Home School Conference

We went on our annual home school conference
trip this past weekend.
This was our third year.
The twins stayed with Grandma.
So, it was just Mommy, Daddy, and the oldest son.
He is 8 years old now.
My oldest enjoys the special weekend,
the conference always falls on his birthday weekend.
He participates in a children's program
while hubby and me get to pick and choose
from a variety of classes.

One class really sparked my interest,
The Struggling Reader.
I almost did not go because I thought it was
just one of those advertising classes trying
to sell their product.
And yes, they were advertising their product,
but that was not all.
It was a very informative class too.
The speaker and her husband are the developer.
They are experts, well educated in child education and reading.
They are also home school parents, a plus.
During her class, she went through the top five reasons for
reading struggles-
phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words,
fluency, and comprehension.
Phonemic awareness? Never heard of it?
Me either.
Instead of me fumbling through trying to explain it,
here is what the website
The Struggling Reader says, just click here.
The other 4 make sense too.
This was what I needed to hear.
My oldest struggles with his reading.
He is coming along, but slowly.
After this class, I think I have a better idea
of where to focus.
I would love to order all of their materials,
but they are a little pricey for our budget.
I do believe I will order the phonemic awareness test
because I believe that might be where
my son's weakness is.

One of the missions at the conference for my hubby and me was
to find a science curriculum for our son.
We both have science backgrounds
and were looking for something different
than what we used this past year.
My son enjoyed Apologia's Astronomy,
but he did not seem too interested in the others
they offer and really neither did we.
So, off we went on our hunt.
We found Real-Science-4-Kids and we were impressed.
The writer of these books has a biochemistry
background and is a home school parent.
My son is going to be taking chemistry, biology,
and physics this year...
the pre chemistry, pre biology, and pre phyics
that is.
I think my son will enjoy these.
Real-Science-4-Kids.

At the used book sale I had fun.
Spent 30 dollars and got lots of good books.
I just love looking through books.
Was able to find most of our American and World history
books. Also, most of our language arts.
Yeah.

My son's biggest find was in the form of
duct tape.
He bought a duct tape sword and a CD
that gives instructions on how to make a
duct tape shield, spear, and helmet.
Yeah him.

My hubby always enjoys the Creation Ministries
talks and purchased a few books
for his reading pleasures.

We spent Sunday at a local park,
very enjoyable.
Looking forward to next year.
We are taking the twins.
Yeah us.