It’s coming! It’s coming!

HEAV’s convention is just under two weeks away!!!

It’s time to make that last minute to-do list of everything you need to get done before hopping in the car in the next two weeks. If you’re curious, mine at the moment includes things like “make ask hubby to get a hair cut” and “find mini cassette recorder to use for interviews.” 🙂

While you’re making your plan, I wanted to share with you some advice I’ve been gleaning from some of my homeschooling friends with WAY more homeschool convention experience than me!

First of all, check out out this blog post by one of my fellow HEAV bloggers: “How a New Homeschool Mom Prepares for Convention.” PS. There is a HEAV family pass giveaway on her blog right now!!!!

And here are my tips from last year!

Advice for Homeschool Conventions

There were a few overwhelmingly common pieces of advice from pretty much everyone I spoke to. I would even say these are non-negotiable:

1) Wear Comfortable Shoes. Absolutely no one cares what your feet look like. You’re going to be walking the equivalent of a marathon around that convention center, so take care of your feet! Your little piggies will thank you by the end of the day.

2) Take a Cart on Wheels! You can get these a number of places, from Amazon, or even some grocery stores. Others have suggested a ro

lling suitcase, or a stroller even. I learned this lesson the hard way last year. I’ll actually be using on of my Thirty-One Gifts bags, which is actually an insulated rolling cart-type thingee. Oh well. My purchases will stay “cool” at least, AND it will be easy to spot amongst the crowds!

3) Return Address Labels. Pre-make labels with your address and contact information on them. This is going to save you from massive writer’s cramp all weekend. Really.

4) Prepare for OVERWHELM. Really. It’s not that the crowds are “Black Friday” or “Disney” bad, but they’re there. For me, it wasn’t the people, it was the STUFF. So much information, so many choices, so much to look at. It was just A LOT on input coming at you.

Everyone had several tips to cope.

• Just order the mp3s right when you get there. That way you’ll be able to rest in the fact that you won’t have to worry about missing anything. Or, if some of the events are full and you can’t get in, it won’t be such a big deal. You can re-listen to the sessions at your leisure all summer long.
• Don’t buy anything the first time through the exhibit hall! Do a complete walk through the first time, getting an eye for the different vendors, perhaps checking prices on your first choice items. Talk to the different vendors, get advice and information, that sort of thing. Make your list, and THEN go buy.
• My advice: If there are particular items that you already know you HAVE to get, I’d at least go ahead and get that out of the way first. Then you’re done and can focus your time on the “extras” or items you need to spend more time thinking about. And, you don’t have to worry that the vendor runs out of your “must have.”
• Many even recommend leaving your wallet at home and not even purchasing anything at your first convention. If you can do that, then you have mountains more willpower than I do. At the very least, come with your budget in mind. Or, failing that, come prepared with a detailed list of what exactly you MUST have, what you need but aren’t sure what to get, and what your wish list would be. That will be very useful in both the Exhibit Hall and the Used Curriculum Sale.
• Carry as little as possible with you, because, again, it means carrying it with you. And that is going to get old very quick. However, a water bottle, notebook, pens, protein bars, your return address labels, wallet and cellphone are all great things to have. Just be sure to turn off the ringer to your cellphone during sessions! Hubby and I mainly use our cellphones to find each other when we get separated, etc. If you’re in a hotel nearby, you should be able to run back to the hotel and dump things to start fresh during lunch breaks!
• Just focus on what is best for your family. No need to deal with all the sessions and vendors that don’t pertain to you. (Such as, we don’t have boys – I don’t go to the booths that sell “boy” paraphernalia. Or the sessions on raising boys. While I’d love to, I have to set boundaries and focus on what my family needs right then. Also, I don’t go to “high school” sessions when we’re only teaching second grade. That sort of thing.)
• If you don’t have to have your kids with you, I wouldn’t. Use the awesome kids programs, get a babysitter, etc. It’s too hard to keep them entertained and also hear what you need to hear. If you do though, be sure to bring items to keep them occupied. Remember, in order to record the sessions and have decent quality, “vocal” children should be taken out of the room.

5) Have fun! Goodness gracious, after all that it might sound like Homeschool Conventions are stressful events. Why would anyone want to go? Well, they can have stressful moments, but last year was also wonderfully inspiring and motivational. I can’t figure out another way to say it, other than I left with my heart completely full.

Talk to people. In this building, for three whole days, you are going to be surrounded by homeschoolers who just want to do their best for their children — JUST LIKE YOU. Make new friends. In this day and age, there is no reason you only have to be friends with the people who live right around you. Bring “business” cards, or those address labels and exchange information. Chat with the folks next to you in line. Be sure to meet the parents of the kids your children make friends with in the kids’ program – you already have a lot in common!

I’m looking at this convention weekend like it’s my mini “homeschool” vacation! Mommy event on steroids!

So, what is my plan?

