A Homeschool Conference Review

Location: A+ Very easy drive, parking was good-even if I did bump a small pole trying to fit in a too small parking place. (Yes, I did move to a roomier spot.) The Nashville fairground was an excellent location, plenty of room. I do wish the workshops had a better location as they are just sort of sectioned off. This along with subjects focused on made me decide not to attend one.

Vendors: A+ One of the ladies with me remarked there were fewer vendors this year but I shopped all day to get to all of them. Everyone I was interested in visiting was in attendance plus a few more I was happy to meet.

Cost: C- It costs $15 for an out-of-stater to attend, $25 for in-staters-this is a pre-registration amount. The at-the-door price is more. In my opinion, this is too much money. We were not handed a bag of goodies as we came in-but we did notice them on our way out. The "goodies" consisted of literature and very few coupons. The door-prizes were very slim and the procedure for winning them was not explained at all. I would figure the vendors paid money to be there as well so it just seems like there should have been some nicer "goodies" in our bag and maybe even a nice tote to put them in.

Quality of Workshops: C- I fully realize how wrong it is to rate workshops even though I did not attend one. However, I was not even remotely tempted to attend a workshop because they were all speakers pushing a particular curriculum instead of just general homeschool issue speakers. I think most of the people attending the conference agreed because when I poked my head in a few times-the attendance was very poor.

OVERALL Conference GRADE: B- I would go again with a group of ladies to have a fun weekend of fellowship and shopping. I would not go for the purpose of buying curriculum. Most of my homeschool needs continue to be met by Rainbow Resources and I prefer shopping in my PJ's and having things delivered to standing in long lines and then lugging it around all day. The rainbow resources line was long most all day long and they ran out of things. It is one of the best places to buy curriculum second only to AMAZON.

Overall weekend trip with the girls grade? A++++++++++. I had so much fun shopping at the conference and at Opry Mills. I am not someone who enjoys shopping very much but I did come across some fantastic bargains (Many brand new things for a quarter!!!) that made my pulse quicken. The only thing that makes me more excited than a good yard sale is yard sale priced retail things. The fellowship was excellent. The hotel we stayed at was top-notch even if the hottub did close at 10PM. The only sour note was that Kathy's battery was dead when we got back to her car. However, Jenn's husband was very close and he came to rescue us all. We posed for pictures hoding jumper cables we could not use while we waited.

I probably will do something else to enjoy a weekend with friends besides this conference next year-but for my first homeschool conference-I declare it was very fun. I am very grateful to have gotten to tag along with my former co-op homies!