HOMESCHOOL PROJECT FAIR

Life has a habit of just flinging a person from one large event to another, doesn't it?  This past week, my husband and I put on our 15^th Annual Homeschool Project Fair, located in our town.  It's great fun to meet a lot of new people and to revisit some wonderful people whom we only see once a year.

We had 80 projects from homeschooled students of all ages, from all over western Pennsylvania (and one from the state of West Virginia).

Each child grade 3 and up were judged by two different people...the younger ones were only judged once-simply because the night before, I realized that we didn't have enough parent judges!!

Each project had a comment sheet upon which students and parents could write nice comments if they desired.  Unfortunately, some unknown scamps spent a lot of time writing "COOL!!" on a huge amount of them; I desire thoughts that are a bit heftier than that!

Each student also had a scavenger-hunt-type worksheet, requiring them to go around looking at the projects for answers.  Those who answered all the questions correctly got jelly beans.

While my husband was finishing up the paperwork, we had entertainment from some of our speech club kids, both older and younger.

And every participant took home a certificate, a ribbon, and a candy bar.

One of the most shocking aspects about doing the fair this year is the fact that the internet is celebrating 20 years of existence.  Only 20 years ago.  I think of how I organized the fair the first few years, doing everything through the mail, the telephone, and by hand.  How far we have come in just a few short years!  Now I have spreadsheets and mail-merge and labels and a website; I don't even have to personally sign the certificates anymore (even though it looks like I did).  Yay for progress!