NICHE 2019

Four ladies and I slipped away to the NICHE homeschool conference a couple of weekends ago.  We were gone Thursday - Saturday and enjoyed our time away from our army of little people.  We grew, we were challenged, we cried (okay, I cried), and we pushed ourselves to learn and plan for the upcoming school year. 

We represented 5 families, 23 children, and 3 more on the way.
We ate good food and plenty of it and stayed up too late visiting.

I went to a class on Iowa homeschool law and feel much more confident in choosing from the 5 options in Iowa, if that is in our future.  I also went to classes on being a wise wife, managing bad days, time and home management, Bible quizzing, judgment, and morning time. 

I was convicted a lot, and need to get my notes back out and re-read them to keep that conviction and move it over to change and betterment of self and our school.

We are excited to introduce morning time and see what that looks like for our tribe.  Cindy West did a nice presentation about morning time and brought to me the concept of starting with a quick "brain game" to get right and left sides of the braining firing and working together before moving on with the school game. 

As when Mike and I went in 2015, Nancy Bjorkman was inspiring, convicting, and uplifting.

I really enjoyed Scott Woodruff's sessions (he's from HSLDA).  He did the Iowa homeschooling session and the one about judgment.

In between sessions, we wandered the exhibit hall, touched all the curriculum, and bought things for our upcoming school year.

This was a fantastic weekend.  I tried to keep my feet up when I could

but in the end I came home a swollen mess.

Mike, of course, handled things at home beautifully, and never complained a bit.  I was glad to get home to my zoo, but the break was fantastic.