Homeschool Conventions...Love 'em or Hate 'em

The Midwest Homeschool Convention is currently taking place in our fine City of Cincinnati. I personally love-hate a good convention. The bigger and more overwhelming, the better. Or worse. I hit the one in Atlanta two years in a row as a 'baby' homeschooler a few years ago. I was on absolute information overload on my first one. I went into the exhibit hall and almost got lost in all the...well...stuff that's 'out there'. I attended as many seminars as I could and wandered the endless sea of vendor booths during the seminar breaks. I can honestly say that my brain was absolute mush by the time I left each evening!

But I left the convention itself very inspired, with a direction and purpose as a new homeschool Mama. I didn't even make a curriculum purchase that year! I am a "take what you like and leave the rest" kind of gal, so I feel I got tons of positive information and direction and really didn't think about the negatives. The second year was the same way.

The upcoming Midwest Homeschool Convention was the topic of hot debate on one of the homeschool e-lists I'm on. The moderator was banning the convention as a topic, as she considered it spam because you have to pay to get in the convention, the vendors are non-locals who swoop in to gather as much money as possible and get the hell outta town as fast as they can. Overpriced stuff, and the vendors give the false impression that you have to spend money to properly educate your kids, etc. Which is all 100% true at these things. I think the secret is to know better before you go in. Yes, you can be a great teacher and have great success at homeschooling without curriculum, laminated maps, the latest software, or whatever.

One of my biggest irritations at these things is that most of the products have a religious slant. Not that I have anything against religion, because I happen to be a Christian. But I think all that religious stuff perpetuates the myth that all people homeschool for religious reasons. Which is totally untrue. Plus, I find that much of the Christian theology pushed in the products/curriculum emphasize theories that I don't subscribe to. Creationism, for example. I don't know how the world began, since I wasn't there. I definitely am sure it is all God-made, in His own due time. However, I'm relatively sure that it's older than five thousand years. (A field trip to the Grand Canyon, anyone???) Oddly enough though, I use Sonlight, a Christian-based curriculum. And I like it! Ahh...I'm an enigma wrapped up in a mystery. Sonlight has so much more to offer than religious theology. But that's a whole different blog entry. Be all that as it may, I still love-hate a good homeschool convention.

I knew I was going to have a hard time getting a whole day to myself because Lawrence is so little. Phillip kind of runs out of ideas with babies when they stop giggling, have eaten, been changed, burped and are still sort of fussy. So I decided to forego the seminars and such on Fri and Sat, and only go to the exhibit hall vendor area on Thursday night. There was a fifteen dollar entry fee to 'shop', which I sort of resent. I'm not a 'lookie-loo' sort of person at these things. I had a few things in mind that I wanted to purchase, plus I was more than open to the impulse buy if it was something interesting and at a good price. I really could've used that fifteen bucks to buy something else fun for school! Oh, well...

Phillip came down with a terrible cold, flu or something around Monday or Tuesday. He got progressively worse and by Thursday, he could hardly get himself down the stairs. (Ultimately diagnosed as Bronchitis as of this afternoon.) So I dosed him up with some cold medicine, and headed out WITH the kids. Archie's baseball practice lasted until 6:30, so by the time we got downtown and parked that only gave me two hours to do the whole vendor hall! Archie is quite a little shopper, so I had a hard time breezing past all the stupid crap I didn't want to see, because he wanted to see it all!

For those who haven't been to one of these things before, there are rows and rows and rows of little booths of folks selling just about anything that has to do with schooling. I only got half way through the vendors. They made an announcement that they would be closing the hall promptly at 9 and sure enough, if they didn't shut down the lights right at 9!

I did make a few purchases there, although I would've loved to spent a little more time chatting up a few of the vendors. One of the things Archie hates most is writing. I've tried lots of things to make it fun, to no avail. So I'm trying a different approach with a program called "Stack The Deck". We'll see how it goes. If it doesn't work out, I'm only out thirteen bucks.

We ended up with a new Usbourne book (I love, LOVE Usbourne) about the human body. Archie has been very interested in how the body works lately and has been checking several books out at the library about the skeletal, circulatory and muscular systems. This particular book has flaps to lift up (Do you want to know what organs are contained within the rib cage?) with information and great pictures. We also got a puzzle game that he doesn't know about yet because he was so into the book that he didn't see me add that to my purchase.

I wanted to purchase a couple of the Explode the Code series books, but the line to check out was too long and I had precious little time. So I'll order those online. I also looked at our next math workbook we will be needing for our Singapore Math.

Sadly, our time came to an end too soon and the Convention Center people obnoxiously turned out the lights on us. And after I had given them the fifteen bucks for the privilege of milling around their space so that I might spend EVEN MORE money there! The nerve!!! I would go back, but I don't wanna pay full convention admission price in order to spend even more money to the vendors. So screw 'em.

But we did see some really cool products that I would love to get. I guess the measly two hours we spent will have to hold me til next year. Or perhaps Atlanta in July??? I dunno. Some folks love the conventions, some folks hate them. I kind of love-hate them. If you homeschool and have never been, you should do it at least once in your life. Leave the kiddos at home so you can take your time. Or bring the kiddos and call it school. Chock it up to life experience learning.

The good news is that the Scholastics Warehouse sale in West Chester is coming up the first week in May. 80 percent off retail!!! Happy Day!!! I'll be there with bells on!!!