Notes from Midwest Homeschool Conference I

Last weekend was the Midwest Homeschool Conference.  My dear friends Heather and Jeanelle flew in from their respective states and Anna met me here at home.  We drove together, in a very full van (thanks for your patience, ladies!) from Columbus, adding riders from a friend’s home and the airport. 

We, actually, were running early. [gasp] both to pick Heather up from the airport, and to reach my in-law’s house.

My wonderful in-laws kept the children for the weekend.  My wonderful sister-in-law decided to come to the conference, so we left the food and coolers with her to bring in for tailgating.  (It was chilly enough we ended up eating *in* her van!)  Frankly, our best tip is to have semi-nutritious fun food (mostly from Trader Joe’s) to eat for lunch (maybe breakfast and snack time too).  The convention center doesn’t allow you to bring food in, however [glare], so we eat in the parking lot, see the out of doors, and have a little bit of quiet. 

The sessions I attended were

Hal & Melanie Young – Raising Real Men
Dr. Perrin – The Intellectual Virtues
Buck Holler – Introduction to the Lost Tools of Writing
Tom Clark – The Seven Laws of Teaching
Buck Holler – Teaching Classical Literature Classically: How
Dr. Perrin – How to be a Teacher, How to be a Student
Sonya Shafer: – Teaching Language Arts the Charlotte Mason Way
Martin Cothran – How To Think (and how to get your kids to do it too)
Dr. Perrin – The Lighter Side of Education
Martin Cothran – How to Teach Worldview Through Literature
Susan Wise Bauer – Homeschooling the REAL Child
Diana Waring – Unlocking the Mysteries of the Middle Ages

And, then, my brain hurt.  Dr. Perrin (from Classical Academic Press) and Martin Cothran (from Memoria Press) were the highlights of the weekend!

I called this Notes I, I hope to write up some of my notes in the coming days and weeks.  I’ll probably start with Dr. Perrin’s sessions as they were my clear favorites, the most convicting, and the ones I’ve been considering over the past week.

4 Comments

  1. Wow! Those all sound *amazing*! All we have in the Pacific Northwest is a Vision-Forum-type homeschool conference in, of course, Seattle. I've never gone.

    With some of my prize at Exodus Books I actually bought the Young's book "Raising Real Men"! Was the session good?

  2. The Raising Real Men talk was very good. I think it was aimed at moms with boys who were 10-12 and older. Anna already owns the book, so I'm looking forward to borrowing hers when she and her husband are done.

    There were some very good lectures. Actually, my least favorites were Buck Holler's [oops].

    Vision Forum was there and I purchased one of Doug Phillips' lectures.

    I'm hoping to get my notes written up before the CDs come, though.

  3. Dr Perrin, Mr Phillips talk about history & hope and the Duggar talks were my favorites. The food you bring is the BEST!!! 🙂 I'm so glad we were all able to go together!

    I need to order my cds. They told us that we could have 2 weeks to order them. Yeah! 🙂

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