Convention organizers estimate that between 20 to 30% of the people that attend these conventions are new to homeschooling. The rest are veteran homeschoolers in search of new ideas. Regardless as to whether the attendees are new or veterans, they all have one thing in common: they desire to increase their knowledge. They all want to know more about the homeschool community. With this in mind, there are some convention terms that you will need to know. Most conventions use the following terms in order to describe their activities:

1.Keynote Addresses. These are speeches that are given by a nationally known homeschooler and deal with issues that are relevant to most homeschoolers. They are inspiring and encouraging. Usually they are the only event offered during that time period. This is also when announcements about the convention are made. Thus, these addresses are important to attend.

2.Workshops or Sessions. These sessions are about an hour long and deal with issues that are specific to homeschooling or family life. Several of these take place at the same time so you will have to choose what best suits your needs. You can usually make this decision by looking at the brief description as well as the codes that say who these sessions are most appropriate for. If you cannot attend all of the sessions that you would like to attend, you can usually purchase a tape of any session that you missed.

3.Vendor (or Exhibitor) Workshops. These are usually about 30 minutes long and give information about the vendor's products. This time is paid for by vendors so that they can fully explain their products and answer any questions that you may have about them. As such, this is a great way to learn about new curriculum or how to use this curriculum more effectively. Oftentimes, you will actually get to meet with the authors of the curriculum so that they can tell you how to effectively adapt the programs for your family's special needs. Fortunately, these are not high-pressure sales events. Instead, they are meant to be strictly informative. As such, if you do choose to purchase this vendor's curriculum, you will usually have to do so in the vendor hall.

4.Vendor Hall or Exhibit Hall. This is where vendors of curriculum and other homeschool products gather together to display and sell their products. Each year more vendors are turning their attention to the homeschool market, creating products for this market, because the market is worth $850 million per year. Experienced homeschooling parents are now creating products to fill the gaps that are still present within the market. If you attend a small convention then you will only have a few vendors to choose from while at a larger convention there is usually 200 or more vendors to choose from. Regardless of the size of convention that you attend, you are sure to see new products. There are also some conventions where you can purchase or swap your old books.