A Note about the 2013 CHAP Homeschool Convention I Attended

Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11, 2013, my family attended the Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania's (CHAP) annual homeschool convention.  I didn't need to buy much curriculum this year as I have a 3rd grade and a 10th grade Sonlight package, and since those are the grades I am teaching this year, I didn't need much.  Now, I will be teaching these packages to my boys differently than Sonlight suggests because I am eclectic and I really enjoy being involved with the boys.  I may or may not have my 10th grader read the readers, or maybe, I'll just have him read some of them, because now that he's in high school, I like to focus on reading classics aloud to him and discussing them or having him write an occasional paper on one or a few of them.  My third grader will read some of the readers aloud to me.  I still feel that he needs some practice in reading and being asked questions to be sure the comprehension is there, but as the year progresses, I will probably have him read a couple of the readers to himself and then have him tell me about the story orally, or have him draw a picture or write a short paper about the story.

We will be using all of the history books for Sonlight, and my tenth grader will also complete the Mystery of History Book 1, that we only got halfway through this year.  My 10th grader will do some of the English that is with the Sonlight package, but will also complete the two books he was working out of this year.  My third grader will complete the book he was working out of this year, as well as work through a book entitled, Language Lessons for the Elementary Child by Sandi Queen.  We take a Charlotte Mason approach to most of our subjects, and this book has a Charlotte Mason flavor.

I will do a separate post on the Charlotte Mason Method another day.

My third grader will also work through a Wordly Wise Book A workbook to learn about vocabulary.  My older two boys used Wordly Wise workbooks for quite a few years to expand their vocabulary.  Now, I simply have them look up words that they come across in their reading that they are not familiar with and write a definition for it, so that they will learn those words.  We do a lot of reading and reading is the best way to learn vocabulary and grammar.

My third grader will also work through a workbook entitled, A Reason for Handwriting.  It is a transition workbook to transition from printing to cursive writing, and it uses scripture verses.

My tenth grader will also be doing the "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" computer program so that he will learn how to type using all of his fingers.  He doesn't have much interest in the computer, but I know he will have a need to use it sometimes, so I want him to know how to type with all of his fingers, so that it doesn't take him forever to complete something he works on.

I will do a separate post on Math another day.

I apologize for getting a bit off track with this post.  My intention was to tell you about all of the wonderful seminars that I attended and the speakers that I heard.  I mentioned not needing to buy much curriculum to lead into the fact that, instead of spending a lot of time shopping, I attending a lot of seminars.  That is where my refreshment and inspiration come from to keep homeschooling year after year.

So, what I will do now, is tell you about the seminars and speakers in the next few posts, follow those posts with a post about Math, followed by a post about the Charlotte Mason Method of teaching, followed by other ways of homeschooling, as well as a post on how to determine your school schedule, so keep visiting.  I'm sure you won't want to miss the upcoming information.