Tampa Bay Homeschool Conference

We traveled to Tampa, FL for the last of my conventions. This was a new convention for me. I used to live in Tampa so I was looking forward to seeing old friends and my old stomping grounds. The convention was held in a new building (since I lived here).

 We were packed to the gills! The space to the right was for my assistant's bags, etc. We filled that up in no time!

 Here we are! The Fountains and me. Stopped at a red light of course.

 The booth is all set up. The tables were not 8 foot long like I expected so the tablecloths drooped. At least it wasn't the other way around! But that meant that I had 6 less feet of display space so I had to tweak the display set up.  Instead of having a sign-in table, I used that 4 foot table to display the Science rack. That's what's on the right side.

Another shot of the full booth. The booth space was small so instead of setting up the other front table in front and crowding our booth, I had it on the side which helped to define our space.  It worked.

Once we had our booth set up on Friday afternoon, I went to my friend's house where several old youth group kids (I used to be a youth minister when I lived in Tampa) came over to visit and catch up. We had a lovely pot luck cook out.

I hadn't seen Phil since he was in college in Atlanta. I got to meet his son. It was fun to think back to when I had two children and doing youth ministry. When I left I was pregnant with my third. It's crazy to think that Kathryn is at that same stage in life with three children, one about to start kindergarten. I left her a Sonlight catalog :)

The sweet, sweet Lopez girls! I missed seeing the two Victors but they were both occupied and couldn't come.

Shawn's daughter looked just like him but his son must look like his mama. Emily doesn't live in town so I didn't get to see her but the Waltrips filled me in. Jen, Wes's wife of almost one year, was very sweet!

 A room full of kids's kids! How crazy it is to see your youth group "kids" with kids. I'm getting old, no doubt about it!

Wes and Jen with Wes's jeep. He followed in Michael's footsteps!

Thank you Rodebushes for hosting us! I had a blast!!!!!

HERI 2012

We had a great time working at the HERI convention last weekend, talking to parents who are either new to homeschooling or looking for something better than what they were currently using.

Here is the face shot. On Friday, my friend Natalie helped out in the booth until Michael could join us. (Didn't get her photo). He worked a half day then came and joined us. Sophie is Natalie's daughter and she was great at handing out catalogs.

 Here is a closer shot. Sophie pointed out that her shirt matched the tablecloth perfectly.

 Here she is showing off Core 100.

And here's a fun shot of Michael with Timothy. Timothy didn't want to work in the booth but he and Tommy were my roadies on Thursday when I set up, unloading the car and setting up the banners and racks.

This was my tenth HERI if you count the two years I worked as an assistant. The organizers really do a great job with it.

Scripture Memory

Ever since we first started homeschooling, back in 2000, we have been memorizing scripture. Before beginning that first year I attended the HERI Homeschool Convention where I attended several workshops.  One person who spoke that year was Pam Tebow. At the time she was well-known in the homeschooling circles as the homeschooling mom of 5 children. Now, of course, she is known as the former Gator quarterback,Tim Tebow's mom.

That year she spoke of the importance of scripture memory and shared how she did it. She told the audience that "What is set to song is remembered long." She explained that she comes up with a little tune and sings her scripture memory. I thought it was a good idea and we tried it that year. We had a little Preskool tape deck with a microphone and used that to record our songs. That year we were doing Sonlight's Core K (now A) which had A to Z scriptures to memorize. At the time, they didn't have the CD that they now have so we came up with our own tunes. I also didn't like all the scriptures that they had selected. There were others that I really wanted my kids to know so I sat down with my Bible and a sheet of paper labeled A through Z down the side. I found scriptures I wanted my kids to know and filled in where they would fit. For those more difficult letters (X, Z?) I used Sonlight's suggestions.

My oldest son is starting his senior year this year. I bet he still knows every single one of those songs he learned in kindergarten. I plan to test him on this just to see.

This system worked so well for us the first year that we used it again the next year. I again came up with my own scriptures using a scripture that would fit character traits. I called them the "Be Scriptures." You know, Be alert, Be kind, etc and again, we came up with songs for those. We were not as diligent at memorizing that list but we did revisit it this past year.

This has been the method of scripture memory I have used even for myself. I participated in First Place For Health a few seasons back where we had weekly scripture memory assignments. Yep. I came up with a little tune.  It just works for me, even though I am not musical. The little Preskool tape deck is no longer with us, but now I use the voice recorder on my IPhone to record my ditty so I don't lose the tune.

Recently a friend shared a scripture memory method shared on the Simply Charlotte Mason board that uses a filing box and 3 X 5 cards. I think I will try to incorporate it into our school year next year. I will start with our ABC scriptures, then add our Be scriptures. We'll see how far we go at filling in the box. Then we will add the BBC Manual scriptures that Timothy began a few years ago (but never completed) and Annie will do this year. This may be just the ticket to get through that list.

Do you memorize scripture? If so, how do you do it? I'd love to hear!

