*I am in need of some direction on why my links to all my highlighted areas are not working.  What on earth am I doing wrong?  Apparently I missed the memo that I am not doing it correctly.  So PLEASE leave me a little memo as to what I am doing incorrectly.  Thanks, Tammy

How does one manage to go to a homeschool conference and miss tons of opportunities to take pictures with a camera?  The camera I took specifically to get some pictures of us at the conference.  But, alas, I managed to forget the camera in the hotel room every single time we went out.  

The conference itself was good.  We heard Todd Wilson from Family Man Ministries.  Terrific sense of humor with very encouraging message for wives and husbands.  Andrew Pudewa

We heard of Institute for Excellence In Writing.  Again, a very powerful speaker.  He had an excellent session on "Teaching boys and other children who would rather make forts all day."  I am still processing what he said and infact, I bought the cd of that session to listen to again.  He recommended three books to read.  Go to your death $5,000.00 in debt if you have to just to get these books and read them (tongue in cheek)!  #1, a one Dr. Sax.  Don't remember the title to his book, but it is a good description of the boy/girl differences (addendum: Peduwa does not believe/agree with everything that is in this book, but nonetheless, it is an excellent book).

#2, John Taylor Gattos book called, The Underground History of Education.  Now, you should probably be willing to go $10,000.00 in debt to add this book to your collection (again, tongue in cheek).  But READ IT.  You will be a better person and definately depressed about the lack of hope of the institution of public school.

*editors note: I realize that there are many good teachers in public schools, and in fact, there are some really good schools out there, but that does not mean that there is not an agenda.  There is.  Go here to see what is happening in bigger cities and will be coming to a school near you soon.

#4, To round off your reading and to bring you back to the light, finish off your reading of #2 with, "A Thomas Jefferson Education".  It is not just about Thomas Jefferson, but more about he and his contemporaries' education.  More of a classical bent to the book.  If any of you have used the IEW program, drop me a note and give me your opinions.  Before I decide to use this program, I would like to get some feedback from others who have been in the trenches with it.  Thanks in advance for any feedback

Oh, when going to a conference of this magnitude, one hopes to be encouraged and refreshed.  Not to mention a small platter of guilt.  Anissa and I knew it was a success when we walked out of one of the sessions and we had guilt!

Seriously, there was some conviction about being nice to other peoples' kids but not our own.  Ouch!  A really good reminder that because my kids "know" I love them, it does not mean I get a free license to be a booger-head to them.  Because if the truth were to be told, I am hard on them at times.  Harder than I need to be. 

One of the highlights of being there was the vendor hall.  So, Anissa and I prepared ourselves for this overwhelming joy/excitement/nirvanah like experience by having our own paper bag ready.  Last year it was ugly!  We both walked in and BOOM!  It was all there.  LampLighter books, Rainbow Resource(my favorite), Peace Hill Press, Sonlight (which, by the way, as we were pulling out of our driveway, Rodger grabbed the mail and there it was!  My new catalog!), IEW, Memoria Press(not that we actually did  our latin).  And many more.  Check out the website of the convention to see all the vendors.  Indeed, it is an experience to behold. 

Jeannie Fulbright was there, but I did not get to hear her speak.

Jessie Wise was there, but I did not get to hear her speak either.  Or rather, I chose not to go to her because she had titles that made me think she might just be repeating what the book already says (Susan did that last year). 

I have to confess, that last years line up was a little better than this years, but overall it was still wonderful.

We had THREE dinners without any children!  The hotel we were at was the "Not so Comfortable Inn".  We had St. Mary's LaCrosse team with us the first night.  They took their fish nets out in the hall at 1/2/3 am and were practicing for the next days big game.  Oh, that was after the NCAA basketball game was over.  How do we know that an NCAA b-ball game was on you might be wondering?  Well, those little morsels were right under us and we heard it all!  Then, last night we had a Detroit Basketball team with us.  They were out till 2/3 am yelling around the hallway area.  So really, it was just like home with all the lack of sleep.  The pillows rocked though!  They were so cozy! 

We had another couple from our church who were there without their three littles and they lead us to a fine dining experience of ecclectic Italian.  The restaurant was somewhere in Cincinnati.  We then stopped at Graeters Ice Cream shop across the street to end the night.  Ahhhh, living in non-reality was fun for a few days .  So now we are back home and the kids are still with aunt and uncle for the night.  They will be back tomorrow sometime.

Shhh, don't tell Anissa I told you so, but her husband took us to Dayton on the "way" to Cincinnati.  Apparently he was in the midst of such stimulating conversation that he missed his turn. We all had a good chuckle about it.  I mean, it was only 48 miles out of the way.  Really, it is a non-issue.  Just don't tell her I told you! 

O.K. here are some of the pictures I said I would get posted:

 This is Monty, the "Barrel around the neck" dog.  He is a friends dog.

Here are two pictures of the kids doing eggs.

Chloe's Opus Magnum. . .

Josh.  What else can I say?  I know God has got great plans for this boy!

So, we went, we saw, we conquered.  I shopped for a few things, although I am not exactly sure of everything we are doing next year.  I need to finish this year first.  We joined HSLDA for the first time ever.  Gary DeMar spoke and just listening to him makes me want to give him my money.  In the form of a book purchase, of course! 

I will probably pull out snippets of the weeks happenings as I process it all.  Hopefully I will not forget everything I heard. 

Have a wonderful week and feel free to leave a comment on the IEW  program.

Blessings, Tammy