WHERE WE went to GET HELP for our Family | Marriage, Parenting, Homeschooling & more

greetings friends I'm Mike the fit farmer and years ago I moved my family out of the city to Homestead in the country join me as I share our adventures of growing stuff striving to live a healthy lifestyle and so much more oh and we live in a yur don't forget to give this video a thumbs up leave a comment below subscribe to my channel turn on notifications and share this video with a friend as a family we usually take a couple trips a year in efforts to provide our children and us with new learning experiences where we get to see different places and different people and some of those trips are long like the one we took out to Utah and we took a camper van across [Music] country and yeah that was a really neat experience for sure and and some of those trips are short like the one we just went on just an hour away and for this trip our destination was Winston Salem North Carolina and driving through this area brings back memories of a moment in our marriage that was a little challenging but I'll talk about that later early on in our relationship before Mike and I were even married we had conversations about having children and that we both wanted to have children and how how many children we wanted to have and we even talked about their schooling like Mike and I were both products of government school and we saw things through our education that we didn't like and we wanted to do different whenever we had children and thankfully we've been able to homeschool each of our children so far but we came here to get some help we're here at the Thrive homeschool conference and me personally whether it's with homesteading whether it's with content creation or my role as a father or husband I want to be better I want to always be striving for improvement and we go to homesteading conferences to improve as homesteaders and we go to church to improve spiritually but sadly there's not places that we go to to improve with our home education and even to improve as parents so I said let's go to the Thrive homeschool conference and regretfully well I made the decision kind of last minute so we didn't have our tickets and everything paid for before we came so Lacy had to get us registered right when we entered the conference Hall and getting registered was really easy they have laptops set up you just walk up to the laptop enter in your information um follow the directions on the screen let's hope as homeschool parents we can follow directions but even beyond that they had volunteers there to help as well it it was really easy there we go we did you're awesome have a great time there is um help desks everywhere tonight at 7:00 there's a regional Gathering so you can meet your Regional liaison and other people that are in your area the different locations are listed in here okay and if you take this to the vendor Hall and get it signed you can get into a drawing there we go yeah sure and even though I decided to come to this conference late we did arrive at the conference early that day and thankfully we did because right after you got us all registered man people just started flowing and flocking in and uh it looks like it was going to be a pretty big turnout for this conference did he try to get a wristband to don't put it too too tight put it cut off the circulation yeah do it that off want his hand to fall off don't yeah I want a robot hand like Anakin Skywalker and Luke no me too that's the one thing Luke and Anna can have in all right guys so we got here a little early where do you want to go first vend sounds good to meend vend downstairs so we headed down to the vendor Hall and out of all the vendor Halls that I have seen through the various conferences and events that we've been to I must say that this is one of the bigest biggest ones by far I totally agree homeschooling families tend to put a really big emphasis on reading and that's one thing we do around here we want our kids to be great readers and want to read and at the vendor Hall man there were so many books for Youth and for adults and there was also a plethora of other vendors that provided helpful resources and learning tools for homeschooling families as well and there were some even fun and educational things as well like this self-watering micro green kit which I thought was pretty [Music] nice he's like to and even our one-year-old found stuff that he really wanted to play with girl you girl and surprisingly while we were there we also ran into our good friend Meen from westn a price who was there to educate people on the benefits of nutrient dents eating and in addition to her vendor table there she also did a workshop on that subject one of the things that we were shopping for in the vendor area was a new curriculum for sa to use she's approaching High School age and we thought it'd be really good for her to find some online classes that she could participate in and could be self-guided and we know that she's self-disciplined enough to do that and one online curriculum we came across was Bob Jones University and it was really nice that we had people there that we could talk to and answer questions for us and it wasn't just you know online that it was in person that we could talk to somebody from that organization and to be completely honest our two boys really weren't looking forward to coming to this conference because they're they're boys and they like to do Hands-On stuff I do too and they like to be all over the place but thankfully here at this conference in the