Keeping Your Mind Sharp

I've read in different articles that doing "brain gymnastics" like Sudoku and crossword puzzles keeps the brain sharp and staves off Alzheimer's. I don't care for Sukoku (it's math, people!) and I like crossword puzzles okay but I find that many clues deal with obscure things or pop culture which I don't follow. So I've found a new thing that may have the same effect (I don't have scientific data to back up my hypothesis, but it can't hurt, right?). And that's The Official SAT Question of the Day. Yes, some of the questions deal with Math (and yes, I don't get the majority of them right but hey, I don't get many crossword puzzle clues right either, but I do try them!) But some are Verbal and I do often get them right. I still have to really think about the question and I like to have a reason to back my answer (a "proof" if you will) which adds to the brain activity. (You don't need to do that to take the SAT. I just think it's good to reason out your answer in a practice setting.)

I had subscribed to the SAT Question of the Day because I have a child who needed to take the SAT. I had been forwarding and then deleting the question. However, one day I paused to read the question and attempted to answer it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had answered it correctly! So that led me to try other questions and soon I began to see this exercise as a suitable brain stimulating activity substitute. So now when I see that question in my inbox, I take a few minutes to puzzle out the answer.

What do you think? Want to try it? Click the above link to take you to the page. You can either subscribe to an email-a-day, or just go to the SAT College Board website where you can select from different days. They even give you hints if you need one. Tell me what you think! I'm thinking I want to see if I can up my SAT score from over 25 years ago...

Great Homeschool Convention-Greenville

I'm in town for this popular convention. Here are pictures of my booth.

 Getting set up. A work in progress.

 It's coming together.

 There we go! All done!

 View from the side. We have an end cap this year. That's new for me!

 View from the other side. A seating area for tired feet.

 Here you can see the sign in table, seating area, samples of Cores E, F and G&H. In the back is high school cores, science, math and electives.

 This front table shows that we teach preschool through high school. (Cores P, A and 100)

 This center table has LA with readers, extra LA, spelling and Cores B&C.

 Center table with Core samples from E, F and G&H.

Back tables.

So, who's coming to this convention? Stop by and get a catalog and a coupon! Come say hi!

Coastal Florida Curriculum Fair

I just returned from my first convention for 2012 where I was able to encourage, advise, counsel and mentor new homeschoolers or just new-to-Sonlight homeschoolers. It was a great but tiring time and now I'm enjoying getting off my feet.

Here are a few shots...

Catalog passer-outer extraordinaire! She also gets to play the mom sympathy card. She met a few other Italians around and had fun chatting with them. One lady in particular was the Florida Virtual School vendor. The other was Math-U-See. And a nice gentleman, who helped us load up the car, 's parents are from Portofino.

Look Kelly! Ironed tablecloths!

View from the other side. I love having the banners and not having to worry about hanging a sign...

With a two-booth display I had to tweak the arrangement. I have the small racks because my next event is larger and is in 2 weeks. So I took 4 small racks with me and did a P 3/4 & P 4/5 and A display in one with 100-400 in the other one on the front table. Then I did a smaller LA and Sci display on the back tables. 

It worked fine. The Gr. 3 MSP  is great!

It got to be freezing for a while until we told handy-man George and he turned the a/c up to 70...from 60! This is what mom likes to do when it's slow...that dang Iphone!

Here's the headshot for Lynn! I really need a haircut...hopefully I can squeeze in some time this week between advising, homeschooling, co-op, physical therapy and TYPING CARDS!

Lent 2012

One of the things I love about homeschooling is being able to incorporate faith. Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the season of Lent in the liturgical calendar. Timothy was off at PEP so Annie and I met Michael for Ash Wednesday service at noon. I did a little research and found out that the season of Lent is not just a "Catholic thing." In fact in one friend's blog, he says that "Lent is catholic, not Catholic." But rather most of the mainline liturgical churches celebrate Ash Wednesday and Lent. (One website says: Many Western Protestant churches also observe Ash Wednesday, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and United Methodists.)


The service begins with the following words:


Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This is season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.


And then it continues with scripture readings and the imposition of the ashes which are marked with the following words: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.


I love being part of a liturgical church which follows seasons, much like the Jewish faith or the natural world. (According to wikipedia Liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions and the liturgical year consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when feast day, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read either in an annual cycle or in a cycle of several years. Distinct liturgical colours may appear in connection with different seasons of the liturgical year.)


This period is set apart as a time of self-examination, something that is often hard to do. It's much easier to examine others and find faults in them than to look deep down in our inner selves and find that which is moldy, rotting and downright putrid and work to eradicate it. 


I had been thinking about what God would have me do for this Lenten season that would draw me closer to Him and make more into his image. I felt that I had parts of it but not all. It was during the service and particularly during Rick's sermon that I was struck with what the final component of my Lenten exercise would be: Service. So here it is for this year's Lent, the things I will focus on and endeavor to do or not do as the case may be: 


Prayer and Thanksgiving - use prayer cards and pray for specific people; keep a thanksgiving journal
Fasting - Fast from breakfast and lunch on Wednesdays, pray when I feel hunger pangs; give up alcohol
Scripture reading and Silence - Continue to read through the New Testament; sit quietly and listen to God and reflect on the reading
Service - Cook a meal for a family


My children are at the age where they have decided on their own what they will do. Something we will do as a family will be to read Amon's Adventure by Arnold Ytreeide. 


What about you? Do you celebrate Lent? Why or why not? If so, what do you do to observe a holy Lent? I'd love to hear!