As you, my wonderful followers know, we homeschool our children.  Or should I say we are starting to homeschool our children.  Our oldest child is just recently four and Tractor Man, as we coin him here on the blog, is a very active young boy.  Knowing that teaching him will be a challenge, my husband and I decided to attend the Minnesota Catholic Home School Conference here in Minnesota.  I was amazed at what we were able to find.

The conference not only offered a bloggers gathering the first night where I was able to share about my newly started blog but they also had different classes to attend.  There were options to learn about having ideas to keep your little ones occupied, discipline, home management, the role of the father, and so much more!

The convention hall has all of my favorite activities as well.  I am  a licensed teacher and being able to look through the materials and even purchase them right then and there for my kids is AWESOME in my book.  I like to chat a bit with the vendors and see what their programs have to offer. There is also a used book fair on Friday night that I was able to get a few books we will use at a MUCH cheaper price.

This year our goal going into the conference was to find a program that both I would enjoy using and that Tractor Man would find interesting and fun to learn from.  So off we searched.  We had known from a few materials I had gathered last year that there were a few programs I would not be considering so we were able to focus in on those that I thought had protential to become “Our Program”.

Here is what we were able to find. Math, handwriting, two series of First Start Reading, Kindergarten Science, agriculture and religion. Plus I got a few educational games/activities for the boys- magnets, gears gears gears, and magnetic board with wooden carrying case for imagination patterns.

The gears gears gears kept Tractor Man busy for two hours straight. No rhyme or reason, he was just building. He was so engaged and playing creatively. I strongly recommend this product for anyone who has busy high energy boys. Its fantastic!

I’m proud of how well the conference went for us. Even with the extra games I kept my spending under our budget. I was able to get everything, plus a few teachers manuals, for under three hundred dollars.

Now I will be taking out my new lesson plan book to start preparing for the coming school year (it is raining today so God’s watering my garden). Happy homeschooling.

Post and questions or comments. I’m happy to help!