Day 129. Convention Day.

I am worse than a toddler. If I don’t have some sort of noise going at night, I can not sleep. A regular house fan is usually my drug of choice. This adorable hotel had an air conditioner but NO fan option. Clearly we could not set the thermostat for 50 to keep it continuously running, so I had very little sleep all night. First stop at sunlight was Target and a 12.99, very cute chrome fan. Problem solved.

Back at the hotel, we hung out for a bit and then headed over for day 2 of all things homeschool.

Our first stop was a breakout session called CONFESSIONS OF A DISORGANIZED HOMESCHOOLER by Susan Kemmerer. It was fantastic. The teacher was a homeschooling mom of 9. Impressive.

Here are some notes that I jotted down from the meeting. Just random thoughts that stuck with me:

Allow Him to interrupt your agenda as HE sees fit.

Adopt the partial chore mentality~ clean for 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there. You may never have an entirely clean house, but you will never have an entirely dirty one either. I loved that.

She referred to herself as mother jekyll teacher hyde. ha. loved that too.

The family cat was run over by a speeding car outside their home one day. Upon finding it smashed on the road, she actually thought about dissecting it as a science project. She didn’t. She was hilarious.

^{Proverbs 16:9} In his heart a man plans his course,
but the LORD determines his steps.

and my favorite thing of the whole weekend:

When it comes to organization there are two types of people, those who are time focused and those who are project focused. For example, if you are a project focus thinker and you try and adopt a schedule that holds you to time constraints and time focus, you are doomed for failure. The same is true in reverse.

Neither is WRONG! God created both. Figure out which you are and work like that!

A project focused person will not succeed by trying to manage their day through detailed time schedules. They will accomplish more through a general time overview and a to do list that is project based. Her suggestion was to keep a running to do list of ALL the projects you have going or want to have going and work off of that. Keep plugging along and cross it off when done.

That is SO me. I have always felt that the “proper way” to be organized was through a detailed time schedule, but I could never find that I could stick to them. There was a tremendous freedom found in hearing this workshop for me. It was a very interesting concept and a little funny because Gina, who went with me, is very time focused and I am very project focused. We hit them both.

Finally, a cute idea she gave. When it comes to displaying school work and art work, she uses their school room work table and places projects on top. Then she covers it with clear plastic (purchased on the roll at Walmart or a fabric store). This gives a great, clever way to display things without taking up wall space.

The rest of the day was spent at Sonlight workshops and visiting more booths at the exhibit hall. We ended the convention winning a canvas tote filled with books from Sonlight (I am an official teacher now with a canvas bag!). We topped off the day with an awesome dinner at The Black Angus. There is not much equal to their Sesame Teriyaki steak. YUM. Back at the hotel was more planning and a peaceful night sleep thanks to my morning Target run. Curriculum thoughts coming in the next post!

Now there are just 41 school days left until summer.