Tonight I went to a homeschool educator open house at Science Central. It's a local science museum (they call it that) that is a fun and educational place to take your kids and family.

They talked up this years event like it was going to be a great open house with lots of people there. This year they charged 2.00, and they said it was because they were having real appetizers and drinks there, not just stale cookies like in years past.

I was sooooooo looking forward to this, as I have never been to this before and was hoping for a wealth of information from many places I hadn't discovered and was going to learn a lot.

I got there 20 minutes early to make sure I got a parking spot, otherwise you have to park over in the park, and I didn't want to have to walk by myself that late, because I was anticipating being there a til 8 when it ended.

Boy was I in for a reality check!

Some of the places never showed up! And they were big ones - like the children's zoo! Hello - great place to get business people! Anyway, there were only two floors open - the main floor - with 7 booths, and then the basement. The main floor had the 4-H booth, which I was happy to see because it had examples of the packets that the kids can do. I have been reading a lot about it, and was wondering what these things consisted of - was it going to be over her head, how much work was this actually going to be - etc. Anyway, it's going to be a great tool for science for her and each packet builds onto other packets that she can use when she gets older.

The next booth I went to only had one option for her grade level, but the person there said that the FWAHS (Fort Wayne Area Home School) group has their own science fair and they have many Kindergarteners there every year. Awesome!

I skipped one about the Lego League, she's too young for it, and I don't need to clutter my mind with that info right now!

Barnes and Noble was there though! They had a sign up for teachers and they give you a 20% off card right away! Woo Hoo! Savings! Gotta love that! They also had a bunch of information and book lists that we could take, and a paper that showed all about the teacher programs they were going to have coming up. I really liked this booth - they seemed genuinely interested in the homeschoolers and were sooo happy that we were there. A lot of times I feel I get an insincere comment from people when they find out we are homeschooling. But these two ladies were very nice!

Next was the History Museum. How lame am I, I didn't even know we had one! I'll have to read about that - they offer free tours to homeschoolers!

Next was the Embassy - this lady was not so happy to be there. She had a file folder out and was working on something when I came up. She even said to me - "Oh sorry, I'm just multi-tasking - might as well get something done, right!" I was thinking maybe if she put a little effort into what she was promoting, she would actually be getting something done! Anyway - they offer something that's underwritten by somebody, but she was far to busy multitasking to go into detail. I really thought they would have been promoting their upcoming shows they have, or programs they have - like festival of trees, etc. Oh well, on to the next thing.

Oh - this was PBS! I was in a line of 4 people, and almost passed by and was just going to grab info, and I am sooooooo glad I waited! It was Susie Pierce! I just heard of her at my first HEART (Home Educators Applying Rightous Truth) meeting two weeks ago. She knows her stuff, and is funny too! Anyway - so she tells me that they have a website with over 4000 lesson plans. HELLO! Awesome! That little tidbit of info was certainly worth the 3 minutes I stood in line!

And now to downstairs.... First booth was Botanical Gardens - the guy there looked nervous and I didn't want to ask anymore questions than the lady in front of me did, because he looked uncomfortable as it was. I would have loved to have seen an example of their kits that you can go in and use.

Next booth was the zoo. - They didn't show - Bad zoo, bad bad zoo.

And then the library - woo hoo - lots more info here! That and cute little book erasers that the princess will LOVE! I got a new schedule for September and found out a lot more information on the programs that are offered. It was nice to know how happy the library is to have homeschoolers around. They gear many of their programs to homeschoolers, and for this, and the fact that the Princess gets so excited when she holds her very OWN library card, I pay my enourmous fines without complaining........too much.

Next was a water treatment something. I listened for a minute, took an activity kit and some information, and will have to read that later. I wasn't sure if he was selling some water kit or what, so I just wanted to get out of there.

Then I went to the America on the move booth. This lady had a ton of information out - but was very brief with her discussion. Basically, go to the website and you'll get info. Okay by me.

Ah....and next the Philharmonic. They had two people there and they have one program for homeschoolers. It's not a program, just a listening thing. And then they have a program for 5th graders - again, not a program, just a chance to hear them, but since we aren't in a school, we have to call and make arrangements to go. I think the guy I talked to may have just been there as extra, because the other guy that was there was giving a lot more information. Maybe I just missed out.

And then onto the science central booths. They showed some things that you could do at Science Central, and then there was something about NASA in a side room, and calling and asking for permission. Maybe someone will fill me in on that. They had some free science books, but they looked pretty outdated and too old for the Princess, so I passed.

Oh, and onto the appetizers - they made me laugh. They had granola bars they broke in half on a plate with some hershey cookies. I'm wondering if they bought those from the vending machine? And they had a bowl of popcorn, some wheat thins, and carrot sticks and celery.

They gave us an evaluation form, and I spent quite a long time filling it out. I made several suggestions of who to have for next time. There are so many groups that have programs for homeschoolers, it would be nice to have them all in one place.

Okay, enough about my evening.

I'll post some good savings deals for you soon!