Summer 2017

HOMESCHOOLIOWA.ORG

n my bookshelves are journals and planners filled with

notes I have taken at homeschool conferences and meet-

ings; ideas which I plan to research. Some ideas I have im-

plemented, and some have been repeated in those notebooks

more than once and I still haven’t gotten to them. I fill notebooks

with aspirations and ideas, and I’m always hopeful I will get to it

someday.

When registration for this year’s NICHE Conference came

around, I didn’t hesitate to sign up. Even if it was in Coralville,

ninety miles from home, AND even if I had plenty of pages full

of ideas which could keep me busy having my own mini-confer-

ence with myself.

The NICHE Conference is a time to be with my kind of people,

my tribe, my community. I can let my guard down at the NICHE

Conference. I don’t have to explain myself so my listener knows

when I make a joke about my kids teaching themselves, I really

don’t mean they are teaching themselves. I don’t have to be

apologetic or defensive when I’m talk-

ing about homeschooling when I’m at

the NICHE Conference.

When I’m surrounded by this group

of people, we understand we are all

trying to grow, and teaching our kids

means we are teaching ourselves. The

meeting friends in the hall between

workshops fills my heart as much as

the sessions. When I sit in workshops,

my heart swells to see parents fever-

ishly taking notes adding to their own

collection of notebooks.

When guest speaker, Todd Wilson,

makes a joke about a homeschool truth, it feels good to laugh,

even though literally I was crying to my husband about the exact

same downfall three weeks earlier. In this community, I take com-

fort I’m not an oddity, we are all in the same boat, and life is not

the highlight reel. We are in the trenches, and it’s the real thing.

I want someone to speak Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit

boldly into my life from the platform with practical tangible ap-

plication to my homeschool life. I want Christ to be glorified. I

want my armor shined and the dents buffed out when I’m at the

conference.

This year I was encouraged because as I sat on the patio one

evening and an assortment of homeschool parents came out to

relax and fellowship – homeschool pioneers now helping with

homeschooling their grandchildren, parents with teenagers

helping in the conference, and moms with little ones I realized

I would have missed these stories if I were in Des Moines be-

cause I would have jetted home when the conference was over

to fix dinner and take care of the family. Here I was in awe of the

parents who were homeschooling when homeschooling wasn’t

cool, when homeschooling was actually very difficult and ostra-

cized them from their community.

There are homeschoolers all over the state of Iowa who have

been traveling to homeschool events for over twenty years. I

don’t think of this because I’m fromDes Moines. Everything hap-

pens here. Others are used to packing up the family and having

overnight stays. It’s part of their homeschool story. They find it

important to their homeschool well-being.

Juggling to get myself to the conference was not easy. My

plans were pretty fluid until the week before on how I was go-

ing to get there. I roomed with another awesome mom, and we

talked homeschooling even after we had lights out and were in

bed. As the conference rolled on, I was reminded this is beautiful

and I need this. I called my husband to thank him for letting me

come and also make a request: I would love to be with him at the

conference next year.

In a grand display of opposites, I attended the conference in

Coralville Friday and Saturday, and then on Monday morning

I was in downtown Des Moines at the Iowa State Capitol. The

Iowa Legislature’s Government Over-

sight Committee was interviewing an

array of departments and speakers

and Homeschool Legal Defense Asso-

ciation attorney, Scott Woodruff, was

representing the side of homeschool-

ing. The room was abuzz with media

and special interest attendees.

So one day I was celebrating being

a homeschooler, and two days later I

was praying for our rights to home-

school to stay intact as we know them

today. The crux of the committee

meeting was not homeschooling, but

it was one of the layers. Not everyone is in favor of homeschool-

ing, and some of those are our elected representatives. So while

we can enjoy our freedom, we also have to be vigilant to guard

it and be informed.

We need the NICHE Conference, in whatever town it may be

in, to remind us we have a community which is actually so much

bigger than the one we live in day-to-day. We need to be re-

minded of the bigger vision. We need these lessons and remind-

ers to strengthen our resolve.

Trust me, I came away with more notes and things to do, but I

came away with the deep sense that homeschooling is my call-

ing, and if I have to fight for it, I will. If the Lord has called you,

He will equip you. And the NICHE Conference is a key catalyst

in equipping me. Thank you, NICHE, for being faithful to bring

good speakers, to bring truth and teaching to our homeschool-

ing lives. See you next year.

Crystal Wieland is wife to Jason and mom and teacher to Isaiah, 11

years old and Justice 4 years old. She lives in Urbandale where she went

to high school and college, and didn’t know homeschooling existed.

She is thankful she knows now. She serves on the Board for Home Edu-

cators for Excellence in Des Moines (HEED). Her life verse is Psalm 27.

NICHE Annual Conference

More than just a place to gather notes, plans, and ideas

BY CRYSTAL WIELAND

“We need the NICHE Conference...

to remind us ~ we have a

community which is actually

so much bigger than the one

we live in day-to-day.

We need to be reminded of

the bigger vision.”