NCHE Conference

We attended the NCHE conference this year.  I've been going to this conference yearly since 1998.  For 10 of those years I worked as a vendor which I loved.  I do miss the opportunity to share at the conference about Five in a Row.  Attendance was down this year.  Not sure if this is a new trend or just reflective of this year.  I hope the latter.

The fun group I went with.  This was a video - so just a snapshot of that.  LOL  

The girls enjoyed the book fair.  Rebecca selected many new books to read.  Most are classics - Moby Dick, The Iliad, Scarlet Pimpernel, Pride and Prejudice and many more.  I love that she likes reading so much!  

They also enjoyed the teen events such as the dance.

Hanging out with friends before going to the Talent show.

This year, I spent a lot of time in the book fair.  One day with a new homeschooling friend helping to encourage her as she starts on this journey.  I remember a friend doing this with me and its fun to help others!  This is the lower half of our vendor hall.  We had many wonderful vendors.  I don't like the trend that I'm seeing though of more non homeschooling specific vendors being in the hall.  I also miss some of the vendors that we used to have, but know that its just gotten too expensive for many of these homeschoolers to travel and attend conferences.

One of the things I love about the book fair is seeing new products that I am not familiar with.  One of my friends spotted this!  We are going to be studying WWII next year in depth.  This game looks wonderful!  I didn't buy it yet, but I think I'm going to.  (And from the vendor that was at the book fair. Higher sales from conferences encourages vendors to continue to come back.)

 Buying new art supplies is always a treat.  We continue to pray for the Miller family in the loss of Randy Miller.

 Love hanging out with my friends!  Thankful for the sweet ones that God has placed in my life on this journey.  It is so much more fun with them there to encourage, motivate and just enjoy life with!

My cart met its demise in the foot of a teenager.  I had it in the aisle after the keynote and he went right into it.  It served its time well and thankfully I was able to find a replacement in the book fair!

The girls remembered how cold it has been in years past and came prepared with blankets this year.  ALL of us were glad for these during the workshops!  It was really cold this year!

 The girls also enjoyed the college fair.  (That's Rebecca waving.)  I can't believe its already that time.  I'm glad that there are so many schools who are excited about having homeschoolers attend.

 Friends help make life sweeter, funnier and just better overall.  I'm glad we have a great group of friends.

I'll probably post more on what we will be doing next year in another post (later in the summer).  We are using many of the same things - Five in a Row, MathUSee, Handwriting without Tears, Notgrass History, Apologia, etc.  The really new venture for our family will be doing a WWII study on our own.  I've found some great books to use and am excited about this venture.  When Joshua asked me what he would be doing next year, I told him WWII - and an little of the history that leads up to it.  He then asked "all year?"  When I said yes, he gave me a great big hug!  That makes it worth the work!  I love that we can focus on their interests and dig deeper into topics that they want to learn about.  I have a lot of work to do.  I'm glad for a break in the summer to do some planning and also looking forward to the next year.

Blessings

Leslie