This year all three of our girls are involved with Stoa – a national homeschool speech and debate club. The biggest event in our club calendar is the Arkansas Diamond national tournament. We will have over 300 High School students competing from about 11 states! In an effort to keep posts mixed between FamilyLife and our family, I thought you’d like to hear a bit about this upcoming event. My main area of responsibility is what is called Judges Hospitality. We invite local folks to our event to judge our students, and in return we provide snacks, drinks, and meals. That is where I come in! I will be organizing meals from 7am to 9pm for all 3 days of our tournament – Jan. 16-18. These days leading up to the event I go from store to store looking for after-Christmas deals or community donations to help defray the cost of this massive event. It is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. I have cleared out at least 3 Walgreens drug stores from their Christmas M&M supply to stock up for snacks:)
The girls are also doing quite a bit of prep for their competition – Charissa will be competing in 5 events, Brenna in 3 and Amanda in 2. Lots of memorizing and practicing going on here in the Riedy house. I remind them often that the reason behind our being involved with Stoa is at least two-fold: I think it is great academically, but there is also the aspect of them learning to speak clearly and present their ideas in order to defend their faith. I’m so proud of them all even before we begin to compete, since just getting up in front of the judges is an accomplishment in my book! Please keep us in prayer as we all prepare for this big event – and also for Eric as he wraps up year-end events as FamilyLife and seeks to help with the tournament as well.