Homeschooling

Our Weekend at the California Homeschool Conference

It’s been a busy summer with lots of travel and activity. We’ve went to Palm Springs for Father’s Day, to wine country for my birthday (July 4th), drove up to San Francisco for a business/pleasure trip, and we went home shopping in Las Vegas last weekend.

: Kate with her new friend, Aquia

The first weekend of August, my daughter Kate (4 years old) and I drove up to Sacramento for the Homeschool Association of California’s annual conference.

I was planning on leaving on Thursday morning, but I got waylaid by the Rawesome raid and we didn’t get there until Friday night. Nonetheless, we had a fabulous time and we plan to definitely go again next year.

I only got to sit through two sessions, because I took Kate there by myself. I really think it’s a good idea to go with a spouse, friend or family member. This way they can do go do kid’s activities or take the kids swimming so you can go listen to sessions. Next year, I’m bringing my husband and/or a couple of the grandparents.

I really enjoyed the sessions I did attend. I went to two lectures about Classical Homeschooling. This is the method of homeschooling I intend to use with Kate. I’m very excited about teaching her Latin and Logic.

My Impressions of the Conference

There is fun for everyone at this conference. Swimming, arts and crafts, dancing, storytelling, and swordfighting. There was a dance for the teenagers the first night, and the second night there was dancing. One teen even designed a live game of Super Mario Brothers — they built it with refrigerator boxes and mini-trampolines. (I wish I had been able to take pictures but I was busy with Kate somewhere else at the time.)

If you live nearby and are interested in learning more about homeschooling, this conference is an absolute must!

I have to tell you how amazed I was by the homeschooled kids I met at the conference. They were self-confident, mature, outgoing, authentic, polite, and very intelligent and articulate. Their parents were pretty great, too. It was so fun to meet lots of new friends.

I left the conference feeling so jazzed and excited about homeschooling my daughter. I’m so blessed to have a job as a blogger that enables me to stay at home and teach my child (it was a lot of hard work getting here; I’m so glad I put in the effort). Not only will it be fun for me to do homeschooling, but I love that I will get to spend some much precious time with Kate as she grows up. And I now know, especially after meeting homeschooled kids firsthand, that it’s absolutely the best possible option for her.

My Photos and Videos

Here are some of the photos and videos I took at the conference:

Learning how to make a woven bracelet.

Playing La Loteria (Bingo) in Spanish. Kate won!

Playing on iPads with the older girls during a Classical Homeschooling session.

Story time with Jim Weiss.

I absolutely loved this Springfree trampoline! They say it’s the safest trampoline in the world. I’m planning to buy one for Kate when we move to Las Vegas. (Heck, I want to use it, too. They say rebounding is so good for you.)