CHN Expo 2009

We attended the CHN Family Expo in Ontario, CA for the 2nd year in a row, at the end of July/beginning of August. Homeschooling families throughout California (mainly the southern part) come together yearly to partake in this family friendly weekend. It is one of the few expos that not only welcomes children, but is extremely reasonably priced with a couples rate for members who register early at $40 for three full days of free sessions! Kids are $30 each and grandparents are often times free with a paying adult/couple - yeah! We love meeting other homeschooling families and have made some very special friends through our volunteer work at the expo.

This year, we brought my wonderful mother in law and the girls had a blast hanging with her. Tony & I were kept quite busy with volunteering duties during set up, session monitoring, and being part of the photography crew. CHN (California Homeschool Network) is an entirely volunteer run organization, so they welcome as much help as possible and it makes us feel good to give back to the community :)

Here are some highlights of our long weekend:

Arrival on Thurs to help stuff expo bags, before hitting the pool...and playing in the Family Village (housing over 10,000 keva planks, puppets, dress ups, games, crafts and more)...

The vendor hall opens on Friday morning for two full days and sessions formally begin on Friday morning. There are tons of activities for the children. A few of them this year include mask making, paper airplanes, origami, hat making, an egg drop, a teen dance, a class on the magic of color, archaeology, and one called "Life, Learning and Dragon Slime"! My kinda class - lol!

Tony & I attended sessions on the differences between teaching girls versus boys, lapbooking, learning styles, creepy crawlies, Jim Weiss storytime sessions, teaching math with art, using drama games, using games to teach learning, hands on tips for hands on learners, folk dancing, teaching foreign language, using field trips for studies and I attended three wonderful Home Arts Sessions - knitting, kumihimo (Japanese braiding), and needle felting. We also snatched some wonderful books at the used curriculum sale on Sunday morning. Here's a melee of shots from our fun time there! I also hope to post about kumihimo when I get around to finishing my braid :)

That last picture of Elena and Tony walking down the hall to attend a final session is so sweet to me. The entire weekend is a celebration of homeschooling and of family. We are so blessed!