• Aug. 7, 2007 - SE Homeschool Expo - Atlanta, GA
I arrived home Sunday from the Expo and I had a wonderful time. I took Hayden and Hannah with me. Hayden needed to look over some material to make choices for next year and Hannah came because I couldn't leave her home with the other two boys. So she got to celebrate her birthday in Atlanta. It was a wonderful conference. While it had lots of vendors and workshops it didn't seem as crowded or frantic as the Florida convention. Also I think there were more small or newer vendors that I don't usually get to see in Florida. I'm not sure if there were more hands on activities here or if the smaller crowds just allowed you time to really get up to try stuff out. There were several science centers and science vendors that had things to do at their booth. Hannah really seemed to enjoy the hands on things. There was even an hourly short puppet show.  
The hotel was outstanding and the location was really nice. The kids were impressed the minute we walked into the lobby of the place. It was attached to the convention hall with a small upscale mall that had a few places to eat. (Sadly it looks like this mall is dying so not sure what will be there next year. It looks like both a movie theater and a game place are already close.) There was also a sky bride across the main road to another mall. This was a full mall with food court and shops that was a great way to spend a few hours and get food for much less than the hotel.
  These are shots of the lobby. I just loved the teak bells. There were just beautiful. Our room was up on the 7th floor and we could look out on the two pools below. The outdoor deck pool and the indoor pool. We ended up just using the indoor pool.   Here is a shot of the kids getting ready to take the sky bridge and then looking back at over to the Center and Hotel from the Cumberland Mall parking lot.
 
For Hannah's birthday we ate at Jock and Jill's in the upscale Galleria Mall. We shared one desert which they didn't charge us for as it was someone's birthday. It was so funny when we left Thursday morning. Hannah chose to travel in her party dress because it was a special day. She also wore her dress up princess shoes but I did get her to switch to her sandals before we went out to eat.
  Hayden really had a good time and really seem to shine on this trip. He made friends and played with others every evening in the pool. And on Friday he saw some boys playing their DS's (Nintendo Dual Screen - small hand held video game) so he went back to our room got his and joined in the group. They played for over 2 hours together. It was really neat to see. I had him do all the talking to the Teaching Textbook vendor. He has decided on Sonlight Core 300 (using Audio Reader program), Teaching Textbook (either Pre-A or Alegebra depending on placement testing), and Aplogia Physical Science (using MP3 audio CD and possibly Live and Learn lapbook). He is also looking forward to applying for job locally in the next couple of weeks. He wants to save up for a new computer so he can take advantage of two of the products he found at the convention. One is a course on web design and the other is a computer animation program. He was impressed with both but would need a better computer. So he now has a goal to get save up for a new game system, then computer, then buy the programs he found at the convention. Not sure how long it will take him but its exciting to watch him make goals and formulate his own plans. I'm not sure if he is just getting more confortable with himself or by being somewhere without the other two boys to be the outgoing ones left him room to move out himself. Or maybe a combination of the two? In any case it was really great to see. Also I realized on this trip just how much that boy can eat. I guess I never noticed at home because either there's only so much food or since everyone is eating from the same pot you don't notice how much he eats at one time. Although he did fill up enough on his huge double burger at the Cheesecake Factory that he was willing to bring his piece of cheesecake back to the room to eat later.   I also got to meet another friend my homeschool egroup in real life. And like the times I've met up with other mom's from the loop we had a really great visit together. I think her son was impressed with Hayden's video game. Hayden also "impressed" him by going down the up escalator. Never thought to say don't do that before.
It was really a wonderful trip and very relaxing. Hayden and Hannah have already decided we need to return next year and bring the rest of the gang. I'm not sure we can make this happen as we have a graduation to go to in May but I would love to have it work out. I think I would add a few days onto our reservation and do some sight seeing in the area as well. But we really, really had a wonderful time and I'm so glad I went. |
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• Aug. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment