Conference fun

The conference in Modesto was great fun. I worked at the Peace Hill Press table, answering questions about their products and about homeschooling in general. It was an encouragement to meet so many intelligent, thoughtful, and conscientious moms and dads.

My family came and joined in the fun for the afternoon on Friday. Some of them went to hear Susan Wise Bauer speak, and the two youngest got the rare treat of a children's program. Whatever else the children's program provided, the obstacle course was the big winner. Huge smiles and excited chatter greeted me when they returned.

My oldest son spent his time helping my friend Marcia, founder of Brimwood Press. It was fun to be answering questions at one table and to be able to see my own son helping out in the booth around the bend.

My favorite products from Brimwood Press are the timeline and What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization. My struggle with timelines has been where to put them when we aren't working on them. I don't have the wall space for a long one, but any that come in book form don't give us the visual span of time that I find so helpful. Marcia's timeline is thirteen feet long, but it rolls up on dowels like a scroll; this makes it both visually effective and practical for storage. It's beautiful, comes with pages and pages of stickers, and the paper is very durable. Highly recommended.

What Every Child Needs to Know covers 5,000 years of history in fourteen lessons using the development of the calendar as the central story. Since we cover history chronologically, it has been great to take time out for fourteen lessons that quickly cover the span of history. We've gotten the big picture, and that helps as we go back to ancient times and begin our many year history scope and sequence. The hooks are in place in our minds, giving us a place to hang the detailed accounts we read and write about. Full disclosure: my husband wrote the last two lessons for What Every Child Needs to Know, so of course I love it.

For more Brimwood Press product information, look here.

And no conference is complete without time with friends.

Kate, Heather and I (left) enjoy life together locally as often as we can. I can always count on much laughter and very stimulating conversation with these dear ladies. Susan and I (right) manage to see each other almost annually at a conference here or a conference there. She provided plenty of the aforementioned laughter and conversation, along with excellent meals as compensation for my work at the vendor table. My friendship cup runneth over!

I'm not always refreshed when I return from a conference, but this year was a win-win of participation. Both CCHE's spring conference and this week-end's Modesto conference had great speakers and were run smoothly. It's a lot of hard work to put on a well-run conference, so thanks to all the folks who do such a great job.



Oh, yes, the vendors were excellent as well. I made good use of any free time I had, and I found everything on my list and a handful of extras. Math-U-See , Beautiful Feet Books, Miller Pads and Paper and BooksBloom (used book seller) were the productive stops on my quick spin through the hall. It's a good thing I am cleaning the joint out this week. Our bookshelves need to stretch to accommodate the new residents.