We made it! We survived #HEAVCON!

I know this post is a little late, but we ended getting in late last night, and I frankly slept most of the day today. Had to catch up on the multiple nights of no sleep – I am getting much too old for that. HA!

So, Saturday ended up being a really good low-key day for us. Most of our “chores” were done, and I could actually GO to a couple sessions. And because some have told me they are actually interested in my shopping and curriculum adventures over the weekend (which cracks me up – I always feel like I’m talking to myself when I write that sort of thing!), I’d thought I’d share what I got on Saturday.

Late Friday night, after polling tons of people all weekend, AND all my friends on Facebook (what homeschool moms did before Facebook I have NO IDEA), I ended up changing my mind completely about my spelling curriculum. Saturday morning I ended up taking back all of the All About Spelling curriculum I had purchased, and we’ve decided to use SpellingCity.com next year. There are a couple reasons I decided on this. First of all, after reading lots of online reviews, I realized I’d have to spend 20 minutes at least separately for each child to do spelling each day. That’s really 40+ minutes out of my limited 3-4 hour time block for homeschool. Second, it looked like a lot of work for the mom (maybe, reports were conflicting). Third, I just couldn’t get excited about it. I think I will like Spelling City and I’m pretty sure both my girls will. They LOVE getting to play on the computer and their tablets (we almost only have educational stuff on their tablets). They can learn the words through playing games, and having fun!

And I think that is what I am looking for in the upcoming year. You know, that journey homeschool moms talk about – when we have to “de-public-school” ourselves in order to homeschool! I keep thinking, why do certain courses have to be unfun? WHY? We want our kids to learn, yes. But it’s even more important that they love learning. As long as a child things learning is fun, teaching them really doesn’t feel like work, right? It’s more facilitating their learning. At least that’s my working theory.

Don’t worry – I haven’t stepped over to the unschooling side. I haven’t gone quite that far, yet! 🙂

I also ended up buying what I needed for our My Father’s World: Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum next fall.  Oh, and I picked up Handwriting Without Tears’ Cursive program. In the afternoon, I did just a little splurging. I got all of this at Melinda Boring‘s booth. My girls have already dived into much of what I got to add to our “fidget basket.” (Those are toys they can play with quietly that fulfill their need to fidget when I need them to be still. Great for places like church, or during activities where they need to fidget to listen.) Great stuff.

So, that’s it. I’m done shopping for next year! Which is a good thing, since the movers are arriving in exactly two weeks, we’ll live in a hotel for a month, after which will come the unpacking and setting up the new house, and we’ve got oh, about ten weeks left in the curriculum for this year?? And please someone, don’t let me forget I need to get my oldest’s testing done and sent in before we pack out. Ay yi yi.

So, what are my lessons learned from #HEAVCON 2014? (I’m writing this down, so I can remember for next year!)

#1A. Earplugs. So I can drown out the “talks-in-her-sleeper” and the “snorer” and get some real sleep.
#1B. Bring my own pillow. It’s worth hauling more junk to have this.

#2. Consider bringing one of these. I’m sure we figure out how to attach a rolling cart to the back, right?

#3. Take selfies and family pictures the first day when you’re not completely exhausted and look it. Use bribery to make the children smile if you have to. Consider bringing the really nice camera, because your phone camera really can only do so much.

I love our homeschool TShirts!There is just NOT enough time to do everything. Really. Oh, why can’t we do HEAV twice? Or have four days? There was just so many things to DO, that were all going on at the same time! It just didn’t seem fair. Oh well, at least I have all the recordings sitting on a thumb drive now. I plan to upload them to my iPod and listen to them throughout the year. I am so thankful for the recordings!

Most importantly, the few sessions I did get to sit in on, reminded me just how important it is that we homeschool our children. I know I always feel slightly uncomfortable being really vocal about my support for homeschooling – I hate the idea of offending or hurting someone’s feelings, I know that some have really great public school experiences, I do believe homeschooling is a calling that some haven’t been called to (yet), and some don’t get the opportunity to homeschool due to circumstances.

And yet.

And yet, it was very affirming  — yes, we most definitely made the right decision for our family. Yes, we are most definitely called to do this. The hubby even remarked that last year (his first) that he felt a bit out of place, and this year he didn’t. He joked that it’s probably because “now we have become one of THEM. We are comfortable at HEAV because we are now ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!” And he was right, it felt great being surrounded by folks where we fit right in. He also says “Some of the coolest, smartest people I’ve met, I met at the homeschool conference. Homeschooling is cool.” And we love feeling like we are “cool.” HA.

