Homeschool Conventions: Why You Need To Attend One!

It’s my favorite time of year — time for the homeschool convention. I will be speaking at all five of the regional GHC conventions this year and I think you should attend!

Homeschool conventions are a great resource for you and your homeschool. In fact, I would say they can be essential for any homeschool parent looking to expand their own learning and connect with the homeschooling community at large. I have been speaking at homeschool conventions for the past four years, but before I became a homeschool convention speaker, I was a homeschool convention attendee. In fact, I attended for seven years  as a homeschool mom before I ever started speaking at conventions. I love a good homeschool convention! Today I’m going to share with you some reasons why you might want to attend one.

Attending A Great Homeschool Convention

This year, I will be heading out in March to speak at all five of the Great Homeschool Conventions. These are regional homeschool conventions, and are spread out across the country. You can choose the one closest to you, travel in, and really enjoy the weekend.

• In March, we’re going to be heading to Greenville, South Carolina and St. Charles, Missouri, which is right outside of St. Louis.
• In April, we’ll be in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• In June we will be in Ontario, California.
• In July, we will be in Round Rock, Texas.

These are really fun events. I always went to the homeschool convention by myself with some girlfriends and we made a girl’s weekend of it. You can do that, and it’s a lot of fun.

There are others who come to the convention as a family, even bringing grandparents (the family pass does include grandparents and they make a great weekend of it with the entire family there as well).  There’s really no wrong way to enjoy and experience the homeschool convention, unless of course you just don’t go!

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Why You Want To Attend A Homeschool Convention

Why would you want to take the time to go to a homeschool convention?

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The Homeschool Community

The first reason is something that really struck me the first time I ever attended a convention. I went for the very first time when my oldest was five.

I found out I was not alone.

I went with some other homeschoolers from my area, but when I got to the convention, there were so many other families there. Some of them looked like me. Some of them didn’t look like me, but they all seemed perfectly normal. They were all normal looking families, normal people everywhere, homeschooling. It was a wonderful thing that I really needed at that point in my homeschool journey. Here were so many great, wonderful, ordinary people homeschooling their kids.

I found my folks at the homeschool convention. I found the people who I could connect with. It was absolutely fabulous. It brought home to me that homeschooling was something that a lot of people do. It’s rare, I think, to ever go to a single location and find that many homeschoolers all in one spot.

It gives you this little boost of, “I can do this.”

While you’re at the homeschool convention, you can connect with some of those people. You can start to make relationships. You can lean over and talk to the person sitting next to you in a session.

You can also come on into my booth. I would love to chat with you there!

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Homeschool Curriculum

The next reason I think it’s really important to go to a homeschool convention is that you gain access to curriculum developers. Often the person in the booth selling the curriculum is either the person who wrote the curriculum, or it’s a mom who has used the curriculum.

It’s not unusual for companies to have parents come in that have used their curriculum for a long time and have them be representatives in the booth. This is a fabulous opportunity because I tell you, it’s easy to assume that the person who wrote it intended it to only be used exactly as it was written. What I have found time and time again, as I have talked to curriculum writers, curriculum developers, and their representatives who have used the curriculum is that there is so much flexibility when it comes to how to use a particular piece of curriculum. Moms, their representatives, their developers –  they give you the ideas on how you can use the curriculum differently.

For example, if you have a child who struggles to finish all of a video lesson, you can ask for assistance. Someone familiar with the product may tell you that they have broken up the lesson themselves into smaller chunks. If you have a child who is gifted and who’s running forward, a lot of times curriculum developers can tell you how to beef up the materials.

There are so many great nuggets, so much wonderful information from the people who actually have either developed and written the curriculum or from people who have used it for years and years and years at homeschool conventions. You’re not going to be able to stump them. This is a chance to bend their ear and talk to them about how to make this curriculum best fit your child.

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Professional Development For The Homeschooling Mom

The last reason I think a homeschool convention is a wonderful opportunity is because of all the professional development.  There are dozens upon dozens of talks that you can attend – wonderful talks about how to teach a foreign language, how to reach your kids through stories, or how to do math in your homeschool. What are some different ways to approach history? What do you do with kids who are gifted are twice exceptional and even how do you do a morning time?

All of these talks are there at the homeschool convention and so many more It’s a wonderful opportunity for you to go in, soak up that knowledge and really get some fresh new ideas for your homeschool that you can then take home and implement.

I’ve never left a homeschool convention where I didn’t learn at least one thing that I was able to start using the very next week to make a huge difference in my homeschool. I always loved to go and get that professional development for me as a homeschooler. There are so many options. There’s something there for everyone.

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Attend A Great Homeschool Convention This Year

If this is your first time attending a convention, there is no need to be worried. It is a ton of fun and we have resources to help you make the most of your event. Check these out:

• How to Get the Most Out of Your Homeschool Convention
• Don’t Go to the Homeschool Convention Without This Handy Tool
• Thriving at the Homeschool Convention
• An Interview with Mary Jo Dean, Founder of GHC