The Roundup is a homeschool conference here where I live. It’s been less than a year since I decided to homeschool so yesterday and today were the first days I spent at a homeschooling conference.
Day #1
HS used curriculum sale-
Not quite the number of people/ books I expected but okay. But the attendence was pitiful! I actually only bought 1 book. There were loads of public school workbooks and things like “reproducibles of every kind for teachers!” Ho-hum. Then there were tons of old editions of common curricula… old math-u-see and positively ancient hooked on phonics were both there. Neat to see at least.
Homeschooling 101
Again- only about 6 couples with their kids. The speaker didn’t actually answer the questions…
For example… what curriculum do you recommend for X?
Answer: I don’t! Public library, child led interests… yadda, yadda.
You know, some people aren’t prepared to unschool from the start… how about a list of commonly used programs? Sheesh.
It was a waste of time and I could have done a better job myself. Nuff said.
Day #2-
Today was 5 more sessions and commercial vendors. Definitely much better. Some interesting speakers, some nice people, some people I knew from our HSing group. I bought next year’s MUS (I was really surprised but apparently Primer is cheaper than the other levels.) That cost just under $60. But I really can’t complain because 1/2 of it is reuseable and what else do I spend money on right now? I’ve got enough phonics and reading material to last until this time next year if I wanted and all the books at the library. A few art supplies… So I bought a couple of used books, got a lot of freebies and had a fun day. It was good.
The last session was about unschooling. When I first heard of it (a year ago?) I was shocked and thought those people were plain nuts. Now I kind of admire them and they are definitely more relaxed. I could never unschool completely, but aspects of it I really like.
I kind of feel dumb though. I only just realized today that I had *never* asked Brendan what HE wants to learn about. I pick topics I think will interest him but have never let him choose. I’m going to change that a bit. But I just did and he wanted more Junie B. Jones, Curious George and Dora books. So I guess he hasn’t had any unfulfilled burning desires to learn about anything else at the moment. 😉
Man, there are a lot of people homeschooling and just as many ways of doing it. LOL. And a lot of half wild yet brilliantly smart kids running the halls.