vendor Hall they found some Hands-On things to get involved in Carolina ocean studies had a vendor booth there where they had live crabs for people to interact [Applause] with I believe that you are even more grouchy than the other guy is you going to pick one up to side not a big one let see what you got herit crab CB what's that now can you get it without getting pinched Outland well she got it years ago I had two hermit crabs of my own but I had never picked up any other type of crab so I was like let's give it a shot cuz the boys they were like uh we'll pick up the hermit crab but we don't want to pick pick up those other crabs I'm like I'll do it did you get one yet mik that one take let's see if I can get it let's see is hard get one I got it want it no I don't want to CB here we go but hands down their favorite vendor booth at the conference was the trail life boo [Music] Trail life folks hey how you doing so Trail I we're an organization for young men kindergarten through 12th grade it's it's just boys they're all around North Carolina we would love to have you guys be a part of it come check us out Trail life usa.com is where you start Trail life is also across the United States will right yes we have 55,000 members and 1,00 troops a troop in every state wow wow so yeah that's amazing we we joined Trail life for the first time this year it's been neat to see it grow just in our little bit of time doing it and it's been neat having the boys be a part of all the different activities that they do tell them about all the different things that some of the troops do yeah so you have weekly meetings on a skill so and it's there's seven skills that they learn and they start from kindergarten through 12th grade and then most younger ages do a day trip and boy older boys do trips every single month camping and we do want to let everybody know that there is a girls equivalent the American Heritage Girls which has been around almost 20 years longer than Trail life and they were very much involved in helping Trail life gets started in fact their Founder's husband is on our board of directors that's just how much we overlap and and share but we share values they share the outdoor emphasis but ahg American Heritage Girls and just like with us you can Google that go on their website and they have a find a truth map at the United States and where you see the flag or teardrop you can zoom in and know where your closest local troop is so something for the boys and the girls there we go you got to pull somebody up a mountain we use this kind of all right thank you gentlemen and that handshake right there I learned when we joined our local Trail life troop this past year and as a youth I did Boy Scouts however Scouts today are very different than it was when I was a youth but I really wanted my boys to have those kind of experiences that I had growing up and thankfully I found out about Trail life and it aligns so much more with our value use and the things that I want to instill in our kids and this past year they did a number of different activities in trail life that were not only fun but they were also beneficial to their character development which is part of the home education that we are trying to provide our children and recently I was able to go to the award ceremony for trail life and see all the badges little pens that Josiah and Mike had earned throughout the year [Applause] Josiah Dixon got his first aid and outdoor cooking we got ninja stars sh watch out Mich so you don't get hit by one you going show us how it's done side yes no Ninja Turtle style what Ninja Turtle are you if you were a Ninja Turtle uh donatell donatell all right Donnie I'm Michelangelo all right yep you're like Michelangelo too Michel all right let's see those skills Hey Joe this is how it's done o there we go oh good job bull way to go way to go and even though they didn't want to come to this Thrive conference they had so much fun at the trail life booth that they didn't even want to leave like what a complete contrast of what it was when we came I like well maybe next time you guys need to volunteer at this booth [Music] and when we first entered the vendor Hall I saw this one book that I just couldn't get out of my mind and I was like I think I need to go back and get that book so I did and this this book right here the essentials by Jared Dot and in this book he talks about a number of things that I have been personally reflecting and meditating on and one of those things is that well public schooling focuses is solely on academics but as homeschool schoolers and home education our focus is on character development first academics second that public schooling doesn't focus on character really at all so I'm glad I got this book and uh look forward to reading about it more and it talks about the 16 qualities that will set your child up for Success so I'm glad I got this book but in addition to just things that you can buy and shopping at the vendor area the conference is full of all kinds of workshops throughout the day in several different rooms and there were so many different speakers at this conference and really there was a wide variety of topics you know there was one from minimizing your homeschool stuff to you know organization in your home to Parenting to you know how to help your child that's struggling but there's so many different topics that I think anybody could find something to take away and it surprised me that the topics were broader than just the Practical advice on how to do the homeschooling thing that there were