Last year, we were undecided if homeschool was a right fit for our family. We attended the free how to workshops and we were encouraged and filled with so much information. We met so many people in the same boat as us~ undecided. I also had some self doubts on my part- would I be a good teacher? Could I really do this? We decided to make the leap with Kevin and we are so glad we did. We started off to a rocky start but hey we were new at this. Now, we are very excited that Nathan has decided to join us in this homeschool adventure. So, we will have everyone home next year. Kevin will be in 11th grade, Nathan in 4th grade and Little Michael will start Pre-K:)
Any who, back to the convention. We were excited to be able to attend the homeschool convention this year. We were- well I was very excited that the Duggar family was going to be there and was going to giving a Keynote speech. Their testimony was awesome and the kids all sang, played their instruments and even had a book signing later that day. The only catch, we were assigned the 8:30am Keynote. Meaning we would have to get up at 4am, get ready and make sure we left the house no later than 6am to be in Richmond at 7am, find a place to park, find the convention center and then pick up our name tags and tickets. That was a long but exciting day.
We attended several workshops- wish we could have attended more. We learned about Dual Credits and went to an awesome workshop by Jonathon Brush about the first year of college for less than $1000. Very encouraging. After that workshop it was lunch time- we walked to the van and had our already packed lunch since the convention center didn't allow outside food. After lunch, we made a mad dash to the used curriculum sale. That was huge. I only expected to find a few things here and there. I had my paper in hand and off we went. We ended up finding half of homeschool curriculum for Nathan and Kevin. The prices were more than 50% less than the cheapest price I could get it for- yay:) We had so much fun and luck finding things that we totally missed our 2nd workshop- oops:)
We did make it to our 3rd and final workshop for the day~ 10 Marriage Myths that will steal your joy by Heidi St. John. I am so glad that hubby and I sat in on this one. It gave us a chance to reconnect and realize the importance of our marriage. We both lead busy lives but we need to make time to re-find our love. We were head over heels in love when we first got married and kind of got lost along the way. Now, we are headed back to that loving feeling and really appreciating each other:)
The second day of convention was great. We attended 3 workshops all by the same couple- Steve and Annette Economides. Not sure if you have heard of them or not. I have 2 of their 3 books- loved reading their books and will be going back to reread America's Cheapest Family Get You Right on the Money and Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half. Their 3rd and latest book, The Money Smart Family System is on my Christmas wish list:)
We had the pleasure of "following" them around from workshop to workshop to workshop. When I had chance to talk with Annette, I joked that we were the family stalking her- LOL:) She giggled. She was so sweet and down to earth and signed my book:
Here are some pictures I took of the Duggar family on our first convention day:
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| Color Guard |
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| Duggar family singing |
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| Michelle Duggar leading the kids through a memory bible verse |
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| During their testimony |
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| Duggar kids playing instruments |
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| Michael & I with Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar |
We learned so much from the workshops we attended. We left feeling good and blessed. We cannot wait to get started with our next year of homeschooling:) And cannot wait for the next Homeschool convention next year.
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