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Reflections on *Teach Them Diligently*

This past weekend my husband and I were privileged to attend the Teach Them Diligently homeschool convention in Nashville.  I have to say, I was pretty excited about going!  And my hubby was generous enough to come along, keeping me company while also enjoying some workshops himself.  

The convention was held at the beautiful Gaylord Opryland hotel although we didn't stay overnight there.  Since we live just an hour from Nashville we commuted instead.  The first couple of days we left the kiddos with the grands, but decided to take them with us on the last day since we wouldn't be there the entire day.  

If you've never been to TTD, or any homeschool convention for that matter, I would highly recommend going!  Until this convention I had only attended a couple of other state level conventions.  TTD has done an amazing job of putting together a well-thought-out, God-honoring event that they are bringing to 4 different cities in the US this year.  The atmosphere of this convention and it's attendees was so refreshing.    

I was super pumped to see so many familiar faces from favorite blogs, websites, and books as speakers for this event.  While it's impossible to attend every single session (my husband and I often would go to different sessions to make the most of our time!), you can always get the recordings ...or simply choose the ones that seem the best suited to your needs and interests.  I thoroughly enjoyed each workshop session I attended and was able to have nuggets of wisdom to take home with me.  The workshops were well-planned and included powerpoint presentations and some handouts as well.  You can take a peek at the session schedule here.  

Some of my favorite workshops were:

I can assure you that I will be reviewing my notes a lot in the near future!  

And, of course, I had an amazing time browsing the vendor hall ...off and on for three whole days!!  Bliss!!  My poor husband could hardly drag me away.  It's just always so helpful to be able to look at curriculum up close and be able to ask questions about it.  I definitely found some new things for our upcoming year that I'm excited about!

The only real disappointment of the weekend was that James Dobson didn't make it.  Apparently he was snowed in where he lives with all flights cancelled.  So that was a bummer.  

But it just meant more time in the vendor hall for me! ;)

If you've never been to Nashville and visited the Gaylord Opryland hotel, you really must!  Even if you're not staying overnight.  They have the most gorgeous conservatory areas!  Plus there are shops and restaurants, too (I recommend the gelato!).  Below are a few pics that we snapped while showing the kiddos around.




So ...all that to say ...if you get an opportunity to attend a Teach Them Diligently convention this year you should totally go for it!  

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