Exhibitor Information
2008 Summer Homeschool Conference and Bookfair Exhibitor information is now available.
View: Exhibitor Information.

Speaker and Exhibitor Workshops
At each of NTHEN’s two annual conferences, attendees are provided with the opportunity to hear from speakers whose messages or product updates keep you encouraged and informed. For more information on NTHEN’s 2008 Conference Program of Speakers and Exhibitor Workshops, please view and download the conference program below.
Download: Schedule of Workshops Speakers.pdf

Used Book Sale Opportunity
Learn about the opportunity NTHEN has provided this year for you to sell all your used books at this pre-conference activity by viewing the following page.
Download: Used Book Sale Info [pdf]

About NTHEN’s 2008 Summer Homeschool Conference & Bookfair August 22-23 2008

Keynote Speaker

Our Keynote Speaker this year is Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., president of The Vision Forum Ministries, a discipleship and training ministry that emphasizes Christian apologetics, worldview training, multi-generational faithfulness, and creative solutions whereby fathers can play a maximum role in family discipleship. Doug is a very popular speaker at home education conferences and will speak a total of four times, a keynote session on Friday, August 22nd, and one on Saturday, August 23rd, PLUS a general workshop session on BOTH Friday and Saturday. You will not want to miss any of Doug’s messages, as they will all be encouraging, informative, and inspirational! A graduate of the George Mason School of Law, Doug is a constitutional attorney who served with the Home School Legal Defense Association for six years. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Apologetics for the Institute for Creation Research, and co-authored the book, Weapons of Our Warfare with ICR’s president Dr. John Morris. He is the author/editor of Robert Louis Dabney: The Prophet Speaks; Poems for Patriarchs; The Birkenhead Drill; The Letters & Lessons of Teddy Roosevelt for His Sons. Doug’s writings have appeared in numerous publications including WORLD, Acts and Facts, The Houston Chronicle, Education Reporter, Quit You Like Men, The Home School Court Report, The Teaching Home, Home School Digest, Home Schooling Today, Citizen Magazine, and Patriarch magazine. A strong advocate of mentorship, Doug has taught from his home intensive college-level, independent courses on apologetics, law, theology, and government to home school students and graduates. Doug and his wife, Beall, live with their seven children, Joshua, Justice, Liberty, Jubilee, Faith Evangeline, Honor, and Providence, in San Antonio, Texas.

Teen Program

This year’s Teen Program, for youngsters 13 – 19, has been created and is presented by Dr. Virginia Armstrong, president of Blackstone Institute, Abilene, Texas. Dr. Armstrong incorporates her many years of teaching at the college level to keep teens ENGAGED and WANTING to participate in her program.

Come and have your teenager join the team … The BLACKSTONE INSTITUTE’S TRUTH TRIATHLON TEAM to help them learn HOW to fight to REVIVE OUR NATIONS CONSTITUTION! Blackstone’s TRUTH TRIATHLON TEAM is a unique blend of: Academics, Articulation, and ACTION that is all combined to prepare teens to be effective soldiers in America’s Culture War. Our focus is on the Constitution, and a worldview as our framework.

Dr. Virginia Armstrong has had a distinguished academic career as Director and Senior Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. She now devotes her attention to the Eagle Forum’s Court Watch Project of which she is the National Chairman and to the Blackstone Institute, which she founded.

Dr. Armstrong also founded the Texas Undergraduate Moot Court Association and HSU Legal Studies Program and served as the first Chairman of each organization. As a college professor, Dr. Armstrong taught a number of advanced law courses, including constitutional history and law, legal philosophy, and the judicial process. She directed HSU’s federal court internship program and coached the University’s award-winning moot court team. And she drafted several of the cases argued in TUMCA tournaments across Texas, most notably those involving “homosexual rights” and the “right to assisted suicide.” Her students dubbed her “an intellectual Rambo.”

