What a great weekend!  Hubby and I were able to go to the CHEK Convention Friday and Saturday, and boy was it good this year!   The speakers were great and the vendor halls were packed.

Ken Ham (from Answers In Genesis and the Creation Museum) and his brother Steve were the keynote speakers.  You gotta love Ken Ham!  He speaks with confidence and conviction, he gets right to the point, and he speaks about very relevant topics.  I don't ever feel like I've wasted my time listening to him, you know what I mean?

Most of the other speakers I had the opportunity to hear were great as well.  Nancy Carter from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine spoke on grace in our homeschools.  I needed to hear this one!!  We can be really tough on ourselves thinking we need to be doing better, doing more, doing school just like the Jones', or just plain getting weary in the homeschooling process.  Her talk was so uplifting and encouraging.  She's a super sweet and very down to earth person.  It was a priveledge to meet her!

Tina Burnell spoke on multi-sensory reading and spelling techniques.  Just the thing a momma with a struggling reader needs to hear.  She packed this hour full of helpful ideas and resources!  I may even do a blog soon outlining some of her techniques, web resources and books she recommends.

The last speaker I had the chance to hear was very intriguing!  Joanne Calderwood of URtheMom.com taught about the self-teaching method of homeschooling.  I brought home a booklet she passed out that I'm working quickly to finish because I'd love to start some of these methods with my 10 year old.  She talks about all sorts of advantages to allowing your children to be responsible for their own work.  You choose the curriculum, your children take responsibility to get it done with as little intervention by you as possible.  I know, it sounds too good to be true, but she explains it in very easy to understand terms.  I don't think I'd want to turn all areas of our homeschool into this sort of learning because we really enjoy family unit studies and they require mom's attention.  But, we will be looking into self-teaching for some subjects, like math and spelling this year. 

So many speakers, so little time!  Now I'm ready to get the new school year underway!