News from Nashville

My trip to the Teach Them Diligently Conference in Nashville was was some wonderful girl time with my friend Sam, with lots of laughter and good conversation, with even a ghost story for us to share, wink wink. It is always wonderful to share time with a sister in the Lord of like minded faith. I loved having the opportunity to meet the Kelley family. There is a great deal of laughter in that house! Her children are funny, welcoming and full of energy!

But it was also a productive venture.

I found a writing curriculum that I feel will be beneficial to Little Man. It’s called Write Shop. I can’t believe I had never heard of it before. But, I am excited about it because it is a hands on approach to writing. I realize that sounds kind of redundant, but what I mean is this takes the writing process out of the box. Instead of simply giving a topic and then expecting the child to write a sentence, paragraph or story, it teaches instead the process of brainstorming ideas, determining the appropriate wordage to share, then how to organize the thoughts before putting them into sentence and paragraph structure. I am anxious to begin looking into the curriculum more and getting Little Man started with trying out some of the lessons. Look forward to a review soon.

I met Dr. Paul Cates from the National Association for Gifted Children NAGC and I was able to ask him the question that has been burning through my mind since I first realized that I am mom to a gifted child. “Is Testing necessary for a child who shows gifted tendencies?” His answer: “No, but.” He went on to explain what proper testing will do for our child. It will provide a reliable source for showing how our child learns, what his talents and weaknesses are and will be a good source for showing us the type/style of curricula he needs in order to reach his fullest potential. Now we will be in deep consideration of how we can afford to have this testing done. Anyone interested in sponsoring our family to travel to North Carolina for NAGC testing? just kidding… sort of.

I listened to Ken Ham in 4 separate sessions. What a thrill to hear a man speak so passionately about the Lord and His Creation. I learned some things about dinosaurs that I had not previously known. Like did you know that the majority of dinosaurs were about the size of a sheep? Hmmm, makes you think doesn’t it? I also heard Jeannie Fulbright, author of Apologia’s Exploring Creation Series, as she showed how notebooking is a wonderful way for children of all ages to show what they are learning in a way that they will easily recall in the future. Because in notebooking, a child uses creativity to show what they know.

The busy-ness of the conference is, as always, both encouraging and exhausting. I met several bloggers that I’ve been following for a while as well as some new ones that I look forward to getting to know better in the next few months as I get familiar with their pages. I love JM Cremps, and was able to pick up some boy books, a puzzle for Little Man and a T-Shirt for My Beloved.