A homeschool curriculum fair goer sneaks in private reading from a vendor’s table at the homeschool expo at Camp Jordan.

Members of the CSTHEA yearbook staff look over the latest production at the homeschool expo, held this yearJuly 20 and 21, a Friday and Saturday.

Hundreds of families attend the homeschool expo, an annual event in the Chattanooga area, held at Camp Jordan in East Ridge.

If you are a new homeschool mom embarking on her first year or two of homeschooling, you may have recently heard about CSTHEA’s upcoming curriculum fair and expo and wondered why you should even bother with attending.

By Rebekah Hargraves

In an age of online shopping, ebooks, Amazon deals, podcasts, and the like, it can perhaps seem pointless to attend a fair and expo such as this one. With that in mind, I want to share with you five reasons why I believe you would benefit from being in attendance.

▶ A hands-on feel for all the different kinds of curriculum available today.

While online curriculum deals do abound, they are all lacking in this: giving you the opportunity to thumb through the books, observe the correlating materials, and make the educated decision as to whether or not those products would be a good fit for your family or worth trying out.

These very opportunities are yours, however, as you stroll through the fair and visit booth after booth, each containing different kinds of curricula which espouse and teach different educational methods and ideas.

It’s like a huge buffet spread out right before you where you get to try things out and see for yourself what is best for you.

Take a look at homeschoolers’ wonderful newsletter, Esprit, with July 20, 21 expo details

And the good news? This is a two-day fair with only one admission fee, which means that if you need to leave, clear your head, and then come back later to look at more curriculum, you can do so for free!

▶ Camaraderie and the realization that you are not at all alone.

If you are a new homeschool mom (and especially if you do not have much support in the form of likeminded homeschooling mom friends or family members who approve of your decision to homeschool!), it is easy to begin to feel as if you are alone. It is not, however, as easy to feel alone in your journey when you are attending a fair and expo alongside hundreds of other homeschooling moms who are also in attendance.

Rebecca Hargraves

▶ Wisdom, help, big-picture insight, and encouragement from veteran homeschool moms.

While you are at the fair, keep an eye out for moms wearing small flower corsages. These women are all veteran homeschool moms who have educated a number of children at home over the course of many years.

Each of them is there with the desire to answer your questions, calm your worries and anxiety, cut down on your feelings of overwhelm or confusion, and offer you the listening ear and words of encouragement you might be needing at this very moment.

▶ Workshops you couldn’t attend if you were to just shop online.

In addition to the 70+ vendors whose booths you can visit at the fair, we also offer a number of workshops every single hour on a multitude of topics ranging from how to teach various subjects to how to deal with and address different issues which can arise while homeschooling.

Just having access to the wisdom, inspiration, and encouragement available during these workshops is more than worth the price of admission to the expo.

▶ Access to support groups and extracurricular activities for both you and your kids.

When you attend the fair, you will also have the opportunity to find out about all the support groups available to you and your children throughout Chattanooga and the outlying areas.

You can also gather more information about the sports teams, theater, American Heritage Girls, Trail Life, mock trial, and other extracurricular activities available to your children (and even receive a discount when signing up for these activities while at the expo).

We are really excited about all that will be offered at the 2018 CSTHEA Curriculum Fair and Home Education Expo and hope to see you there! If we can be of any help and encouragement to you, please do reach out and let us know.

Rebekah Hargraves is a wife, mama to two littles, home business owner, blogger, and podcaster whose passions include reading, writing, spending time with her family, extending hospitality, encouraging others, and enjoying a good hot cup of tea or coffee. You can find more of her writings at www.hargraveshomeandhearth.com

Register for homeschool expo July 20, 21 at Camp Jordan in East Ridge