Gettin' Learned

Learning is more fun with friends! So is eating :) We stayed home for the boys' baseball game on the first day of the homeschool conference, which meant that we had to be up early (like in the sixes early!) the next day to get to the conference sometime before the morning sessions were through. Our new good friends and their two oldest were about 10 minutes behind us on the road :)

When the kids were little, which was the last time we went to homeschool conference, we decided when they were older they could choose their own curriculum (to an extent). This being the first conference they could attend, they were a little unsure of what this process would look like. We said, "Go be free! Report back if there is something you cannot learn without." They headed off in a group of six and would come back as they found interesting things. There are so many things (a whole room that SMELLS like BOOKS!!) that we decided to ruminate while we consumed some food.

Table for ten please! I know, an unusually small group this time :) The waiter joked with R that he'd get him a glass of fresh pond water. We all joined in saying it was "Organic" and "only filtered once." To our surprise, the waiter later brought back a murky colored glass of liquid with some floaters in it. At that point, we basically peer and parent pressured the poor kid into trying the "pond water." It turns out, it was really good! Just to be funny, the waiter mixed lemonade, iced tea, and root beer, then dropped in a few peppercorns. Everyone (except Caelan and me) sipped it and got a "wow, that's really good!" look on their faces. "Tangy lemonade, with a hint of mint aftertaste," was the general consensus. The manager came over, after hearing our reactions, and I would not be surprised if "Pond Water" appears as a summer drink option on the menu sometime soon :)

We learned SOOOOOO much at this conference! Day one, the kids made friends with the quizzing kids, and ended up talking to them the next day too (and attending their seminar on how to start a quizzing team near you!) 

But seriously, I am so glad God worked out the timing that He did on this conference because there is a whole lotta stuff Caelan needs to be doing her Junior year that we would have found out about too late. Wow, so glad we went!! I attended every high school informational class (as did the girls) and every college prep class (as did the girls). Caelan talked to recruiters at at least one Bible college booth, we went to a financial planning for college seminar, and Gabby got to ask questions about a couple summer government opportunities. Graysen learned about a Lego robotics club and Brennen found a Tim Tebow devotional book. Who am I kidding? We found a lot of books! Including some cool hands-on electives for Brennen and some CLEP prep courses for the girls. Hello, college credit, here we come! :)

Our night of sleep at my parents' house was challenging. Mom flew to CA to help with my dad being in the hospital. My graduated brother was there to welcome us, but my youngest brother was at a school competition with his team. We sleepily scattered throughout the available rooms only to hear, "Yip, yip, yip" at about 2 a.m. I finally took the upstairs dog, downstairs and put him in that bathroom with one of his puppy pads for company. No sooner (so it seemed) than I fell back to sleep, then my brother's alarm started HONKING . . . it was 4:30 a.m. I tried to shut it off, but it was only on snooze mode, so 15 minutes later HONK HONK HONK. I went back into my brother's room, accidentally (but helpfully) turned on his touch lamp, slid the thingy on the clock back all the way over and . . . quiet . . . until 6 a.m. when BOTH dogs started, "Yip, yip, yipping." Oh my carrots! I asked the kids individually, including the one who was IN THE ROOM with the alarm and lamp on at 4:30 a.m. how they slept. "Oh fine, no problems here." For Pete's sake. :)



Buck and the boys attended some different sessions than the girls and I did, so Buck had a minute to run and grab sandwiches. He and Graysen ate, then the three boys (B with sandwich) headed into a manly talk, while the girls and I had our sandwiches. Gabby suddenly said, "Oh no!" and her glasses were in half. I said, "Where's the screw?" She said, "I don't know, I can't see anything!" Caelan, laughing, found the screw on the floor and we then attempted to find something in our purses that would be small enough to turn the tiny screw to temporarily fix the glasses. I found a nail file, Caelan found a guitar pick. We went with that and it worked, ha! Homeschool ingenuity at the conference :)