ICHE Responds

ICHE Responds

Thank you for submitting your evaluations after this year’s conference. We’ve read every one. Thank you for your encouragement and thoughts, and please know we value your input!

There were some comments and questions that we wish we could chat about personally, but because they were anonymous, we are unable to do so. However, we would like to address a few of the most prevalent concerns.

Vendors: “more vendors”, “It seemed that there were much fewer exhibitors this year which was disappointing.”, “re-invite vendors who attended in the past like; My Fathers World, Miller Paper Pad, Nature Workshop, Brinkman Adventures”

Believe it or not, we had more vendors at the conference this year than the last couple years, but we completely agree with so many of you who miss some of the big favorites. Every year we send out hundreds of invites to vendors, including the ‘favorites,’ but for a variety of reasons (timing, expense, internet sales) some have not been able to attend. We would love for you to join us in letting your favorites know that we’d like to have them at the 2024 ICHE Homeschool Conference by contacting them yourselves. And be sure to buy from our vendors to encourage them to keep coming. We welcome new vendor ideas, too, just send website info to vendors@iche.org.

Speakers: “Would love to see___”, “We loved___”, “Someone from___”, “If___ could return again that would be amazing!”

The conference committee spends many months preparing for the conference each year with the bulk of that time on speaker and workshop selection. Much time and prayer goes into the process. Our desire is to have a quality line-up that meets many needs – from academics to discipleship, special needs to worldview. We spend time evaluating each speaker on what needs they can fill. Some speakers are more expensive than we feel would be a good use of the resources God has provided ICHE. We do welcome suggestions and are happy to check them out so thanks for suggesting!

Children: “Have childcare”, “If wanting it to be more family oriented, please have activities or a camp of some sort for the younger kids!”, “This year seemed to have a lot of disruptive babies in the sessions.”

This is a tough one, because there are so many perspectives. ICHE’s annual conference focuses on encouraging and equipping parents in home discipleship, so that is the first priority for how we decide what goes into each conference. We believe that family discipleship starts with talking and modeling Jesus in front of our children. At times separating parents and children is helpful, but we do not believe that is the best format for our conference. We would rather see parents and children learning and growing together, not separately. At the same time, parents have the freedom to make other arrangements for their kids. Children are welcome, but not required. Many spouses find the conference a good time for a kid-free getaway (and yes, we know that not everyone has grandparents, aunts/uncles, or friends readily available). For those that want their kids present, we encourage parents to think of others in how they supervise their children’s behavior. One of the reasons grandparents are free to attend is to help with their grandkids. Ultimately, though, those are choices that moms and dads need to make. For parents new to home discipleship (or even new to Jesus) that is a challenging part of the growth and discipleship process. We do request parents to remove noisy kids from sessions, while also encouraging those more mature in their faith and their home discipleship journey to give grace as needed.

Coffee/Snacks: “A concessions/snack booth in or close to the vendor hall! Having a place where attendees can get snacks through the day would be a great addition.”, “Snacks! Please provide some kind of snack.”, “The coffee was much appreciated”, “Basic concessions for a quick grab snack and coffee”

Our hands are tied on this one being on a college campus that has an outside food service provider. We work with them each year and have hopes of adding snacks for next year, but no promises. (We do apologize for the empty coffee dispensers this year – we’ll try to keep track of it better next year.)

Date of the Conference: “it would be super helpful to have this in January or earlier”, “Move the conference dates back a couple of weekends”, “I like the mid- and late-May dates, but I understand ICHE has no control over that”

Comment writer – you are correct! ICHE is very thankful for our host, Olivet Nazarene University, but our conference is only one of many events they host. We have to fit into their calendar and are thankful we continue to do so.