CatchUp: GHC

I attended the Midwest Great Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati for the second year in a row last weekend and I am SO GLAD I invested my time there again.  Having already purchased the bulk of the kids' curriculum for next year, I was waffling at the last minute as to whether it would be worth the trip after all.  Because I had two friends I was riding up there with, I went ahead and went. Not having to drive was a huge bonus for me. :}  And I am so glad to say that this year exceeded my expectations again.  I came away from the weekend of speakers and vendors and me-time and fellowship with Mandy and Sara feeling so relieved, so refreshed, so energized, and so reassured about the decisions we have made along this homeschool road.  This year specifically, I felt a burden lifted and THAT is worth so much.  Great weekend!  My favorite sessions were with Sarah Mackenzie (author of Teaching From Rest and creator of the Read-Aloud Revival page and podcast), Ann Voskamp!!, a professor from Cedarville speaking on the topic of raising children who love God's Word, and a Center for Lit session about Socratic questioning in literature.  So many excellent talks! I had so many sessions I couldn't even get to, so I had to pick and choose wisely.  And I still ended up purchasing 7 more sessions on CD to listen to back at home. 

I was so in the absorb-good-things zone, I was up and at 'em for a grammar and sentence diagramming seminar at 8:30 in the morning.  WordNerd for LIFE!  "There are only two types of words and six ways to fiddle with them," was a fun a-ha moment quote I picked up.

I adore this ceiling in the Grand Ballroom where I heard from Micheal Gurian, a neuroscientist and author, speak again about issues, emotions, teaching strategies, and brain differences between boys and girls.

One side of the vendor hall. I am proud to say that I was less overwhelmed this year and only got turned around once. :}

Typical session room.  This one was actually standing room only by the time it began.  This is right before I fell in love with Sarah Mackenzie, cancelled my next session and beelined it to her booth to buy her book for myself and another copy for a friend.

I took a million pics of books for consideration later on.  And price comparison with Amazon. Ha!

I am no fangirl, I do not worship people, we didn't bother with waiting in line for a book signing after her talk, but, um..... Ann Voskamp! In the flesh.  Surprisingly, she pretty much read her entire talk - it was hard to catch a pic of her looking up actually.  Fair enough, she is a writer before a speaker, and an excellent one at that.  But still, didn't see that coming.

 

My lovely trip companions, Sara and Mandy.  Just really thankful for the time with them.  These are some quality people here and I do believe we bonded as goes most times like these away from home. 

 

See ya next year, GHC.  Hopefully with my hard-headed sister in tow as well!