• I want to be packed by Wednesday. Since our homeschool soccer group is having field day that day, and I’m continuing to work right up to the last minute, I need to be as organized and ready to just throw stuff in the car as possible.
• We plan to arrive on Thursday – I have a meeting I need to attend, and also I really want to check out the Indoctrination session that day! So, I plan to attend the exhibit hall Thursday night and get some of that stuff done then (which includes taking my kids to some of the “cool” activities – my girls are already talking about that!!) If we get on the road and arrive early enough, we might stop by the Richmond Children’s Museum before everything gets started.
• I buy my “must haves” right away, then spend time going over and over the “I know I need something but I don’t know what to get” list. And then in between, as things might catch my fancy, I might sneak them in. Or, if they are truly a splurge I might wait until the last minute. Just in case I can talk myself out of it. Or not.
• I’ve got my seminar list ready to go! I’ve highlighted all the ones I want to see
• I plan to plan our meals ahead of time. Since I went gluten-free this year, eating is an all new adventure for me, and grabbing a slice of pizza in the exhibit hall isn’t going to cut it. (By the way, food IN the convention center? Expensive.) So, we’ll come with snacks and water for the room, but also, I hope to look around and figure out where we’ll eat each evening in advance. At least that way I know I’ll get one good meal a day. Plus, is breakfast added into the cost of your hotel room? Will you have time to eat real bfast? Then we might want to bring something to the room for bfast each morning.
• Beyond that? I plan to take lots of deep breaths and just relax. Absorb what I can absorb, meet who I can meet, enjoy everything I can, and just take in all the inspiration I can to get me through the next school year!

“I am excited to be a blogger for HEAV this year. In exchange for sharing my honest opinion about this convention, I was provided with a family registration at no charge.”

One of my favorite parts about being a HEAV promotional blogger so far is that I get to meet cool people!  And today, I get to share with you my “conversation” with Heidi St. John, The Busy Homeschool Mom!

And when she says “busy”, she MEANS it. In fact, our conversation ended up taking place entirely via email – as she fit in time between traveling from convention to convention and at one point, speaking at ten different sessions in one weekend!

And in addition to all of that, Heidi St. John has been married to her husband Jay since 1989. They have seven children ages 1 to 20 and have homeschooled all the way through high school. Heidi approaches homeschooling with humor and grace at events all across North America.  Her passion is  to encourage homeschool moms and set them free to be who God has created them to be will bless and encourage you.

And I’m so excited to share that Heidi St. John will be sharing during 5 sessions at HEAV’s upcoming convention! (Read full descriptions here.)

So, without further ado, here is my interview with Heidi St. John!

First of all, thank you so much for taking some of your time for this interview! I just need to say up front that I am SUPER excited to hear you speak at HEAV’s Convention in June. I seriously can’t wait. And I feel like I’m a teenager talking (ok, emailing) a rock star, which is why I’m blathering like a crazy person. So, thank you!

🙂 You’re welcome! I am excited to meet you, too!

Your website introduces you as “The Busy Homeschool Mom” and your upcoming HEAV sessions are entitled, R.E.A.L L.I.F.E Homeschooling. If you could tell that stressed out homeschool mom just one thing today, what would it be?

I would tell her to focus on relationships in homeschooling, rather than just academics. The academics are important of course – but long after you close that math book and your child graduates, you will still have your children. Enjoy them.

And with your session, “The Busy Homeschool Mom’s Guide™ to Daytime: How to Fit Your Size 16 Day Into a Size 10” – please tell me you’ve got a miracle diet pill as a giveaway?? 🙂

Haha! No. 🙂 But I will be talking a lot about surrender in the Guide to Daylight — because at the end of the day, that’s how you find more time. You surrender your will for God’s. And He leads you.

Can you give us one example of how you live your “Be Intentional” message?

A long time ago, my husband and I made a commitment to live our lives with real purpose. To be intentional about our relationships in particular. This has been difficult at times but has yielded fruit in our family as we walk through life keeping our eyes on what we want our family to look like two, five, fifteen and even thirty years from now. Plant with the HARVEST in mind!

You will be leading two different sessions on marriage and romance. As a “Busy Homeschool Mom” how do you put your husband and your marriage first?

(You’re stealing the thunder from my workshops!) 🙂 But here is one thing: I prioritize my marriage about all the other relationships in my life. After I nurture my spirit by spending time with the Lord, my husband is who my primary focus is on. It’s about prioritizing your relationships the way God designed. 🙂

And since my own hubby will be joining me for the first time this year, any message for the husbands attending HEAV?

Love your wife by listening with her. 🙂 Encourage her. She doesn’t need you to give her all the answers for homeschooling but she does need you to be her biggest cheerleader – let her know you believe in her! Just being with her in workshops sessions and in the vendor hall = BIG POINTS for dads. 🙂

With your experience speaking and attending homeschool conventions, and as a homeschooling mama yourself, do you have any advice for those attending a homeschooling convention? Or possibly that newbie who has never been to a homeschool convention before?

Take time. You don’t need to buy stuff. Keep smiling. 🙂

You homeschool, you take care of your family of your husband and seven children, you have a homeschooling co-op ministry, AND you have a career that requires long hours of traveling, writing and speaking in front of groups. I would think “busy homeschool mom” is an understatement. Seriously, how in the world do you do it???

Grace. Lots and lots of it. 🙂

What is one thing that you wish you had known at the beginning of your homeschooling journey that you know now? And what is one thing you hope to know by the end of your homeschooling journey?

Too many things to list – but again, focus on relationship, not academics. I hope I know Jesus better at the end of our homeschooling journey. 🙂

Thank you, thank you, thank you Heidi for your time!

“I am excited to be a blogger for HEAV this year. In exchange for sharing my honest opinion about this convention, I was provided with a family registration at no charge.”