A high school and university honor graduate, Dr. Armstrong holds the Ph.D. in political science and public law. She wrote both her master’s degree thesis and doctoral dissertation on the U. S. Supreme Court. The Eagle Forum has twice granted her its National Service Award “with appreciation for your dedicated work for God, home, and country.” She received the Liberty Bell Award from the Abilene, Texas, Young Lawyers Association and was a finalist for the Texas Liberty Bell Award, given “to an outstanding non-lawyer for efforts in his/her community to strengthen the American system of justice.” She has won numerous scholarly and professional honors. Among these are listings in Outstanding Young Women of America, Outstanding Educators of America, and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (joining only 1% of America’s educators to be listed in consecutive editions of this publication, whose honorees are selected by outstanding students for “making a significant impact and difference in students lives").

Parents, BE SURE your teenagers are signed up EARLY to be part of Dr. Armstrong’s program at the NTHEN 2008 Summer Conference and Bookfair (ages 13-19). This will be a GREAT opportunity for them to begin their development and understanding of our nation’s greatness. In addition, it’s sure to be informative, inspiring, and lots of fun! Sign your teenager(s) up TODAY! Don’t delay! Register NOW!!

Children’s Program

Children’s Conferences, International will present their “Sword and the Soap” Program for children ages 5 –12. Children’s Conferences International (CCI) is one of the nation’s largest children’s event providers and has been in existence for eight years. They have conducted their children’s programs at local, state and national home education conventions, state and national church conventions, and church sponsored Vacation Bible Schools and camps, with attendance ranging from 25 to 1200 children!

The goal of all programs offered by CCI is to provide quality, Biblically-based, children’s programming to Christian events. These programs combine songs, stories, crafts, games, and Bible verses to teach the children concepts from God’s word.

The NTHEN 2008 Summer Conference and Bookfair Children’s Program Biblically-based theme is entitled, “The Sword and the Soap”, which teaches the POWER of God’s Word to protect us, to teach us, to clean our hearts, and for VICTORY … AND … the POWER of God’s Word when it is read, memorized, applied, and shared with others! ADVENTURE! MUSIC! SCRIPTURE MEMORY! OBSTACLE COURSE! VENTRILOQUISM are all used in this program. Your child(ren) are introduced to a variety of characters who are learning to apply God’s truth in a variety of unique (translate “funny") circumstances.

The Director of Children’s Conferences International is James Bonjour, who will be leading the two-day children’s program at our 2008 Summer Homeschool Conference and Bookfair.

James has worked with numerous children’s ministries over the past twelve years, most recently founding his own children’s conference ministry, Joyful Kids. He has also written and produced an audio drama series for kids, has been a Creation Zoo Tour Guide, been on staff at Summit Ministries, and holds a B.A. in Communications.

James brings his unique skills as a ventriloquist and storyteller to the CCI stage presentations, using humor and analogies to teach important lessons from God’s Word. Over the years thousands of children and youth have laughed, and learned, and been drawn into a closer walk with Christ.

Make SURE your child(ren) are part of this wonderful children’s program by signing them up TODAY! Don’t DELAY!  Parents, by registering your child(ren) for our Children’s Program, you agree to the medical release shown hereMedical_Release.pdf, which is for everyone’s protection!!

And so, NOW is the time to register your family to attend our 2008 Event, but please, READ THE FOLLOWING UPDATE FIRST because we want you to be as informed as possible about this major Home Education Event in north Texas. You are welcome to print the information on this page if that would be helpful to you. Also, we ask that you partner with us by passing the word about this event as much as you are able to do so, at your support group meetings, at church, with neighbors and friends. There are many, many families that NEED to attend this conference and YOU may be the conduit the Lord will use to inform someone or some family about this event! Thank you very much for your help in this way.

HSLDA Celebrates 25 years!

Plan on attending the special free reception sponsored by HSLDA celebrating their 25th year of service to Homeschoolers in Texas, throughout America, and around the world. Click here for more details about this celebration and to RSVP.

