GHEA Home School Convention

Did you miss me? For the past 2 1/2 days we were in Atlanta attending Georgia Home Educators Association's Homeschool Convention. This was our fourth year in attendance. We always go as a family because the convention has fun things that each of us like to do. Thursday was the first day and we needed to be at the conference center by 3:00 to drop off books for the used book sale. After dropping books off and checking in to the hotel we headed off for dinner about Ruby Tuesdays. That is a very special treat in itself. First the closest Ruby Tuesdays to us is an hour away and second the cost of a dinner for three people. For the first time ever the vendor hall opened up on Thursday evening for GHEA members only. This was great. Not much of a crowd, but I still only made it about halfway through the hall before closing time. When we arrived back at the hotel Grace and Scott went off to the indoor pool to catch an hour of swimming before bed. The next morning it was rise and shine for me as I headed off to a day of the convention by myself for a huge book sale, shopping in the vendor hall, and sessions to listen to Voddie Baucham and Ken Ham. Grace and Scott took the 20 minute trip over to the Atlanta Zoo for the day. Each individual/family that purchased a ticket for the used book sale was given a time to enter, mine was 10:20. The only words I can use to describe the sale is huge, crowded, and harried. I only spent about 40 minutes looking around because of the crowds. Also spent about 30 minutes in line to pay. I did get some good deals but none of the items I was really looking for. Next was lunch and then off to a session with Ken Ham. Great speaker, great information, great time. Next was back to the vendor hall to make some purchases. The last session of the afternoon was with Voddie Baucham and it was titled Culture Wars. He is a great speaker. After the session headed back to the hotel to get Scott and Grace and eat a snack before going back to the conference center for more time with Ken Ham and Voddie Baucham which were the keynote speakers. One thing that helped tremendously this go around was staying at the hotel attached to the conference center. I could just walk back and forth in about 10 minutes anytime I needed. In the evening sessions Ken Ham again was great but our stomach really started growling and the sessions were running late. We opted out of staying to hear Voddie Baucham and going to get some dinner. I did later go back and purchase both of Voddie's lectures. Also had to go back to the used book sale and pick up books that were not purchased and take back to the hotel. Saturday morning I went back to the vendor hall to do once last go through (which turned out to be a smart move because it was not as crowded as the previous day) and also picked up my money for the books I had sold. We checked out of the hotel and left for home at 12:00, stopped halfway home for lunch at a great Italian restaurant we visited often when we lived in that area. Over the next week I will do a post a day about what I bought for the new school year. Of course spent way to much money.