Homeschool Book Fair in Loveland

We found out about a homeschool used book fair shortly before Grandma Nancy and Aunt Christina were expected to make the trip up here. We invited them to join us as long as I was feeling up to it, since I knew I was having surgery just two days before the fair.

There were so many books there and booths that we couldn't possibly see them all in the three hours we had available. We made the most of our time. Thankfully, a few book sellers took pity on Gloria, who had volunteered to carry my growing bag of piles of books around as I shopped, and they let us put our bags under their table until the fair was over. So when Daniel came back with the kids shortly before noon I led him around the whole place stopping at various tables where we'd deposited books that I'd bought.

What we were mainly looking for was preK-books, easy readers, and simple math books. I've been thinking a lot about the fact that when our new school year starts I will be teaching two preschoolers, a K-1st grader and a fourth and fifth grader. Technically, Brother and Snow White would become a Kindergartner and a First Grader, but I plan to spend the beginning of the year teaching them all the things they weren't taught this year. They are behind in several areas, some of which is due to their speech problems. I'll be teaching Kevin and Brother at the same level. Since, in our homeschool, I expect quite a bit more from the kids than is expected at their schools they will really be doing Kindergarten work by the second half of the year.

Also, we picked up a TON of Magic School Bus books. We even got the activity guides that go with them, which I'd never even knew existed before. Daniel got all excited about the magnet kits and other science equipment. We even picked up some Christian science videos for kids. Yesterday the girls watched the one about cells and had to write a paper about what they learned. While they were doing that, Snow White's teacher, speech therapist, and special ed teacher all came over for a parent/teacher conference and IEP review in my living room. Every so often my 7 and 8 year old would come out and ask me questions like, "How do you spell nucleus?" and then head back to their desk to work on it. You could see these women's eyebrows going up and I was trying not to grin. I did manage to restrain myself and not brag that my girls had memorized all the U.S. Presidents in order in about 30 minutes in the van the day before. Of course, they had help from an amazing little book. It was so good that I even managed to learn them. I found that book at the book fair, too!