Online Conference Registration

This year, attendee conference pre-registration is all On-line; no paper registrations are available. If you are unable to access or process the on-line registration form, call the NTHEN office at 214-495-9600 and we will assist you. Please take a moment NOW to complete registrations for the adults, teens, and children that will be attending and we look forward to seeing you at the Conference! On-line registration will continue until 5:00pm, Wednesday, August 19, 2008. After that date, only At-The-Door registration will apply.

When and where do I register in person if I miss the on-line registration dates?

Conference registration takes place at the Plano Centre beginning at 8:30am on both Friday, August, 22 and Saturday, August 23, 2008. The Exhibit Hall is open each day from 9:00am – 5:00pm. Both the Teen Program and the Children’s Program begin at 8:30am and conclude at 5:30pm.

Host Hotel and Location

The host hotel for the 2008 Summer Conference & Bookfair is the Best Western Park Suites located at 640 Park Boulevard East, Plano, Texas, 75074. This beautiful, all suites facility offers many amenities, including a free continental breakfast buffet, free newspaper, exercise room and valet service. A virtual tour of this facility is available at www.bestwesternparksuites.com.

NTHEN has negotiated a special conference rate of $68.00, plus tax, per night for up to four people. Reservations are on a first come – first serve basis. To receive the NTHEN conference rate, you must call Lynn Koutney at (972) 578-2243 no later than July 22, 2008 and be prepared to guarantee your reservation with a major credit card. If you wish to arrive earlier than Thursday, August 21, 2008 or stay later than Saturday, August 22, 2008, please notify the hotel when you make your reservations.

Driving Information

The Conference will be held at the Plano Centre located at 2000 East Spring Creek Parkway, in Plano, Texas 75074, just one-quarter mile east of North Central Expressway (US 75) at Exit #31. The Plano Centre is approximately twenty miles north of downtown Dallas and is easily accessible to the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Address: 2000 East Spring Creek Parkway, in Plano, Texas 75074

Parking

Parking at the Plano Centre is FREE and PLENTIFUL! Also, your registration fee is for the entire two-day event and, as may be necessary, allows for you to leave and return to the conference without any surcharge fee required. Traveling to the conference by air? The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is served by two major airports, DFW International (airport code DFW) and Love Field (airport code DAL). If you are arriving by private aircraft, the Collin County Regional Airport in McKinney, Texas (airport code TKI) is nearest to the location of our conference. Rental cars are available from all of these airport locations.

Exhibitor Information for Attendees Approximately 100 conference exhibitors will be attending this conference to display, explain, and sell their home education materials. Some exhibitors will also be conducting workshops in private rooms at the Plano Centre to further detail their products/services. Detailed contact information on exhibitors will be found in the Conference Program, one of which you will receive at check-in, and on the NTHEN web site (http://www.nthen.org). Conference Attire Attire for all conference sessions is casual/business casual. The average temperature in Dallas in August is 91 degrees with lows in the 70’s. Rain is not common at this time of year but the weather can be fickle, so, be prepared and remember that old Texas saying, “If you don’t like the weather in Texas today, stick around until tomorrow because it probably will change”!

Emergency Contact Number

On the two days of our summer event, August 22 - 23, 2008, an emergency contact telephone number of 214-478-7770 will be operational.

Food Service

The Plano Centre requires that only food purchased from their authorized food service provider located within the Plano Centre can be consumed inside the building. You may bring your own food from home and eat it outdoors, or you may visit and eat at one of the many fast food providers located in close proximity to the Plano Centre. Please remember that absolutely no food or drink is allowed by attendees inside the Exhibit Hall.

Strollers

Baby strollers are permitted at this conference with our request that you please be gracious to other attendees by not blocking isles with your stroller.

Pets
Attendees my not bring animals of any kind into the Plano Centre except for those animals specifically trained to assist handicapped persons. Please advise the Registration Supervisor that you have need to bring and keep your pet with you throughout the Conference and a special authorization will be provided to you.