4Real Forums: Catholic Expo/NACHE

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Topic: Catholic Expo/NACHE

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Lucia
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Joined: Jan 19 2007
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Posted: Feb 03 2009 at 3:47pm \| IP Logged

For those of you who live in or near the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area - do you miss the type of home schooling conference that NACHE use to do? I sure do!

Those of us who have been home schooling for 15 years plus, know how vital these conferences were when we were just starting out in our home schooling adventure - it was a chance to share and learn much wisdom, see all the great curriculum materials, reunite with friends who live far away, listen to spiritually motivating talks - it gave us that "shot in the arm" that we needed to persevere. Sometimes it was what a husband or wife needed to convince their spouse to embrace home schooling!

For me the IHM conferences and the Catholic Expo conferences have miss the mark a bit with regard to our home schooling lifestyle. The Catholic mom/dad who has their children in private school or public school live and face different challenges than the Catholic homeschooling mom and dad. I would like to see the conferences zero in on homeschooling again. I would like to see a WIDE VARIETY OF VENDORS. I would like to see the MANY DIFFERENT STYLES OF HOME SCHOOLING being discussed and represented. I would like them to be motivating to the new home schooling mom and the veteran home schooling mom and everyone in between.
What would you all like to see?? I have Catholic Expo's "ear" so to speak and I want to pass your comments on to them.
What would be the home schooling conference of your dreams? Are home schoolers even interested in conferences anymore?
PM me or post your comments if you like.
God Bless,
Maria Lucia

P.S. Catholic Expo's date is June 12/13th in Ellicott City, Maryland

teachingmyown
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Joined: Feb 20 2005
Location: Virginia
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Posted: Feb 03 2009 at 5:32pm \| IP Logged

I really miss the "old" NACHE conference! In thinking about my answer to your question, I was trying to think what it is about IHM that disappoints me. I would say it is probably what you mentioned, the lack of variety in talks and especially in vendors.

I find myself less inclined to even try to get to the talks at IHM. This year, I only shopped. At NACHE, I usually had trouble picking which talk to attend at each session. And that was even after several years of attending. It may just come down to a different style of homeschooling.

Some of the best talks I attended were by ladies who are on (or were on) this forum. I can't remember if IHM has ever had a CM-style talk. I think the panel discussions were helpful. I like the opportunity to attend vendor workshops as well. It helped me plan my year. For new homeschoolers, those workshops are invaluable.

I also liked that there was Confession available and a Mass, especially when they did it on Saturday evening.

I was sad to see NACHE "expand" into the Catholic Family Expo. While a conference for Catholic families is a good thing, we lost a great thing.

Just my long-winded 2 cents!

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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today

MaryM
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Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
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Posted: Feb 03 2009 at 6:58pm \| IP Logged

There are several of us here, including myself, who have helped plan and organize homeschool conferences in the past, and as a former conference planner, I would be sensitive to having my conference critiqued in a public forum.

Since Lucia would like to provide feedback to Cath Expo about the type of conference that a home-educator would like to see, let's keep the comments focused on this.

Maybe some questions in that vein could start with:

*****As a home-educator, what are you looking for in a conference?
*****What does your ideal conference consist of?

Maybe if there are more specific ideas or comments to share outside of that, they could be PMed to Lucia.

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Mary M. in Denver

Our Domestic Church

Lucia
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Joined: Jan 19 2007
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Posts: 10

Posted: Feb 03 2009 at 7:16pm \| IP Logged

I am sorry, Mary,
I did not mean to step on anyone's toes - planning conferences is a great deal of work and a lot of sacrifice.
Thanks for your insight. You are absolutely right.
please, anyone can PM me. I know the folks at Catholic Expo would appreciate any input.
God Bless,
Maria Lucia

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