Thoughts on conference, part 1

It's late and I am tired, so I am just going to copy a couple of my posts here in case anyone who reads our blog is interested...
Post #1
We've been at our state homeschool convention this weekend. We brought Elizabeth, who is 8 and will soon be in 3rd grade, because we wanted to get her opinion on a few things. I'm really glad we brought her, because it helped me see just how strongly visual she is. I showed her a simple cursive handwriting book that I found that was geared toward lefthanders and started out easy (with squiggles and such, wish I could remember the name of it) and also A Reason for Handwriting, Level C. Well, she picked ARFH without second thought, which surprised me, because it looked like the writing was smaller and more of it. However, she strongly admired the color graphics. Now I know why she does so well with Horizons versus Math U See! It's just nice to realize this about here. I also bought a copy of natural speller, and although I have always "categorized" her (shame on me) as not being that interested in writing, I read a list of words to her, and found she did much better writing them out than spelling them orally. She seems to have the similar ability I have to just look at them and know they weren't write. She would write them out wrong and immediately scribble over them and rewrite them.She is making me so proud these days! We sat in a lecture by Jeannie Fulbright, who was talking about narration and how the children remember so much more this way. She gave us an exercise where she read a paragraph or so from one of her science books and had us write down as much as we remembered after the fact. Elizabeth asked for her notebook and I assumed she was just dawdling. However, she actually wrote down a few things that she remembered also, complete with pictures. It was really nice to meet Jeannie and talk with her some about her books and how to teach them. She also freed me from feeling like we had to do narrations, since Elizabeth can read very well, but doesn't write much independently yet. She also spoke in one of her sessions about getting them to work more independently. I am going to let Elizabeth choose one of Jeannie's science texts just to read through on her own over the next year, and let her narrate it back to us. We loved Jeannie, she was so inspiring! Also, we heard speakers talk about having your kids at least read a couple/few books a year that are a bit challenging for them (i.e. on their grade/reading level) (but then letting their reading for fun be below grade level if they so desire, and having most of their reading be this way.With this in mind, for a third grader who reads at about a 6th grade level, what are some good classic books you would recommend that she might also find interesting? I would appreciate any reading suggestions. It's so hard to find appropriate material for her, and I don't have time to do any of my own reading, let alone reading ahead on hers as well. Thanks for any suggestions!

Post #2
We've been at our local state conference and having a wonderful time. It's truly been inspiring, with lots of great speakers. I've met Steph in MS in the past when we went to our state homeschool group's annual camping trip, and she has a lovely family that we have really enjoyed getting to know more. My 8 year old and her 4 year old had a lot of fun playing together, and I think that is one of the great things about homeschooling is that they get comfortable playing with many ages, not just their own aged children. Steph is very sweet, and I am thrilled to know her, and wish we lived closer so we could get together more often. My favorite speaker at our conference had to be Jeannie Fulbright, author of the elementary apologia science curriculums. I had the privilege of sitting in on three of her lectures, and was extremely blessed by them. She is really very sweet as well, and I even bought a couple of books from her (though I don't really need them yet, they are fun to read and great to have on hand for reference). Also, I wanted to support her booth at our vendor hall. I was standing near a vendor that had some FIAR for sale and I tried to put in as many good plugs for FIAR as I could! I want to try to write more in my blog sometime about the talks we had and the wonderful things I've learned, but we've got to get back and unpack, so it may yet be a while before I can do that...Thanks for letting me share my joys! P.S. I was however a bit discouraged by the fact that the vendor across the way had Jeannie's books for sale for less than retail. It didn't seem fair to me for them to benefit from the people who would surely be inspired by Jeannie's talks and might even be asking her questions about the books and then going next door to buy them cheaper. I really want to support all our vendors, but especially those who give so much of themselves in their teaching endeavors to us all. So, thank you Jeannie and all you other speakers out there who give so much of your time and talent to help encourage and inspire the rest of us!