Utah Homeschooling Convention 2012

I look forward to this every year.  It is wonderful to hear keynote speakers, attend classes of my choice, wander around the curriculum fair, meet up with my homeschooling chums, and just be around A LOT of other homeschoolers. I always walk away feeling refreshed, recommitted, and full of ideas I want to try.  I love it.

Here are some notes I took from each of the four classes I took today:

THE 7 SUCCESS HABITS OF HOMESCHOOLERS by Alison Moore Smith
(Her book with this title is coming soon and I will most likely buy it.  I attended her first class and loved it and decided to attend her 2nd class, as well.)
*Habit 1: Change your mindset. What is a "good education" to you?  Why are you homeschooling?  You don't have to mimic public school in your homeschooling journey.
*Habit 2:  Define well-educated.  What does success look like to you?  Set general, flexible, long-term goals and adjust them as needed.
*Habit 3:  Organize and Prioritize.  (Her 2nd class went into this in more detail, so I'll list some of my notes here.)

• have an "in box"
• have a portable calendar
• file your reference papers, (tax papers, past bills, and so on) alphabetically.
• have a "someday" file.  Put things in there you don't need right now, but might someday. (I love this one.  I am always throwing away things I wish I had saved, but I hate having too many papers floating around!!)
• when cleaning and organizing a room have 5 boxes and a bag.  Box 1:  dump all contents of a drawer or whatever you have started cleaning out.  Box 2:  items to give away.  Box 3:  Put away box.  Don't stop organizing to put these items away.  Put them away when you are done.  Box 4:  Keep box. Things you want to keep.  Box 5:  Things you are emotionally attatched to and don't want to get rid of.  Each person in your family can have a box of these special items.  Bag:  Items you are throwing away.  (You could probably do this with less boxes and still get the same effect).
• When organizing think:  "easy in, easy out".  If it is too hard to get out, it will be too hard to put away and won't ever get put back right.
• Put things near the area where they are used.  Scissors and tape right with the wrapping paper; vegetable peeler in the drawer nearest the sink and so on.
• She mentioned the "Jeff Campbell Speed Cleaning System" which I will check out....
•  Meal Planning and Preparation:  She has a one week breakfast menu: eggs on Monday, Oatmeal on Tuesday and so on. She has 5 weeks of meals planned out that she rotates.
•   Laundry.  She washes the laundry, puts it in their bin, they fold and put it away.
• Homeschooling.  Have a dedicated homeschooling room where all or most items are kept.  Have a shelf for each child and their books.  Have binders for each subject.
•  Have a daily schedule and stick to it as much as you can, but also let your children explore subjects they love.  If they are engrossed in a science book, don't stop them so you can start history.

Habit 4:  Everybody wins.  You can choose what works for YOU.  Take what you want from public school and leave the rest.  Her kids can attend a class or two from public school in jr. high or high school.
Habit 5:  It's all about time.  Do school around these things:  Kid dates. Kid trips.  One-on-one time.  Mom is there MORE than peers.
Habit 6: (didn't catch what she named this one)  Field trips. Library. Service projects. Clubs. Kick-Off events. Use your skills; share what you can do with other homeschoolers.  Schedule downtime. 
Habit 7:  Be a Model in Progress.  Model what you want them to do and how you want them to be.  Create a success system.  Press ON!

Science and History by Catherine Levison
She follows the Charlotte Mason method and has written several books on this. 

• Study one person from history for 3 months.  Go into as much depth as you can studying from that time period:  literature, documents, letters, plays, art, novels, essays, poems, and biographies.
• Make a History Chart.  It is basically a big grid with 100 large squares.  Each square represents a year.  You then write or sketch something to represent that year.  A war, or something like that. Don't just do US history.  Do this with World History as well.  (I might try this on a smaller scale....)
• For science she suggested getting each child a sketch book.  This is their own and they don't need to show anyone.  Take them on nature walks.  Weekly!  Bring home things to sketch or sit and do it there.  Regarding science, your main goal should be to teach them to be observant.  They should be observant about:  stones, plants, constellations, birds, field crops, leaves.  Take them to the same place during each change in the seasons so they can "observe" the changes taking place.
• Teach them the "thing" before the name.  Help them see a flower, wonder what it is, go home and find OUT what the name is.  They will retain that longer.  (So true!  I was delighted to discover we have already done this.  We went for a walk in the spring and saw fuzzy caterpillars everywhere.   We didn't sketch them, but were still able to go home and find out what they were and write about them.  I LOVE doing science this way.  I want my kids to WANT to study the world around them!)

The last class I attend was called CLAP interviews.  Chores. Learning. Attitude. Planning.  Bascially the teacher has weekly meetings with each of her kids discussing each of these areas.  They set goals and she follows up with them each week.  She has THEM pick an attribute to work on that week: honesty, kindness and so on, and I loved that!

All in all it was a great conference and I got what I needed from it.  I often pray if homeschooling is still right for our family and for now, it still is.  I am excited about our school year.  I am grateful for the support I got today and that I know where I can go anytime I need a lift.  I have made many dear friends that understand what it is like to have your child hide from you during math time.  Or reading time.....or any time.  UGH!Being a parent is hard work.  Homeschooling is hard work.  But, it makes my heart sing.  I feel free to do what works for us as a family.  I am grateful I have that choice.  How blessed we all are!  :)  (I hope this post helps some of my homeschooling buddies who read my blog and weren't able to go today!!)