As you most likely know, I had the opportunity and privelage of attending the Apologia Live Retreat in Austin on Friday Oct 21st, and Saturday Oct 22nd. And as you’ve already heard me say – I had a wonderful time! :)
I was SO extremely blessed by the amazing speakers and their sweet, sweet hearts for the Lord and for the homeschooling mom!
I took extensive notes – via twitter! Lol! It was super fun live tweeting from the retreat. I tweeted the wonderful nuggets of truth and encouragement that really struck my heart. It was also great to have other wonderful bloggers in the room doing the same (Amber, Christy, & Heather)- so I could retweet the parts I missed tweeting myself!
So, what I’ve decided to do, is compile those precious nuggets of wisdom and encouragement here for you! Trying to weed through them on twitter can get a little daunting, so I hope this will give you a picture of what all we learned and walked away with during our weekend in Austin. There is great wisdom to be found for the homeschool parent – as well as parents in general!
We had amazing, godly ladies who spoke at our Austin retreat – Heidi St.John, Zan Tyler, Debra Bell, Elizabeth Smith, Rachael Carman, followed by a discussion panel of all the speakers at the end.
{L to R: Rachael Carman, Anne MacCallum-worship leader, Debra Bell, Zan Tyler, Heidi St.John, Elizabeth Smith – photo taken during panel discussion time}
In today’s post, I will share some of my favorite highlights from what Heidi and Zan shared with us…
First up: Heidi St. John
- The goal of education is discipleship – discipleship starts at home.
- The Lord is going to equip you for everything you will encounter along the way!
- Listen to your children but remember that the responsibility for bringing them up has been given to you by God.
- Homeschooling is a miracle – because in and of ourselves – we could never do it! {God is the one working in and through us!}
- There is no formula for parenting, there is only Faith.
- Child training trumps the abc’s every time!
- If your curriculum isn’t working – shelve it! You wouldn’t make your kids wear shoes that hurt.
- Listen to the Lord – you can not hear from the Lord if you do not spend time in the word.
- Show your children what it means to listen to the Lord – spend time in the word with them.
- Listen to the Lord – listen to your husband – listen to your children – listen to godly counsel
- Spirit-filled homeschooling is not bound by legalism {Dont need to follow what a homeschooler is “supposed” to look like – follow the Lord}
- Your children have been given to you by the Lord as a weapon in a spiritual battle (Psm 127:4) Launch your arrows for the Lord!
- Once you let the arrow go, its not coming back. Children are not boomerangs.
- Invest in what matters most – invest in your child’s heart! That is the goal of Christian parenting!
- Follow the Leader-Jesus (in your parenting/homeschooling)…what was He like? Gentle and humble in heart.
- Lord what does it means to take your yoke on me? Being yoked with Christ means finding rest.
- Instead of running to the next program for help – run to the Lord – He will provide your every need.
- We have to partner with the Lord, on our knees, praying over each child.
- Jesus gave me three imperatives: come to me, take my yoke, learn from me.
- Academics are a secondary focus – our primary focus should be descipleship.
- The homeschool years are going to fly by, a blip on the radar, enjoy the journey.
Zan Tyler:
- who is my child? what is his passion? what interests him? Start with relationship – not curriculum
- The greatest gift you can give your children is intimacy/relationship in the home
- the stronger the relationships are with your children, the greater their education in the home
- Cultivating intimacy.Quality time grows out of quantity of time you spend w your kids, in daily life.
- time is a great gift the Lord has given us – time is a precursor to intimacy.
- Cultivate intimacy with personal presence with your kids.
- Jesus WALKED w/his disciples, ministering to them, talking to them, spending TIME w them, Investing HIMSELF. {He is our model as parents}
- Be the unhurried teacher who is about spending time with her kids.
- God ordained the family – and what He ordained He will bless!
- If we are going to disciple our children, it is not going to be accidentally – it’s going to be intentionally.
- Grace is transmitted through Godly parenting.
- As you’re determined to bless your children – God is much more determined to bless you(us).
- Interaction with adults is one of the most important tools in a childs development-Who’s interacting with your child?
- The home environment is giving them a place to spend time growing up & a place to flourish.
- One of the worst things we can to do our kids is stay in that negative nit-picky mode
- When we are negative in homeschooling we are sewing failure into them. We need to speak LIFE into them.
- Its easy to cross line between encouraging kids & being nit-picky & negative, since they are a reflection of us.
- The goal is to prepare them (our children) for their God-given calling.
- Each race is different – but each race has the same destination.
What did I tell you? Such a blessing and a refreshment to the heart! Hope you enjoyed those great tidbits from Heidi and Zan as much as I did. Of course it is such a different experience being there – as opposed to reading it here. If you ever get the chance to go to an
Apologia Live event in the future – take it!! I promise you wont be disappointed!
To Be Continued…..
