Midwest Homeschool Convention - Part 1 "In Which We Go There"

The first time I went to a homeschool convention was before I was even officially homeschooling, when Aimee was just a baby. I think I was visiting my parents that weekend, and my mom suggested we go, so we went for a while one day. I went to at least one session, walked around the exhibit hall, got some ideas that I eventually used in our early years of homeschooling. But I didn't have a burning desire to go to a convention every year, so I have blissfully skipped out on convention-going for the whole of our homeschool career. Until this year. My friend Stacey hounded me for weeks (and i say that in love, of course!) about going to the Midwest Homeschool Convention, and I hemmed and hawed about it. But then when my friend Christen, who has not yet begun homeschooling her little one, reacted with excitement when I mentioned a homeschool convention ("They have conventions?! Let's go!"), I finally gave in. Ok, fine, so I'll go.

So we went. Dave couldn't go with us, but we booked a hotel near Cincinnati, and I dragged five children, a number of books and Lego pieces (why do they insist one bringing seemingly random pieces that are of great value to the owner, but which get so easily lost?), a large cooler so that we wouldn't break the bank on eating out, two large suitcases, and who knows what else down there to do this convention thing. The look on the faces of the hotel clerks as we marched back and forth in front of the desk, hauling all our stuff - and little boys ocassionally dangling on the cart like monkeys - was really great, by the way!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon to go to a session by a Creation scientist, something the kids were quite excited about. I ended up pacing the hall outside with some pretty rowdy little ones, and at the time, we seemed to stick out like sore thumbs. Really loud sore thumbs. There were a number of famliies with boys in buttoned down shirts and girls with neatly braided hair, all of whom sat quietly in rows, but there weren't any other kids wrestling in the hallway, except for some of ours.But the ones who sat throught the session very much enjoyed it, and we all looked forward to an early day on Friday, when there some sessions the older kids anticipated, a children's conference for the younger boys, and sessions about which I was extremely excited. I was going to hear Susan Wise Bauer, whose book and educational philosophy has been hugely influential on our educational journey.

And Friday was a great day - exhausting, as I walked that convention center all around more than once, including up and down, sometimes with an overloaded stroller, sometimes with several small children (on their breaks from their conference) - but mentally and emotionally refreshing. I heard Susan Wise Bauer, who didn't disappoint, and also Andrew Pudewa, whose session was about writing, but applied to so many other areas as well, and was quite encouraging. After lunch (in downtown Cincinnati, which, in retrospect, was perhaps not the best idea) we all went to hear Jim Weiss talk about Sherlock Holmes and then tell one of the mysteries. With the lights dimmed, and his great audio-book voice , it was a lovely rest time. Or it would have been, if Chase hadn't been perversely attempting to wake up his napping sister by loudly whispering her name at intervals. Later, after I deposited him back at the children's conference, I listened to Christopher Perrin talk about The Intellectual Virtues, but I couldn't stay long in that one, as Scarlett was a bit restless, but I heard enough to determine that I would try to hear his session the next day. In the meantime, Aimee and Drew spent the day meeting up with friends and listening to their own sessions. Aimee enjoyed some of the Teen Track sessions dealing with worldviews, and also sat in more of Jim Weiss' session. Drew drank in the sessions by Creationists, soaking up information about design in nature and even cosmology. He was enthralled.

We were there on Friday for about 12 hours, and overall, the kids did wonderfully. We were SO tired by the time we got back to the hotel, and excited to see Dave, who met us that evening. We were a little slower in getting up the next day, but we made it to the sessions we wanted to that day as well. I got in some more of the same, really - Susuan Wise Bauer, Andrew Pudewa, and Christopher Perrin, but all such good stuff  and what I really needed to hear. I had intented to use this post to talk about some of what they said, but I will have to make this a "part one", and will have to create a "part two.!" We didn't stay as long as we had orginally intended yesterday, because by mid afternoon, we were exhausted. Drew would have stayed all day, though, and we ended up buying a book about the fossil record, to convince him that it would be ok to miss a late session on the same topic.

Oh, yes, and the exhibit hall. I visited some booths I wanted to see, and I did buy something from the Rod and Staff booth - just a grammar book I needed - but beyond that, I found the exhibit hall just overwhelming. I walked quickly past those vendors that, with over-large smiles and advancing posture, seemed as though they wanted to devour me. They would have been disappointed, anyway, since I am not a curriculum junkie. I didn't mind booths that existited simply to serve, but I was hugely annoyed by those that commercialize homeschooling and prey on the insecurities of homeschool families. But that's another post altogether, one which I don't intend to write.

In all, we were all glad to have gone. The kids are already talking about next year, and I'm making mental notes about what to do differently. Take husband. Take more money (to buy things I really need, that are often at special discount there). Get a hotel in the city so I can stay late. We'll see how all that works out. But even if it doesn't, I probably will find a way to go again next year, because it was worth it!