Homeschool Conference Finds!
I went to one of my favorite places this week-a home school convention! It was wonderful to attend, we drove several hours away and stayed with family for a few days. They were so sweet and watched most of our children for us so just my husband and I could go and receive encouragement.
We listened to Wade Myers give some very useful talks on being an entrepreneur which was inspiring for my husband and I. This particular home school convention is very conservative, so there were lots of beautiful dressed ladies walking around, which was inspiring. I found myself trying not to be obvious as I examined one beautiful skirt after another. I’m now filled with ideas for future projects!
I was so excited to meet Breezy and Emily Brookshire, along with their very sweet mother! Breezy is an extremely talented young lady and many of you know her as the creator of the lovely Daughters Of His Story paper dolls. I’ve long admired her beautiful paintings. One of her paintings I have requested for a few years now as a birthday gift, but I’ve never received it. When I saw they were going to be at the convention I knew I had to purchase the print. It is very, very inspiring to me as a mother. This is my dream for my family, to have special read aloud times that look as calm and peaceful as this picture!
I also came home with this picture to hang in my girls room.
Now I just need to find special frames to put the prints in!
I spent a lot of time at Rainbow Resource. Some of my other favorite vendors were not present this year, so I shopped for school books at Rainbow.
I am most excited about these items:
Little Pillows and Morning Bells – you can find a copy here for free! They are sweet devotionals for children that provide a lot of conversation between yourself and your children. I’ve already enjoyed the talks I’ve had with my boys.
The Story of the Orchestra  -We are going to use this book to learn about composers and instruments this coming school year. It has a CD that goes along with it to play various classical music. I had checked it out from the library before and knew it was just what we needed for the coming year. Since I play the piano my children already love to gather round the piano and sing hymns together. They especially like it when I pull out lively classical pieces to play and they dance around the living room!
Character Companion for the Miller Series– My boys love to read the Miller books, so I purchased this book to focus on learning character through the scriptures and the Miller books! This will be an enjoyable book for devotions in the morning.
Doodle Dolls-I purchased this book for my four year daughter. It has over 300 outfits that you can color for the two paper dolls that come along with the book. She loves to color and is very good at it, so I thought she would enjoy special time coloring dolly outfits while I spend school time with the older boys.
Treasure Hunt Reward Chart-I bought these especially for my boys. 🙂 They are going to have a list of a few important things to work on (answering Yes mama, Yes Papa, not fighting with each other, and doing their chores) every day. If they do a good job then they will get to put a sticker on the chart. When the chart is full, I’ll have a little surprise for them.
Essentials in Writing-I’m very excited about this grammar program. I disliked grammar when I was in school, and the thought of teaching grammar does not excite me at all. This program comes with a DVD where a former public school teacher gives a short lesson, and then it has a CD where you print off the worksheets for the student. Yes, I really did pay $40 for first grade grammar. I guess that shows you just how much I dislike (and feel inadequate) to teach grammar!
Those are some of the treasures I brought home from the convention! I’m trying to order the rest of the books we need for Heart of Dakota and then take a few weeks off before we start our new school year sometime in July. I need to regroup and work on a huge project for The Modest Mom before starting school again!
Caroline,
I believe I might have attended the same convention! 🙂 It’s only our second year attending it, but I was looking forward to it all year! I agree that it is refreshing to see all the modest dresses and skirts with the families that attend.
Looks like you found some good books for next year. We ordered some curriculum too.
Blessings to you and your family~
Katie
Oh, I love the pictures, wish I’d have seen them…. Will have to check them out online!
The orchestra book looks fabulous! Thank you for sharing. I will definitely be checking into that one. I love seeing what other homeschool moms have planned.
We loved the Story of the Orchestra! I got coloring pages for each composer and the children colored while they listened to me read and listened to the music. Then, depending on the age, they would write down a few facts that they learned on the bottom or back of the page. Made a great notebooking experience. Enjoy!
I wish we could have been there this year! This is the first time Light of Faith wasn’t there in YEARS!! We sure missed being at that convention, but it just wasn’t possible with the Denver conference being the weekend right before! It ended up being a REALLY good decision not to try to do CHEF this year since the suburban broke down in Denver and just BARELY by God’s grace made it home. There’s no way we could have made it to St. Charles!
I’m so glad you were able to find some great items. I love Little Pillows and Morning Bells!! 🙂
I missed seeing you and your family there! I was looking forward to purchasing some items…there is always next year though. 🙂 I’m glad you all made it home safely!
Thank you for sharing those prints, I would love to get one! We also have the Miller series companion book and my older children love doing character studies with Daddy. They are always excited when he says it’s time to do one.
I know this is totally off subject from this post but I want to share something that my twelve almost thirteen yr old daughter said to me. First I must let you know that although we are a modest dressed family we do not wear all skirts/dresses. I have 2 daughters still at home and a son. My twelve year old looks like she is 16 (unfortunately) and she is very beautiful. We have an issue of boys and men constantly gaucking at her. She hates it! Well the other day During a conversation about this, she said to me, mom when I wear a skirt, I don’t get looked at like I’m a piece of meat anymore. They may still look at me but not like that. So i talked to her about the why of that and gave her the option of wearing skirts all the time, especially when she goes out of the house. I am also praying and asking the Lord where He may be taking us with this. I know this doesn’t really leave a question to be answered but feedback on this would be great from you all. Thanks for letting me share. God Bless
I am starting to homeschool my 4 year old daughter this year & I’m so glad I found your blog! I love all of the books you picked out & a homeschool conference sounds so fun! Hopefully I can go one day! So glad I found your blog! 🙂
Hello,
I just found the “Morning Bells” book kindle edition free at amazon http://www.amazon.com/Morning-Waking-Thoughts-Little-ebook/dp/B000JML52Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1340585479&sr=8-2&keywords=Morning+Bells
Blessings,
Angela
The orchestra book is wonderful. If you want to get deeper you could look into doing the composer study we did….at the moment it is packed but I’m sure you could find it. It is a “Composer Lap Book”…we learned so much.
I bet you could even create your own lap book using the orchestra book you have.
Happy home schooling