handsful

This weekend, we all piled in the van and pointed it toward the NC Homeschool conference in Winston-Salem. With the exception of our years in FL (where we attended the FL conference), we’ve been to this one every year since our homeschooling years began back in 2001.

I remember that first conference well. Walking into the HUGE book fair with miles and miles (well, maybe I’m exaggerating) of tables full of colorful books, curriculum, and manipulatives, etc. I stared at my veteran-homeschooling sister-in-law and begged her to just tell us what to buy for our rising kindergartner! Seems like eons ago…

Most of the time, we only stay one night. This year, because the big kids were volunteering in the Children’s Conference going on during our conference, we stayed both Thursday and Friday nights (they had to report for duty EARLY both mornings…). And, because Lainey and Dylan were participants in the children’s conference, Randy and I were able to spend tons of time in wonderful workshops, hearing great speakers enlighten and encourage us in this homeschooling journey. Not to mention, the book fair…where everything looks great and the temptation to buy it all can be overwhelming!

One part of the conference we really enjoy is catching up with old friends. Friends like Val, Shelley, Julie, Rebecca, Terri…ladies that I’ve known since before I even had kids. Then, when we began starting our families, we began homeschooling them together. Our first co-op was known as “His Kids” and we met at Shelley’s house with all of our preschool aged kids and babies. The picture above is our kids posing with some of their “old” friends – since baby-hood. We watching parenting videos while Abbey and the boy beside her played on the carpet :)

This year was very different for the big kids…they had jobs to do. Report for duty before 8am each day, and work a VBS-type program with the younger kids…they worked hard, were wiped out by the end of it, but loved (most) every minute of it. The program director (above in the white shirt) is already campaigning for them to help out with a conference in SC. They made a great impression and that makes us very proud.

A fellow volunteer that Abbey became friends with…they’re both loud and crazy, so they got along swimmingly. And, are now FB friends, of course.

Once we arrived home on Saturday, we all sat in the living room and went through everything that we purchased. We’re excited about a worldview curriculum from Summit Ministries (www.summit.org), a DVD program on God’s view of economics, and a DVD series called “Do the Right Thing” by Chuck Colson. We also bought reading and math work for the littles, devotionals for the guys and girls, a cookbook and book on homesteading (gotta learn how to can veggies!), SAT vocabulary and math prep books, books for pleasure reading, pattern blocks and cards for the littles, etc etc! Some things we’ll begin using a little this summer, most is for the fall.

Homeschooling year 11 is almost under our belts. When we began, we had no plans to continue through high school…not that we weren’t open to it, it’s just that we were taking it one year at a time. Here we are now, with a rising 11th and rising 9th graders (not to mention rising 1st and K). It’s not always been easy, and we’ve had trying years, especially those when we’ve moved. But, it’s still the best decision for our family. So far so good :)