians in attendance. I sat and thought to myself, “Here I was worried about my clothing and outward looks. I shouldn’t have felt uncomfortable at all.” I also began to think what were those non-Christians thinking and feeling? This entire conference was centered on God and faith. Were they feeling uncomfortable with the talk of God, church and religion?
I never got a chance to ask them but I’m going to draw my own conclusion to that. Many families choose to homeschool for religious reasons. At this point in time in our country, more and more parents are seeing what is taking place in our schools and they are choosing for many other reasons to homeschool. No matter how we were dressed, where we came from, what reason we choose to homeschool we were all there for our children. We want something better for our children than what they are getting. We want our children to get off the conveyor belt education and expand their minds as they were created to do. I will no longer hold onto my preconceived notions and I challenge others to let go of some of yours.

Related posts: