The Home School Book Fair

This past weekend was one that I'd been anticipating for months now.....It was the weekend of the annual Home School Book Fair. I had been looking forward to purchasing Mary Alice's curriculum for next year. I thought I had prepared well by reading countless books on home school curriculums, visiting forums, and asking trusted home schooling friends for their advice. I even took a survey to determine my type of home school teaching style (whether I was Charlotte Mason, classical, etc.)

I came to the book fair, armed with my many lists in hand, confident that I would be able to choose the "best" curriculum for Mary Alice for next year. I was looking for a curriculum that would be both challenging and fun, one that would be a perfect fit for her. On Friday, I visited every booth of interest, feeling sure that I would find the books I needed within the day. When I left the book fair empty handed that afternoon, I found myself to be more confused than ever!!! There were SO MANY booths. At each booth, there were people who used their curriculum, convinced that it was better than "curriculum B", which was a terrible mistake for their child. The people at the booth for "curriculum B" were positive that their curriculum was the best, that they had found "curriculum A" to be too boring/hard/slow, etc. for their child. There was a repeat of this at many of the booths I visited. There were such a variety of resources out there (which is a good thing) that it made my head spin. I left early, very discouraged by the fact that I had gotten almost nothing accomplished.

On Saturday, Josh came with me to the conference. He is such a sweetie. He didn't complain once, even though I knew that the home school book fair was probably the last place that he wanted to spend his weekend. I think it surprised him that the women there weren't all denim-clad school marms. There were so many normal looking people there. The only people who looked odd were the employees of the book fair, whose work uniforms were bright blue jumpers popular circa 1980's. Their jumpers had these big white collars over the tops of them (much like what I wore to church when I was a very young girl). The collars were embroidered with bright balloons and read "Home School Book Fair". Those same dresses have been around for at least fifteen years. Maybe they'll be around forever? Homeschooling has changed so much in the last fifteen years. When I was a little girl, my mom pulled me out of the public school system when I was in the fifth grade. During those first few years, I remember having a fear that there would be a knock on our door, that some well-intentioned local authorities would try to drag my parents off to jail and put us back into the public school system. I remember feeling like a rebel, because we were doing something that was so foreign to everyone. Home schooling has come a long way... More and more people are choosing to jump onto the home schooling bandwagon. It doesn't seem so weird any more. Despite the growth and change associated with the home school movement, though, those bright blue jumpers sure have stayed the same! :)


Josh and I took time and looked at nearly every booth together. There was one booth that we visited where we saw a very young boy managing the cash register. He looked to be about 7-8 years old. He was very polite and knowledgeable. It was very cute. I got Josh to snap a picture of him with my cell phone. I'll see if I can post it later. His older brother (about 9-10) was rolling a huge dolly full of books and was in charge of re-stocking them. It was so neat to see this family working together at their little family business.

We did end up purchasing some curriculum. We purchased Spelling, Phonics, and Handwriting for Mary Alice. I'm still undecided on exactly what route I'm going to go for her Math. Like I said, each vendor had their own opinion about why their Math curriculum was the best and couldn't be beat. It was frustrating beyond belief! Who do you trust? Who is most like you, and, more importantly, whose child is most like yours? I still have a few more months to decide exactly which route to take. I'm not too worried about it.

I looked at several formal curriculums for Science and History. I was not very impressed. I felt like so many of the formal curriculums for Science and History below grade 2 were "fluff". While they taught a few meaningful concepts, I didn't feel that overall they were very interesting or educational. I felt like the concepts covered in one year's Science or History book could easily be taught in less than a month. After looking at all of the materials from the major publishing companies, I am leaning toward putting together my own "unit study" type curriculum for her Science and History. My favorite curriculum for Science and History (for those of you who know about this sort of thing) was Sonlight. I especially loved their Science curriculum. I just don't know if I want to purchase the whole thing...just for Science? Any of you Sonlight users have any recommendations? Also, Sonlight's History seemed intriguing. I'm just not sure that I want to start Mary Alice out with World History for Kindergarten. I think she would be much more interested in American History. Also, I loved Sonlight's geography program. Geography is definitely something that we could start this year. We'll just wait and see... I have a few more months to get my act together.

On Saturday night, Josh and I decided to stay in a hotel. It was so much fun getting to do this, something that we rarely take the time to do. The kids were with their grandparents, so we enjoyed some quality date time together. We went out to eat at our favorite restaurant, requested (and received!!!) our favorite off menu item. Yippee!!! It was great! On Sunday, we went to church with Josh's family. We got to spend some time with Josh's parents and with Chad and Miranda.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. The book fair, though overwhelming, was a positive experience. Even though my curriculum has not all been purchased, I definitely feel like I have a plan. Also..even if you are not planning on home schooling, I think you would really enjoy visiting the home school book fair. There is a fabulous selection of children's books, Christian books, educational resources, etc. And...if you come next year...you'll probably even get to see those cute home school jumpers I talked about! :)

Have a great day!

Oh yes... I will try to post what I learned about Scripture memorization from the CDG conference soon. It is really great!