Oh, speaking of hubby, he was the one wearing this shirt:

He wants me to add that he really learned how truly important homeschool DADS are. Sure, we always knew that, and as the “homeschool mom” I’ve been telling him that, but it was really good for him to hear that from other strong, successful homeschool dads like Voddie Baucham and others.

My last round of pictures:

And I have to throw in a VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to the staff in the kids program. Our girls had a BLAST. And we had a blast because they were off having a blast, and we could do things we needed to do. They did not want to leave. Our oldest burst into tears because she had made a bestie and didn’t want to lose touch. (I gave my business card to pass along to the mom.) I know exactly how much work you put into that program and you did a great job!

So, that’s it. #HEAVCON 2014 is over. For those of you that don’t homeschool and read this, you’re probably very thankful I will start writing about other topics, and I do plan to! And I also plan to continue to share with you information and different vendors and products that we learned about at convention, but I promise to spread that out through the 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.”

It’s the end of day 2 of HEAV’s Convention and I am WIPED OUT.

But before we get into all of that, let’s take a quiet moment to reflect on this. My dinner. Hellooooooo Richmond!

Oh and it was scrumptious, thank you very much!

So, I finished my rounds through the Exhibit Hall today and the UCS as well.  Stuck to my plan pretty much and didn’t overbuy the moon. Ordered my recordings, found out one of my girls can’t see the bottom line of the eye exam and should get her eyes checked when we get home, and found my handwriting curriculum. Still not sold on the spelling curriculum that I bought, but haven’t found anything I like better.

I didn’t hit too many sessions today – I got hit by complete overwhelm by about lunchtime. Tried to stick it out, but by 4pm I was D-O-N-E. I rarely get hit hit with too much sensory input, but when I do, WOWZA. So, I’d like to share with you a few new tips I came up with today!

#1 A Good Night of Sleep is REALLY important. – Confession time. I’m not a morning person. I usually have two alarm clocks with feet that wake me up, so the times that I have to wake with a real alarm clock, I tend to sleep worse. (I keep expecting to oversleep, I guess?) And it’s a hotel bed and not MY bed. Something else I didn’t realize, one of my kids talks in her sleeps and flops around like a fish on the beach! I really could have used at least an hour more of sleep. The coffee today did NOT help me at all, which is unusual. I realize all other homeschool moms in the whole world are morning people, but I still vote everything start one hour later next year!

#2. So is a good, solid breakfast. –  I learned my lesson, once again. Don’t depend on other entities to feed me. Especially if you have food issues, like me. Ya’ll that know me know I’m gluten-free, and breakfast this morning at my hotel was okay. It seemed like enough, but I really should have eaten more protein. (Again, I blame the coffee.)  Oh, and I really didn’t pack enough snacks, and my lunch was pretty limited. So, that’s on me. I’ve already packed tons of snacks in my bag for tomorrow.

#3. Have Emergency chocolate on hand. – Really, does this need explanation?? 🙂

#4. Take breaks when you need them! I really should have just taken a break earlier. Found a quiet secluded, corner and just chilled out for a while. But instead I tried to push through. It wasn’t a good idea.

#5. It’s okay to say you’ve had enough! – Hubby and I have agreed on this several times. Convention is ONLY three days and there is SO much going on, it’s really tempting to try to do and see and get into every single thing possible, because hey, it’s only three days! Seriously, there is just no way we can do it all, so you’ve got to pick what you HAVE to do sometimes. And how much do I love my husband and he totally “got it” when I hit the wall, and made sure we got out quick and easy? (And then took me out for some awesome ribs?) He totally gets two stars for today.

#6- COOL IDEA I “INVENTED” this weekend! – Can’t decide what to buy? Stuck on several things at different booths? Use your smart phone to take a picture of the particular curriculum, then a picture of the booth with the booth number! Then, when you’ve gone back and forth and figured it out, you can look through your pictures to figure out where you want to go back to! I did that several times today! It was great!

Tonight, before bed I’m going to grab one of my new boenjoy the extra deep tub of the hotel room for a bit, then conk out early. My plan for tomorrow is to hit the My Father’s World Booth, and one or two others to check out their spelling curriculum. (I swear I’m going to find the most amazing FUN spelling program if it absolutely KILLS me.) And I’m determined to take some time and enjoy a few of the sessions. And that is it.

I wish I could take a picture for you guys to show you how cute my kids are, completely conked out on the bed – THANK YOU KID PROGRAM FOLKS!!!!!! Will you come to my house and do that every day????????????? (I hear all the moms saying a deep and hearty Amen to that one!)

Pictures around Convention today:

“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.”