Inland Northwest Homeschool Conference

This past weekend was the Inland Northwest Homeschool Conference.  It was so inspiring and informational, I don't know how I'll be able to summarize all I learned.  I'll speak generally here, and have separate entries for the different workshops that inspired me. 
The first workshop that I attended was titled, "Integrating Art into History" by Susan Evans of www.susanevans.org.  I LOVED it!  I'll write more about this one later.
Next I browsed around the vendor hall and enjoyed seeing the materials that were offered.  After my window shopping, I attended the seminar, "Learning from Reading" by Richard Cary.  He wrote the book "Saving Little Fish"  It was a very informative talk and I have a long list of new authors and books to read!
After a quick trip to take the kids to grandma's for the monthly movie night at school, we returned to hear an inspiring talk by Morna Gilbert on the differences in character and achievement.  Greg and I learned so much from Morna's ideas and we hope to raise our girls with an emphasis on character traits.
At the end of the day we listened to powerful speaker Michael Farris give a talk entitled "The Coming Attack on Homeschooling From the Legal Elites."  I learned so much and took away so much more than I thought I would. 
Saturday morning, Grandma Judy went with me to attend the seminars.  We started the day bright and early at 845 with Michael Farris speaking again, this time about, "Parental Rights; It's Now or Never."  Again, Mr. Farris was inspiring with his words and message!  (This and other events of the day have inspired me to start ANOTHER blog, this one about called "Politics of a Stay at Home Mom")
After a quick walk through the vendor hall with Grandma Judy, we headed off to "Does it Matter How We Teach Math?"  Both of us thought this would be a very exciting talk, and were disappointed that it was basically a talk on how to use the AL Abacus, and their recommended method.  I was looking more towards multiple methods for teaching concepts, not just one expensive alternative to "public school methods."  ~The public school methods, aren't my words, they were the theme of the talk.
After a trip home, Barnes and Noble, and then Value Village for some book shopping (and I even found a kids pottery wheel!), we headed back for our final seminar, "Using Journals to Teach Writing." Also by Susan Evans.  More about this one later too!
It was a great weekend, I learned a lot and am ready to start my journey full speed ahead!