It smelled like books!

This weekend I attend the MidWest Homeschooling Convention. Oh. My. Gosh. I don't even know where to begin. Seriously. First of all, it was so refreshing to have some time to myself. I love my boys and I missed them a lot, but I truly needed some time to myself. It was amazing.

I have never been to a homeschool convention. I'm a homeschooling newbie for starters. At first, I was reluctant to spend the money and time away from the boys to go, but quickly realized that it was time and money very well spent. It was incredible. I only wish I knew how to not buy books. :)

I attended some great workshops. A lot of them really helped me see things from a new perspective and gave me a greater insight. Jessica Hulcey, by the way, is hilarious and practical. She gave me some of the greatest advice and I left her workshops with pages of ideas and notes that I am so excited to implement in our home. Amanda Bennett, while I did not meet her in a bathroom, is a truly amazing woman. I'm still humbled to have shared dinner across the table from her and her husband and can not wait to get started on some of her unit studies, as she is the go to gal for that!

And the books. The curriculum. The tools, the tips, the maps, everything. It's as if someone asked me what my dream day would be. :) Well, not really because my dream days are always days when I'm with all of my boys, but this was such a close second. I got to pick books up, look at them, flip through them, really look at the content and think "Would Adisson benefit from this? Could he learn from this? Is this his style?" It was incredible!

I did not buy curriculum. Well....sorta. I did buy a Bible study from Explorer's Bible study and also a First Steps in Faith Study from The Bennetts. But other than that, one of the best things I took away from the convention is the fact that I'm using the best thing for us already. Being a new homeschooler, I just want to be sure I'm doing the best I can to educate my son...well, that would be a true statement whether I was a new homeschooler or not. It's not that I've had doubts with what we're doing, but I need to know what else is available. There's always been a particular curriculum I've been interested in but I'm always in sticker shock. I listened to their workshop this weekend, stopped by their booth and held the books in my hands. And it's just not for us. What is for us is what we're doing!

I did find a few other things I'd like to purchase to help me teach Adisson some Science (it's an area of difficulty for me) and a few other things. But overall, I'm sticking with what we're using. We're a happy Five in a Row family and I'm pretty sure it's going to stay that way!!

Ok, I've got more to talk about but it's late, I'm exhausted and I want to sleep. More later....