How wonderful a trip! From the car ride, to the Motel, the the Fab Convention / Conference...we had a ball. We headed out around 2:45 on Thursday; Harding University in Searcy our Ultimate destination, but Conway the stopping point for the evening/nite. I had picked up some Read-alongs (books w/ audio cds) and 3 Readers (grade level books for children to read) from the library on Wednesday and had those and lots of other stuff loaded up in the car for M.J. to do. That gurl amazes me everyday w/ her smarts. She had the first reader in hand before I even got in the car Thursday and read all 3 of them back-to-back. I am totally getting like 10 readers for our next trip. Also during our car time she worked on an activity book about telling time (which she did lots more of over the weekend), showed me her money counting skills by counting all the change in her purse (87 cents I believe it wuz), and told me how if 4 plus 4 is 8 then 400 plus 400 is 800 and so forth. What a smarty pants...and I luv it! We hit the motel a bit before dinner time Thursday, un-loaded and played a little, then it was to Donald's to chow and back to the motel to play. MaryJane thinks motels are the best. We had a nice time there.
Next morning it was up, grabbed a few donuts, and to the University for what I call Homeschool Mania. Got my cool name tag ( about the only nametag I would ever consider cool) and took MaryJane over to the large room where all the kids were at for the Children's Convention. id guess there were somewhere around 50 kids or so. She headed right on in and I went back very shortly after to peak in on her and I could tell she was having fun so I was very pleased. The team that held the conference was from Character Focus Ministries, a Christian based children's program. She had a lot of fun. MaryJane said they sang Sunday Schools songs, played duck duck goose, saw a magic trick, and learned about obedience. She also colored some pictures, did other art work, got a prize and had snack time. Don't get much better then that people. hehe. We also got to have lunch together which was nice. While she was attending her convention I enthralled myself in the glorious homeschool atmosphere admiring vendor booths, attending workshops, conversating and just roaming. Spent a majority of my vendor booth time drooling over the BJU Press Second Grade Books and conversating with the "I don't care what anyone says, that's the coolest old man ive ever meet". He taught at BJU for like 31 yrs or sumdin and had been a traveling rep for 10 or so so he really knew his stuff. Ill mention a couple things he said I admired. He said have you ever read a bible verse you didn't know what meant. didn't mean a lot to you. that there approach is to teach you what you need to know so that when you get to that bible verse (or anything) you will have the knowledge to understand what you have at hand. The other was funny...him saying you can pay for our materials or you can send your child to public school and pay for the rest of your life. heeee...thats a good one. I wish i could have purchased our curriculum right then and there, but not only am I waiting for that sweet check from the pres, but we are getting a good discount from a sweet website. Still cant wait tho. Attended 3 classes (workshops) while there. The first was "the profound influence of music on life". Was very interesting; told about how music can affect you, what it can do that nothing else can, and the importance of it. I could jabber for a while over it, but it certainly makes me feel even better about getting Maryanne her own Acoustic Guitar for her B-day. : ) Second class was the main session for the day and was hosted by the same guy. I knew it was going to be good when I fond that out and boy was it good. it was called "Rebuilding Your Education Paradigm: Writing, Thinking & the Essence of Teaching". I told Jess it was kind of the "hate on government...I mean public school session". basically talked about the how the public school system isn't broken, that it is was designed to be the way it is today; about how it doesn't encourage individual thinking; about what is important in an education, and a lot of other stimulating and useful information. lastly was the "how to homeschool on a budget class". I did come away with some good ideas and a few websites of use, but for the most past it was "use the library, use the internet", and go to yardsales"....stuff any idiot would know to do so that part was lame. Before we left MaryJane wanted to play a bit so we played tag and climbed on the trees. I had seen a little park when we went out for lunch too so we made a stop there as well. Finally, we dropped by one of the building to use the bathroom and on the way out M.J. wanted to make a wish. I gave her my 3 pennies and that gurl put a lot of thought into those wishes. She threw the first penny in and then reached to fish it back out. my reation of course was something along the lines of 'no, stop, your going to fall in, you cant use that penny again", but it apperant she was not listening nor believed me for she grabbed it up, canceled her first wish and threw the penny in again...and thats where it stayed. : ) the picture is of her deep in thought about what to wish for. precious.
Then it was into the car and home for the weekend. I don't think anything can compare to first trip to Searcy, but I certainly came away from the trip feeling all warm and fuzzy inside and high on homeschool, plus having MaryJane with me and her getting to enjoy the trip and the conference made it all the better.
