Yesterday I spent the morning teaching my two musicianship classes and then raced across town to attend the RVHEA conference. I have always enjoyed attending the yearly home educators’ conference but since I started teaching at the classes on Saturday mornings it has been harder to get to it. This year I was asked to co-lead a workshop on ‘Starting a Co-op” which I agreed to do during one of the afternoon sessions.

The workshop was attended by a small group of people who were happy to hear my experiences and those of my co-leader and then ask us questions. Although the other speaker and I had never met, it was great to see how well our presentations worked together. Her experiences were different from mine but between us we were able to present a range of styles and possibilities for co-operative learning groups both large and small.

After the workshop was over I spent an hour or so browsing in the vendor hall and catching up with friends I don’t see very often. Although I didn’t get to hear any of the other speakers I thoroughly enjoyed my few hours there. I ordered the MP3 version of all the day’s sessions and speakers so I will be able to listen at my leisure. I did get a chance to talk to a couple of curriculum providers about their products, particularly a revamped and extended version of the French curriculum which we have been using in Group of Four. I was assured that it provides all my child would need to complete highschool French. I am going to do some further investigating but it sounds promising.

This week is Kiwanis Music Festival week for us. We will be there every day for some event or another. Both L13 and A11 are competing and Stellae Boreales is performing in a non-competitive class. Hopefully we will squeeze in a little regular work as well.