This past weekend was a wonderful one for this homeschooling momma. A week ago Thursday I headed out on the road with 7 homeschooling friends. We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us as we headed to the Midwest Homeschooling Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. What a blessing that trip was!
I have been to the big homeschooling conference here in Michigan for 2 years and I thought that was large. It has NOTHING on the event in Ohio. It was amazing to be with more than 15,000 homeschoolers and listen to some very uplifting and encouraging talks. The seminars ran ALL day starting at about 8:30 am and running till 9:30 pm.
The vendor hall was amazing. What a joy to be able to see curriculums I have heard about and leaf through them. I left the Queen Homeschooling Supplies booth with 2 new literature guides to follow our historical study next year. Here is a photo of about 1/4 of the vendor hall! Can you believe that!!!???
But most exciting to me was to meet Marie Rippel. Marie wrote our spelling program. If someone would have told me 5 years ago that I would be excited to meet the author of a spelling program, I would have laughed in their face! When Sissy was in public school, spelling was a subject that would make her cry almost nightly. She still struggles and is certainly not up to grade level, however, she is doing much better and never complains since we have been working with All About Spelling. As a matter a fact, she said she was "jealous" that I would get to meet her. It was Sissy that asked for a photo of her. So, here it is....
I sat through many seminars about writing and the what to expect at certain ages, how to adore the child in your home that loves to argue, cause trouble, throw fits, etc. :) And, I really enjoyed listening to Michelle Duggar speak to us. YES, Michelle Duggar. The mom with 19 children! She was soft spoken and under control, yet she talked with us about a time when she was not always so "peaceful" in her parenting. It was a talk that I took much from.
I addition to enjoying some wonderful wisdom and advice, I was able to meet Sweet Baby's pen pal from the American Heritage Girls program. Their family lives in Cincinnati and homeschools as well. Her mother and I were able to meet for a few minutes. Imagine my excitement when I realized she had brought her daughter with her. What a cutie!
I'll share more in another post about our trip to the Creation Museum.
