About the Tri-Cities Midwinter Homeschool Convention and Book Sale

The heart of the Tri-Cities Midwinter Homeschool Convention and Book Sale is to encourage, equip and inspire home educating parents in the midst of the school year to be strong and courageous, to not tremble or be dismayed. It is no secret that many home educating parents suffer a tremendous amount of discouragement in the winter, especially after the holidays.

The school year stretches out before us and can often look as bleak as the winter landscape. When the enemy is trying to discourage us with distractions, his plans over the Lord’s plans, with that never ending whisper of threats and accusations to render us useless, it is a time to rebuild the wall and move forward, as Nehemiah did.

The Tri-Cities Midwinter Homeschool Convention and Book Sale is designed to be a time of refreshing in the Lord, to hearten, strengthen and embolden homeschool parents. If the Israelites could complete the wall, with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon, in only 52 days, we can borrow their endurance from scripture and persevere!

The heart of the Tri-Cities Midwinter Homeschool Convention and Book Sale is to bring new strength and courage, to invigorate and energize homeschool families and to boost enthusiasm and vision.

About the Founders: 

Lisa and Dave Baughn moved to Gray, TN, in April of 2006, fleeing the hustle and bustle and concrete jungle of Southern California. The Baughns have homeschooled for 8 years. They have adopted a “Lifestyle of Learning” educational style, with an Entrepreneurial flair, using some Charlotte Mason and Classical methods. They are passionate about living books!

In Southern California, they were spoiled by a plethora of great speakers, multiple conventions and opportunities to hear other homeschoolers speak. Over the years, they met and became friends with national homeschool speakers, hosting several in their home over the years. Each speaker changed their life a little bit, with nuggets of truth and encouragement, new methods to homeschool, a new perspective on a problem they were facing, encouragement to face high school, or how to deal with a child with massive learning disabilities. Time and time again, they found that the Lord would send just the person they needed, at the exact moment, to make it through that particular time and season in their homeschool journey. The Baughns are eternally grateful for the wisdom the Lord has put in the homeschooling community, which has changed the course of their family's lives forever and wanted to bring a taste of that to their new home in the Tri-Cities. 

Last winter, the Lord laid it on the Baughn's heart to create the first Tri-Cities Midwinter Homeschool Convention and Book Sale. Having only lived in the area for a few months, it was quite an obedience! In three short weeks, 12 booksellers were organized, 3 different speakers, and a homeschool convention was created with the goal to encourage and equip homeschool moms and dads in the winter doldrums, with all of the honor and glory going to the Lord. Homeschool parents came from all over the Tri-Cities, Tennessee all the way down to Knoxville, Virginia and North Carolina to be equipped, challenged and encouraged! It was an incredible day in the Lord!

We hope you will join us this year for an expanded convention!

We are praying for you and for your family ~

TEAM BAUGHN!
Dave, Lisa and Emily