Last weekend homeschooling families from across the island gathered in St. John's for the annual CHENL Conference on the Rock.

Friday night the president welcomed everyone and introduced the speakers.  This was followed by a number of different families sharing their stories - right from a family just now preparing to start to a family that has already graduated two of their children.  It was a great time of inspiration and fellowship.  The evening ended with a DVD presentation of homeschool research results.

All day Saturday there were sessions with the guest speakers.   Snacks and lunch were provided for the day so that there would be lots of time to fellowship between sessions. 

Rev. John Paul Westin, Rector of St. Thomas' Church in St. John's,  spoke about Raising Godly Children and gave us his 4 points at the beginning just in case he ran out of time and didn't get to cover them all.  He didn't need to worry, however.  He did a great job as he encouraged us to 1) be real or get real with God, 2) watch and listen because God is at work, 3) react or respond appropriately, and 4) enjoy watching the plants grow.  I heard comments afterwards about how encouraging it was to hear him remind us that we are not responsible to make our children what they ought to be, but we are to allow God to do it and to help them out as we can as they develop into the people God planned for them to be.

Carolyn Westin, Rev. John Paul's wife, who is a guidance counselor and private counselor talked with us about guiding Your Child Through the Teen Years.  She emphasized the importance of being present in our children's lives and being available for them, while being careful not to be smothering or controlling and discussed some very practical ways to do that.

Pastor Gary Steward, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, shared with us his enthusiasm for history as he talked about How to Teach History from a Christian Perspective.  He gave 5 tips for teaching history: 1) equip yourself with good resources, many of which are available on the internet through archive.org or google books; 2) be selective, because you can't cover it all; 3) create an interest a) in yourself first, b) by using historical fiction, c) by using literature of the time, but be mindful of purposeful messages, d) by using biographies, e) by using autobiographies, and f) by using films; 4) teach the big picture first, thus creating a mental grid on which to hang the details that will be learned later; and 5) pay special attention to world views. 

Marlene McDonald, a veteran home educator from New Brunswick and owner of Homeschool and More, talked about Getting Started and Choosing Curriculum and Planning Your Year.  She also had a wonderful display of homeschooling resources and curriculum for people to browse and purchase from all weekend long.

These are just some of the highlights from the weekend.  The conference committee did a great job and everyone left better equiped to face the challenges of homeschooling and looking forward to next year.