Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Vision



I need to share about another class I went to at the annual Thomas Jefferson Education Forum last week end.
The Thomas Jefferson Education (TJed) Forum is an annual home school convention with presenters from all over the United States and Canada.
I can not even tell you how much I loved the forum this year.
Love does not even describe accurately how I felt about the forum this year.
I left feeling completely full, it was a feast for my soul.
I left with new vision and inspiration for our home school.
For any of you that are thinking about home school, this is a must. Sadly, the forum is only once a year, but you can order downloads of the sessions at the TJed Marketplace if you would like to learn more (It may take a few weeks for them to get the downloads ready for purchase).
I went to a class called Teaching Self Government by Nicholeen Peck.
Nicholeen is an amazing mom to 4 children and has had many Foster children in her home throughout the years.
Her foster children came to her home with problems like ADHD, OCD, kleptomania, compulsive lying, anger control issues, etc. She said, “I taught behaviors, not medication. They would come to us on many medications and usually leave not on any medications. Many children are misdiagnosed. They just need to learn cause and effect better.”
Her class was life changing for me.
I will have to write another post about it another day since my children will be up in just a little while and this is already long as it is.
Nicholeen did a documentary for the BBC called The World’s Strictest Parents
Here is a link to the show.
"The concept is that two so-called teenagers are sent to live abroad with a strict host family for a week in an attempt to change their behavior. During the week they receive an impact letter from their birth parents with a list of issues they should try to fix."
I watched this before the forum and was amazed at how she and her husband loved and worked with these children.
These teens left their home with new perspective and hope for their lives.
At the Forum I bought Nicholeen's book, called A House United, which you can also purchase on her website.
No, I am not being paid for advertisement! I just really love the principles she teaches.
Until tomorrow, here is a quote from her book that describes perfectly what I want for my children.
"Parenting isn't about doing anything to our children. Parenting is about teaching our children to choose good and happiness for themselves, by themselves."

1 comment:

Karen M. Peterson said...

I have long believed that most of the things kids are diagnosed with today are because parents don't want to take the time to deal effectively with raising children. That's not to say that ADHD doesn't exist. Just that many kids with the diagnosis have parents that don't want to have to deal with finding ways to teach their children creatively. It's easier to drug them and send them to a corner with a book than to take them out into the world and teach them about things firsthand.