even talks about discipleship with your children and your family and how to deal with real world challenge you know one thing that we have to make sure too is that we are sticking uh to biblical terms you know because we see like racism but you won't find that in the Bible now what you will see is partiality the Bible speaks about partiality and it goes beyond skin color it goes beyond economic status and all that we as Christians if you follow of the way we need to use biblical terms because when we use those terms that's thrown around in culture we're submitting to what they say that that it mean that's exactly but we have a higher standard and so if you're going to talk just about racism you're going back to Darwinism you're going back to some of the things that were said you know by Godless people and so it's not that uh we're not saying partiality does not exist it does but we don't want to use those those terms that's exactly right you know it's also really neat to talk to the different people who have been at this conference for different time spans and one of the attendees had told me that coming to this conference him as a parent him as a father it was like a shot in the arm of giving him the encouragement to go through another year but it was also nice to hear others feedback about this conference what's so special about this confence I love coming just the atmosphere is very welcoming you make a friend wherever you go it just kind of feels like Chick-fil-A you just a whole conference as if walking into Chick-fil-A everybody's friendly and happy so good atmosphere and Baby Friendly right and Baby Friendly L I know I texted my mom I said this is one of 100 babies that I've seen at this conference so far well why do you think people should come to this conference um it's funny because I will go into sessions and maybe it's something I need maybe it's 2 minutes of what I need but just the whole atmosphere of it helps me just as a mom this is the end I actually had my end of year celebration with my kids last night we had burgers and s'mores and all that but to just kind of remember why I'm doing this and get a refresh just kind of uh pumping up the soul again to get ready for next year cuz it will come again so and I think this was the most familyfriendly event I have seen and it was so refreshing to see other families with small babies and kids there and even sometimes they were acting up because we were having a tough time with here during this conference you and I would have to just kind of tag you'd sit in the conference while I'm taking care of him carrying him all around in the carrier going back and forth and back and forth and sailor would push him in the stroller back and forth and back and forth he just wanted to be all over the place he wore us out but in addition to youth you also see parents you see grandparents and you see even people from various different backgrounds at this conference and that's EXC exting to see too so why is this Thrive conference important to you I I cannot imagine myself going through all this journey without the support of NCH has been amazing since day one that I came to this conference I had to come over again and again and this conference has changed my life um the way that I think now is different um and basically that I mean you can just you know no more people there's every year here you come every year and every year is a new thing that you can learn so it's very important what about you I like the Thrive conference because of the opportunity to see new things I like the vendor hall because you can see a lot of things I like all the books that are for sale obviously at the Bender Hall um I like to listen to the speakers the ones that interest me and overall I have made some new friends and I like it and at this conference there were people that have been attending for five 5 years 10 years and some even 20 years yeah like Amanda who I met at the conference who for 20 years she's been coming to the event and she's been serving there and volunteering there just because she believes in what they do and helping to empower parents with their homeschooling goal I'm Amanda wees and I've been a part of the Thrive conference since the year before I actually started homeschooling so for 20 years I have been here and most of that time I have helped in some way volunteered and been able to see families that come in scared to death don't know what they're doing but they know what they're doing isn't working and they want something different for their family for their kids and then they walk out confident and equipped and with hope and joy and ready to do something different for their family and it's such a blessing to see that and people come back year after year um you get to see you know their kids grow up and then they graduate and it's it's amazing it really is I love it I love every part of it I think um it's not just a homeschooling conference it really is a whole family conference we've got something for everybody there are workshops and help for people who are even just considering homeschooling people who um have young preschool age kids or babies you know they come and start getting prepared and learning about what is what is this homeschool thing what is it all about um it's great for really anybody whether you've been homeschooling a long time um or you're just thinking about it and homeschooling is seen as more of a woman's mom's type thing and a lot of guys don't really have anything to do with it when you read the scripture it's definitely an instruction