My First Homeschool Convention

I went to the Washington Homeschool Organization homeschooling convention on June 17. I would have gone alone, but was very thankful that my good friend K, who has been homeschooling for years, went with me. I loved having her (and another friend of hers) as a sounding board. I really did my research ahead of time. I checked out all of the workshops/seminars, and made choices about which ones I wanted to attend, and which ones I definitely wanted to miss. I looked up Web sites for every vendor I could on the exhibitor list. Again, marking the list for who to skip and who I thought were must-sees. I had done a lot of curriculum research too, so I had a list of stuff I definitely wanted to try to get. I am glad I was so well prepared.

I was pretty surprised at how many of the vendors were selling Christian faith-based curricula. I knew that MANY homeschoolers choose this alternative for religious reasons, but I still figured the WHO convention in the liberal Pacific Northwest would have a roughly equal representation of more secular wares. I would say it was more like 30-35% secular or Christian companies selling merchandise that was not faith based.

I did find everything on my list though. In the end I couldn’t commit on a math curriculum, so I just got the abacus and the little preschool intro song book from RightStart. I made one relative “impulse” purchase from a vendor I had on my list to check out (and go to their workshop). I liked what I saw from WriteShop, and I like the idea of starting that so young, even if it means the kids just dictate their writing to me. I came home with WriteShop Primary A. The items from my list that I purchased include Five In A Row (vol. 2), a world map, All About Spelling Level 1, Developing the Early Learner, and Artistic Pursuits.

I also picked up a couple inexpensive, fun science books. C1 loves science, but I haven’t found anything structured that trips my trigger. I figure between what we cover in FIAR and all the Magic School Bus books we read, even a little more is much more science than the average preschooler or Kindergartner gets.

Now I just need to figure out how to “schedule” it all into our weeks without feeling overwhelmed and overworked. I want this to be fun, and I want to make sure that C2 is getting everything he needs too. Wish us luck!