Today I’ve finally made it to the book fare at the NCHE Conference. One of the best things about the book fair is that sometimes when you’re lucky you might get to meet the actual author of the curriculum that you’re using or considering. And guess who got lucky today? Me!
I got to meet the author of Artistic Pursuits, Dan Ellis! He was so nice and helpful. He answered a lot of the question I had about switching to the high school version. This is where meeting the authors really comes in handy. They can walk you through everything you want to and even tell you things that you might not have realized about their curriculum.
For example, I had no idea that the high school books had transcript information in the back of the book. I didn’t know that each level of the high school books cover a different type of art medium and that I really needed to finish the 8th book before moving on. I had started the 8th grade book 1, after Christmas and was considering starting next year in the Book 1 of high school. That would mean I would be skipping book 2 of 8th grade. He was able to give the pros and cons of skipping book 2. It helped me to make the decision to go ahead and do book 2 next year even though she would be in high school. I would not have known all the ins and outs without talking to him.
I also met tons of reps from other companies, Like Queen Homeschool Supply. I might be liking their Language Lessons for High School! They look really neat! A met the author of a new vocabulary program called Visual Vocabulary and many others.
I encourage you while you are at the NCHE Conference or any conference to take time to talk to the authors or reps of the companies you are considering, even if you’ve been using them for awhile. You never know what you might learn!
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