By Nick Samens
A month ago, our homeschool group was able to attend the MACHE Homeschool Convention together in Arden Hills, MN. It was not only informational, but also inspirational. The sessions covered a broad group of topics with titles like “Parents are Uniquely Qualified to Teach and Disciple Their Children” and “Fear Not, You and Your Children Can Learn Math Together.”
The conference was held in a large church that had many rooms. The mornings started with an introduction and worship, then we all split to the sessions of our choice. At any given hour there were 8 different talks going. In the gymnasium there were vendors selling curriculum, books, helpful materials, and yes, essential oils. Despite my lack of interest in expanding my lavender inventory, I took personal inventory of what would benefit my own heart, my children’s education, and the flourishing of my family the most.
In one such session the speaker pointed out the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset when it comes to teaching our kids. The simplest way to sum it up is that someone with a growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort. On the other hand, someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time. I think this provides a special opportunity as parents to teach (and often times learn with) our kids about how often God provides the means and we have to provide effort in our growth and discipleship. Things don’t always happen “just because”, somethings always being formed, molded, carried out one way or another.
Finishing off the second day I attended a session regarding the “legal” process of how homeschool came to be, where it is now, and where it’s heading. I actually listened to this speaker the day before and wasn’t thrilled to say the least. Maybe my patience regarding anything politics has warn as thin as frog hair but I sat through another one of his sessions with a different heart and attitude. I realized that despite his “fire” for law, without guys like him we would not have the fundamental right to choose how we educate our kids. I left his session with a different attitude and a reason to pray and support the people behind the scenes who really do play a large role in why we get to live/parent the way we do.
One thing that has been of the upmost importance to my wife and I since we started homeschooling was to do it for very “offensive” reasons. Such as seeing your child’s education as more of a lifestyle, an opportunity to spend more time with them, and to essentially, by God’s grace, cultivate an atmosphere where they are properly equipped to love those in a lost and dying world and bring life to it. All and all it was a special time of learning and fellowship with the other parents from our group who attended.