Coastal Florida Curriculum Fair 2013

The first convention of the year went well with minimal problems! I set up the booth in plenty of time thanks to all the helpful teens who unloaded the van. George Pastor is a great troubleshooter and the organizers, Leslie and Teresa, are both very warm and welcoming. It's always a pleasure doing this convention as they truly make us vendors feel appreciated.

The booth is smaller than normal since this is a small event, so I needed to modify the display in order to fit in the allotted  space. There are samples of the P 3/4 through Core H Cores on the top shelf of the bookcase with the IGs on the second shelf and high school samples on the bottom shelf. The little rack contains high school IGs. The large rack contains Language Arts IGs and reader samples as well as Spelling, Grammar and Handwriting samples.

The second table contained Science samples on the small racks. The bookcase had math samples on the top shelf,  Mathtacular running on the laptop, and resources and electives samples on the bottom shelf.

The front table had the Grade 3 Multi Subject Package as well as the sign in area.  We kept the bags with catalogs under the table. 

I and my wonderful, tireless mom, who just celebrated her 70th birthday, spoke to numerous people who are new to homeschooling or who are looking for something different than what they are currently using. Also spoke with several people who are doing (or considering doing) Classical Conversations (they were right behind me in the picture below) and wanted to know how to incorporate Sonlight.

When there were lulls in the vendor hall due to workshops, we had a great time getting to know Steve of Good Steward Books and Dale of La Clase Divertida as they were both across from me. Dale and Steve's son Mark will be in North Carolina in a few weeks. Last year Good Steward Books was right next to me. Steve asked me to name my favorite Sonlight book. I couldn't name just one so I told him about Understood Betsy and The Story of Eli Whitney, both of which he had never heard of before. Of course there are others that I love too but these are the first two that came to mind.

Alas, my workshop was not well attended since it was at 1:30 on Friday, right before the end of the convention.

I think the most interesting conversation I had was with 3 ladies from Puerto Rico who had flown in specifically for this convention. Two of them had homeschooled one year using a textbook curriculum and the other woman, their friend, had brought them to the booth. She asked me if I remembered her and I happened to remember her name as I had spent a lot of time with her two years earlier. They practically begged me to come to Puerto Rico to tell other homeschoolers about Sonlight. They didn't have to twist my arm too hard! I'll definitely look into what that will entail! Sounds like fun!

I'm home for a week and a half and then am off for the next one! March is such a whirlwind month!