Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Today on Home School Heartbeat, President Michael Smith talks about homeschool curriculum fairs with Beverly McCord. Should you plan to attend your local homeschool convention or curriculum fair?

Mike Smith:
Beverly, you and your husband Kirk have been organizing the Home School Book Fair in Arlington, Texas, since you founded it. What do curriculum fairs offer homeschoolers—brand-new ones and old-timers alike?

Beverly McCord:
Well, Mike, what I really like is that you have all of the homeschool publishers and their most popular products all gathered under one roof—which means you can really pick up a book and thumb through it. That's just great, because you can't do that when you are trying to shop over the Internet or through mail-order catalogs. Another reason I like them is that you can get honest consumer feedback. I just love standing at a publisher's booth for about 10 minutes and eavesdropping all the conversations going on around me. I really get an earful of what homeschoolers think about some of the titles of that publisher. Another thing I like is that many of these publishers actually wrote the materials they're selling, so I get to talk to the preeminent expert of the materials—who's the author. And I just love also being able to talk to a live human being, eyeball to eyeball, and really getting my questions answered.

Mike:
Listeners, you can check out Beverly's website at homeschoolbookfair.org. Join us tomorrow as we continue our conversation with Beverly McCord.