for both parents to diligently teach their children and it was refreshing to see that there were guys at this event and one guy that I met name is Matthew he also has been at this event for a really really long time it was the year before we started like school age and we came to the conference 20 years ago this year and it was so lifechanging I mean we just learned so much uh uh we said we're never missing so me and my wife have come every single year for 20 years to the Thrive confence is awesome and of course later on we got a lot more involved with NCH I see parents come here all the time with lots of questions frustrations um and they get answers you know and it's not just from the speakers which is good it's also from we're talking to Bella homeschoolers in community in person and they're like yeah I've been through that they're talking they're talking to vendors getting their curriculum questions answered um and we we see this very much from a spiritual perspective um they're getting answers from the Lord you know God speaking to them moving their hearts helping them to know which direction should I be going now you know I mean you can do a lot of stuff online that's awesome but it's just not the same as being in the workshop hearing the speaker getting experiencing the whole thing getting to talk to people but our one of our main jobs is to equip which means people need information and encouragement to keep going cuz they get tired and weary and so it is a huge injection you don't get to just watch a 30- minute thing online it's like we're here for 3 days we're invested and we're going to leave encouraged because we put a lot into it and even though I've been doing YouTube now for several years I don't necessarily go to advance thinking that somebody's going to recognize us at all but we did get recognized a couple times and one was by a lady named Esther and she was so excited to see us she had her little girl with her and it was also really neat to hear why she came to this conference so why are you here at this Thrive homeschool conference why is it important to you it's important to me because I wanted to get updated and what's going on in the homeschooling world and doing some shopping cuz they have thousands of things can shop from and and also it's a little vacation for my brain get away and just shop and meet with people like y'all and talk and discuss things and um just enjoy it really overall enjoy it what do you think you what do you get out of this as a parent come and do a conference like this as a parent um oh I do get a lot of besides good advice uh encouragement encouragement I'd say is number one thing for me fantastic fantastic and the big plus a big big plus today number one thing is meeting yall meeting your family actually getting to see Y in person that's awesome I've been watching y'all for many many years thanks for watching we love it love it and I enjoyed the conference so much I'm like why have I not been back because the first time I came to this conference was years ago before we had kids I came all by myself myself because you were pregnant with sa yes I was way pregnant with sa and couldn't walk around for a long time and so Mike went by himself to see what all this homeschooling stuff was about and at that time it really encouraged me that we can do it we can do the homeschooling thing with our children once they became of age to be able to do it and then as I try to leave the area let's just say it was like 14 15 years ago and I'm trying to figure out Google Maps Google Maps has come a long way since then because Google didn't want me to leave the area it kept sending me in circles and I was like I don't know where I am where do I go I was like I'm in a neighborhood I don't want to be in how do I get out of here so I'm like calling you up help me get out of here and so he's on the phone with me now this is a true test for your marriage like I mentioned earlier it was a challenge it was a test because he driving around Winston Salem he can't find like where to get on the interstate at the time and I have like the map of Winston pulled up so but he won't stop driving I couldn't stop it was like traffic's behind me I'm like I can't stop it's rush hour traffic is another thing I've been left at wrong time I'm like just find somewhere to park so I can figure out cuz once I figured out where he was he was in a different he had already turned and made another one and then he finally saw I think you saw an interstate sign for Interstate 40 and I was like just get on 40 until you run into 77 and then come home that way because there was no way that I was going to be able to politely tell him how to get home yeah it was a test of communication test of patience test of everything but finally I got out of there made it home I made it home and thankfully this time when we left the area it went a lot smoother someone was with him that wasn't with him before so don't leave me alone but and Google Maps has come a long way it has it has it has but attending this event this year really helped us out it kind of gave me just an extra boost that hey we kind of need to refine some things we need to do some things better and we can do it cuz we needed some encouragement and um looking forward to God willing being at the Thrive conference 2025 hope to see you guys there too come join us there come join us [Music]

Channel: The Fit Farmer - Mike Dickson

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Length: 26min 53sec (1613 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2024