IHM Conference Notes - Kenneth Davison - 10 Tips to Capture Your Child's Imagination for Christ

This was my first time hearing Mr. Davison and I enjoyed his talk. This Rhodes Scholar, co-founder of the The Envoy Institute and homeschooling father of 8 sparked my imagination with his topic on imagination.

Ten Tips to Capture Your Child’s Imagination for Christ
Home education is incomplete without active steps to inspire your child’s imagination with the wonder and joy of the Faith. Imagination is the gateway to your child’s intellect, but it is often left neglected in the pursuit of knowledge and facts. Obtain practical insights from great Catholic thinkers to feed young imaginations with beauty, truth, and goodness.

Here are my notes, taken during his talk....

• Aquinas - soul understands nothing without imagination
• Read Chesterton on imagination
• Pope Benedict XVI said Saints are people of imagination and Hope is based on imagination
• C. S. Lewis said reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning
• Mary speaks, in her Magnificat,  of how God uses imagination  
• We must train our imaginations to the True, Good and Beautiful
• When we hear a homily why to we have less patience for its length but we can listen and watch a whole movie?
• We need to train to listen actively!
• Children need to hear Bible stories, fairy tales and memorize poetry to feed their imagination
• Piano lessons, listening to classical music and looking up info in encyclopedia rather than google all lead to furthering imagination
• Our children need heroes. Military heroes, like Christ, lay down their lives for others. (We Were Soldiers movie)
• Be joyful parents, assume goodwill - not cynicism and let them see you grateful
• Keep death before your eyes, the life in the world to come
• Their imaginations will be fed by how you treat your spouse and how you encourage vocations

To hear this and other talks from IHM National Catholic Homeschool & Parenting Conference see LINK. 

Mr. Kenneth Davison was a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. He was a Rhodes Scholar and earned a Master of Arts from Oxford University and a Master in Theological Studies from Ave Maria University.
During his business career, Ken has been an Air Force Officer, a brand manager at Procter & Gamble, a marketing and business development executive for several public and private companies, Vice President of College Relations for Belmont Abbey College, the creator several radio programs including “Glory Stories” and “The One-Minute Monk.” He continues to do business consulting.
Ken Davison is the co-founder with Patrick Madrid of The Envoy Institute, a nationwide outreach teaching Catholics to better understand, defend and share their faith, for which he currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. He is also the founder and President of Holy Heroes (www.HolyHeroes.com) which provides fun and catechetical products to help parents “bring the joy of the Faith to their families.”
Ken speaks at Catholic conferences about family life issues, especially about the role of a father and husband in leading and developing his children’s Catholic Faith and nurturing a Christian imagination in today’s toxic culture. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including the Knights of Columbus online magazine, Fathers for Good, This Rock, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, and others.
Living in North Carolina with his wife Kerri, Ken is a proud homeschooling father of eight children.