How wonderful a trip! From the car ride, to the Motel, the the Fab Convention / Conference...we had a ball. We headed out around 2:45 on Thursday; Harding University in Searcy our Ultimate destination, but Conway the stopping point for the evening/nite. I had picked up some Read-alongs (books w/ audio cds) and 3 Readers (grade level books for children to read) from the library on Wednesday and had those and lots of other stuff loaded up in the car for M.J. to do. That gurl amazes me everyday w/ her smarts. She had the first reader in hand before I even got in the car Thursday and read all 3 of them back-to-back. I am totally getting like 10 readers for our next trip. Also during our car time she worked on an activity book about telling time (which she did lots more of over the weekend), showed me her money counting skills by counting all the change in her purse (87 cents I believe it wuz), and told me how if 4 plus 4 is 8 then 400 plus 400 is 800 and so forth. What a smarty pants...and I luv it! We hit the motel a bit before dinner time Thursday, un-loaded and played a little, then it was to Donald's to chow and back to the motel to play. MaryJane thinks motels are the best. We had a nice time there.
Next morning it was up, grabbed a few donuts, and to the University for what I call Homeschool Mania. Got my cool name tag ( about the only nametag I would ever consider cool) and took MaryJane over to the large room where all the kids were at for the Children's Convention. id guess there were somewhere around 50 kids or so. She headed right on in and I went back very shortly after to peak in on her and I could tell she was having fun so I was very pleased. The team that held the conference was from Character Focus Ministries, a Christian based children's program. She had a lot of fun. MaryJane said they sang Sunday Schools songs, played duck duck goose, saw a magic trick, and learned about obedience. She also colored some pictures, did other art work, got a prize and had snack time. Don't get much better then that people. hehe. We also got to have lunch together which was nice. While she was attending her convention I enthralled myself in the glorious homeschool atmosphere admiring vendor booths, attending workshops, conversating and just roaming. Spent a majority of my vendor booth time drooling over the BJU Press Second Grade Books and conversating with the "I don't care what anyone says, that's the coolest old man ive ever meet". He taught at BJU for like 31 yrs or sumdin and had been a traveling rep for 10 or so so he really knew his stuff. Ill mention a couple things he said I admired. He said have you ever read a bible verse you didn't know what meant. didn't mean a lot to you. that there approach is to teach you what you need to know so that when you get to that bible verse (or anything) you will have the knowledge to understand what you have at hand. The other was funny...him saying you can pay for our materials or you can send your child to public school and pay for the rest of your life. heeee...thats a good one. I wish i could have purchased our curriculum right then and there, but not only am I waiting for that sweet check from the pres, but we are getting a good discount from a sweet website. Still cant wait tho. Attended 3 classes (workshops) while there. The first was "the profound influence of music on life". Was very interesting; told about how music can affect you, what it can do that nothing else can, and the importance of it. I could jabber for a while over it, but it certainly makes me feel even better about getting Maryanne her own Acoustic Guitar for her B-day. : ) Second class was the main session for the day and was hosted by the same guy. I knew it was going to be good when I fond that out and boy was it good. it was called "Rebuilding Your Education Paradigm: Writing, Thinking & the Essence of Teaching". I told Jess it was kind of the "hate on government...I mean public school session". basically talked about the how the public school system isn't broken, that it is was designed to be the way it is today; about how it doesn't encourage individual thinking; about what is important in an education, and a lot of other stimulating and useful information. lastly was the "how to homeschool on a budget class". I did come away with some good ideas and a few websites of use, but for the most past it was "use the library, use the internet", and go to yardsales"....stuff any idiot would know to do so that part was lame. Before we left MaryJane wanted to play a bit so we played tag and climbed on the trees. I had seen a little park when we went out for lunch too so we made a stop there as well. Finally, we dropped by one of the building to use the bathroom and on the way out M.J. wanted to make a wish. I gave her my 3 pennies and that gurl put a lot of thought into those wishes. She threw the first penny in and then reached to fish it back out. my reation of course was something along the lines of 'no, stop, your going to fall in, you cant use that penny again", but it apperant she was not listening nor believed me for she grabbed it up, canceled her first wish and threw the penny in again...and thats where it stayed. : ) the picture is of her deep in thought about what to wish for. precious. 
Then it was into the car and home for the weekend. I don't think anything can compare to first trip to Searcy, but I certainly came away from the trip feeling all warm and fuzzy inside and high on homeschool, plus having MaryJane with me and her getting to enjoy the trip and the conference made it all the better.
1 comment:
WWWAAAAHHHHH!!!! SSSOOO jealous!!!!!!
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