A Few Words About The Home School Conference

Well, we survived our second home school conference. Matter of fact we enjoyed it.
With my book needs list in hand, I was not so overwhelmed by the vendor hall. Now, that does not mean I was not lured to a few of the beautiful packaged curriculums available. I talked to a man at the Violin.com booth for an hour knowing I was not going to nor could afford the curriculum that comes with a new violin. But, picturing my sons playing violins was fun. Maybe later.
I did buy one not planned curriculum that I am excited about. It is called My State History Funbook for ages 3-10 by Joy Dean(www.statehistory.net). It is an introductory to your state's history with brief cut and paste activities. The cost, drum roll......$12.50! They have a study of the fifty states, but I thought it was a little too much for my oldest right now, but I will be looking for it next year.
Another vendor that caught my eye was the BreadBeckers (www.breadbreckers.com). This booth had my name written all over it. I had mostly steered away from seminars put on by vendors, but not this one. I could go on and on about the BreadBeckers, but to put it shortly and in my own words, they believe in "daily" bread. Healthy bread, not your traditional white bread. They are a Christian, home schooling family. Through their business they sell healthy breads and spread God's word too. I bought several books they were selling at their booth, What the Bible Says About Healthy Living by Rex Russell, M.D. and Natural Meals in Minutes by Rita Bingham, plus a couple of the BreadBecker's recipe books. Yes, I was hooked, but this is a topic I have always been interested in and here it was in front of me. I know that God says a lot about our diets in the Bible, I just never took the time to really read about it. I am looking forward to learning and maybe learn to be more healthy about our foods.
Now, on to the used book sale. I had a number on my badge, that number was 85. Boy, I had no idea how good having a number 1-100 was til the used book sale. Last year I just had a time on my badge for when I could go the the used book sale so this was new to me. The first 100 are the first allowed in the used book sale room! The sale started at 10am and people were lining up as early as 9am. Since I had a number and my number was 1-100, I got to be in the first group of people to go in. Of course, we had to line up in number order, who cares, I was in the first group. Let me tell you, people take this seriously. People had big carts on rollers and made sure everybody in this first group was number order. Then we were off...... The run to the books was funny to me and I actually laughed, but not out loud, no sir. People were grabbing and putting things in their carts, things I knew they didn't need. Some ladies carts were so full, I knew the carts would break. After their carts were full, they would go to the sides of the room and look through what they have, if they needed it they kept it, if not they put it back or see if any of their friends needed it. Some worked in packs. It was fun. I bought 6 books. I got to check out in the express line. My cost $18.00. My best find was a book full of paper dolls. Paper dolls, yes, I have all boys, but these paper dolls were Civil War soldiers. How fun.
The speakers were great. Mike Smith, President of HSLDA spoke and was very informative. He talked about the home schooling laws in our state and the future of home school nationally. He talked about the threats from the UN on our parental rights. This scared me and this threat is real. More on that later.
My oldest enjoyed his time in the Little Patriots program. The youth that lead this program are great role models. They put on a little program at the end of the conference. Too cute.
All in all it was a great conference. I highly recommend if a home school conference comes near your home town, do try to attend. Many blessings.