MidWest Homeschool Convention

Last week I attended the MidWest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati.  I had no idea that it was such a big deal, never having been before.  But it is a really big deal. 

There were hundreds of seminars, and hundreds of people in each one.  Many of the seminars I attended ended up totally full, with standing room only at the back.  I learned a lot.

There was also a huge exhibit hall with tons of homeschool curriculum and products for sale.  Since I use my blog as my external brain, I wanted to post some things that I thought were good ideas, things that I wanted to look into more, etc., before I lost track of them.  If you happen to think any of these things are good ideas, too, please let me know.

And now, for a list:

1.  I really liked the workbooks from Handwriting Without Tears.  They were inexpensive, and I think Connor would do well with them.  They also had some cursive books.

2.  La Clase Divertida (Pre-K to 8th grade) Spanish instruction via audio and DVD instruction.

3.  Logic of English.  I liked these printing and cursive workbooks, as well as the dragon storybook that corresponds to them.  Also, there is an iPad app.

4.  United Art & Education.  There is a store nearby! 

5.  Little Passports:  A Global Adventure.  I am totally going to do this with the boys.  There is an international program and a United States program.  I'm really excited about this one.

6.  Bible Mesh - an interactive Bible learning website for the whole family. 

7.  United States Achievement Academy Homeschool Division.  It's like homeschool honor roll.

8.  Marie's Words - visual vocabulary flash cards.

9.  Chromatics Music Playing Cards.  These are genius, and I am going to buy these for the kids when we start their formal piano lessons.

10.  Curriculum Express.  Sells tons of homeschool curriculum, including all the math programs I was interested in (Horizons, Saxon, Singapore).  I also liked the Critical Thinking math game sets.

11.  My Father's World.  Christian-based homeschool curriculum.  I liked the Enjoying Art Together collection (1st Grade) and Kindergarten Literature Collection (for Lex?).

12.  Life of Fred book series to teach math from Pre-K to calculus.

13.  7 Sisters blog.

14.  Championship Chess.  I liked the chess playing guides, as well as the Math Logic on the Chessboard program.

15.  The Etiquette Factory.

16.  Sonlight is a literature-rich, liberal arts, academically excellent Christian worldview approach to home education.  The website has a Homeschool 101 support program.

17.  Maestro Classics - Classical Music with Stories on CD.  I loved these when I was a kid!

18.  IQ Locker - Fundamentals in Science & Technology - Educational projects, games and toys.

19.  Exploration Education - Project-based Science Curriculum.

20.  Simply Fun.  Educational Games!  That looked like I would want to play with Connor and Lex.

21.  Right Start Math.  They had abacus-based programs.  And there were math card games to play. 

22.  Timberdoodle Co.