What I Learned From Dr. Glenn J. Kimber at the Winter Homeschool Conference

At the end of January, Cara and I attended the Winter Homeschool Conference held at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

I went to the conference feeling like I didn't really know or understand my role in private tutoring (homeschooling) our 7-year-old son, Wesley. I didn't know what, if anything, I would get out of it. But I came home feeling more confident, having a greater sense of purpose and direction as a private tutoring (homeschooling) father, and sincerely wanting to be more involved in Wesley's education and help him to prepare to be a good and virtuous man and to find and fulfill the purpose God has for him.

All the sessions were great, but the highlight, for me, was being able to attend both sessions presented by Dr. Glenn J. Kimber. What a marvelous, inspiring man with a tremendous passion for and staggering knowledge of education, religion, and history. I could have listened to him speak all day.

I attended other sessions besides his, which were also very good, but Dr. Kimber's words have really resonated and remained with me. Here are just a few highlights and notes of what I learned from him:

Avoiding Homeschool Burnout

• Think "private tutoring", not "homeschooling". Stop speaking and thinking about educating our own children as "homeschooling" and instead refer to it as "private tutoring". When most of us hear the word "school", we think of the public school approach to education, which is to establish box - defined by someone else - into which every student much fit, and if they don't fit in that box, there's something "wrong" with them. But when we think of "private tutoring" we think of tailoring the education to the individual student, his/her learning style, and at his/her own pace.
• "Learning to serve God, family, and country should be the aim and end of all true learning." -- Benjamin Franklin
• Children look to mothers for guidance and to fathers for acceptance. Fathers should be very careful about correcting their children academically.
• 5 things we need to teach our children:
1. How to apply God's word to their every day life
2. The sciences, for all things denote there is a God (Alma 30:44)
3. Mathematics, to understand how God creates. "What are Heavenly Father's favorite numbers?"
4. Have talents of communication - music, speech, drama, arts, language
5. History
• 4 things private tutoring families can learn from the Stripling Warriors (Alma 57):
1. They had righteous fathers and men in their lives who would rather die than offend God.
2. They had magnificent girls as sisters and girlfriends who were so modest and good that they could let virtue garnish their thoughts unceasingly.
3. They had mothers willing to bring the children under their wing and let the Spirit guide them as to how to teach and nurture them.
4. Their parents taught them to be worthy, willing to serve, and watchful for opportunities to serve

Strategies for Teaching Yourself the U.S. Constitution & Inspiring Your Kids Along The Way

• The American Story is very confusing to children. We need to study and seek to understand it ourselves so that we can teach it to our children.
• Prophecy is the mold into which history will be poured. Make sure that prophecy is your guide. One group will say everything is going to collapse, the other will say everything is fine. They are both wrong. Study the scriptures and the words of modern prophets to understand the prophecies concerning this land and the world.
• Teach your children:
1. Freedom is a gift from God, not government.
2. Quality family life must be a high priority.
3. Reward your children for learning the documents of freedom.
• Thomas Jefferson spent 16 days studying Deuteronomy and Exodus to learn what inalienable rights are.
• There is no inalienable right that is not connected with a commandment from God.

Each of these points could be a blog post in and of itself, but I wanted to at least give you just a glimpse of the knowledge and insight we gained from Dr. Kimber. It was quite a revelatory experience for me.