The long anticipated yearly homeschool convention in Tulsa has come and gone. Both my sister and I needed the encouragement. Tuesday, the first day of the convention was awesome – my lovely daughter, Virginia, was home watching Leif so my homeschooling sister Elizabeth and I could be kid free for the day. The speakers were good, but the best part was just walking around the vendor hall researching our curriculum options and buying odds and ends.

It was such a great feeling to be in a crowded convention center with other homeschooling families! Wednesday was a little harder for me because I had to bring the little guy and wasn’t able to sit through a class, but again I enjoyed walking around the vendor hall. Elizabeth learned quite a bit in her classes.

Joel went to the kids program, which he loved! Virginia entered three photographs into the convention Photo Contest. Her black-and-white photo won first place: She received a ribbon and a Mardel’s gift card.

Once again my favorite speaker was Andrew Pudewa. I took his workshop on the Reluctant Writer and also on the Culture War. I had wanted to attend his workshop on teaching boys again but wasn’t able to. A new speaker this year was Kirk Martin and his son Casey, who have a ministry called Calm Christian Parenting. I attended their workshop called, “Are You at Your Wits End? 10 Secrets to a Stress Free Home.” They spoke about discipline: I picked up a few new ideas there and was inspired by the class.

I didn’t get a chance to attend any of the other speakers, but my sister Elizabeth went to a class on Reading Disabilities by Sam Oliphant and really learned a lot about how to effectively teach her daughter Faith. I hope she writes about that here on our blog soon.

Overall it was a good break and gave us some much needed motivation. I hope they get some bigger speakers next year, because I should be able to sit through more of them by then. But this year I got just what I needed — a little bit of education and a lot of encouragement!