Saturday, June 19, 2010

Meeting a hero

Oh, what a day!

I headed into town this morning to pick up my two Boy Scouts from camp.  I'll have to post more about that later.  From there, we headed up to Denver to attend the Sonlight Expo, being held across the street from the CHEC convention. 

We were wanting to be there to attend the 11:30 talk on homeschooling high school (do you sense a theme for me lately?) as Connor wanted to hear that.  As did I.  We were actually early!

So we were able to sign up for a drawing for free curriculum (oh, would that be nice), and we got a free backpack, and a coupon for our next order.  And then we got to go check out some of the materials.  It was so nice to get a look at the Core 7 and Core 100 IGs, and at some of the books.  William ended up in a corner reading a Core 1/2 book.  Connor and I cruised over to the other room where more of the high school material was located.  I had noticed Luke Holzmann standing in the entry area.  As we walked through, he spoke to someone.  Connor turned his head so fast I was worried about whiplash.  "I know that voice!"

We went on to look at the Economics course, the Psychology course, the Career & College course, and some of the Cores 200-530 books.  And then it was time for the high school session.  We sat in the back... and William noticed a familiar face operating the camera.  The kids and I enjoyed the session.  We're all feeling a lot better about how this will work for high school.  But the best part of the day was yet to come.

After the session, I told William he could walk over and shake Luke's hand.  So he went over to introduce himself.  William and Connor told Luke that they had seen him in Mathtacular.  "No, that's my brother," was Luke's response.  Uh, no.  My kids were definitely talking about you.  The behind the scenes parts of all of the Sonlight DVDs are most definitely their favorite part.  They all love Justin too.  But they are fascinated with how the movies are MADE.

Luke was amazing.  He talked to them for at least 10 minutes, explaining some of the technical stuff that goes over my head, talking with them about their stop-motion projects, and generally being a real person.

We checked out a couple more things and headed over to lunch (using the Wendy's coupons given to us at Sonlight!) and my boys couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was to meet Luke.  I couldn't stop thinking how nice it is for them to meet someone they admire... and have it be someone worth meeting.

What a great afternoon. 

5 comments:

Tess said...

Sounds like an all around great day. Wish I could talk to Luke about film! I totally forgot about the Psychology course Sonlight offers.

Luke Holzmann said...

Wow. You made me tear up there. [smile]

I'm glad you had a great time, and it was a blast chatting with William and Connor.

~Luke

Debra said...

Tess -- the kids got a kick out of hearing your girls were jealous!

Luke -- glad to make you cry! William especially was so thrilled to find out that you are a real person... and that you talked to him like he was one too. Thanks... :)

Unknown said...

That's so cool! And so fun that they had an expo right across from CHEC. I hope you win the free curriculum :).

Amy

Debra said...

Amy -- I'm praying they will do this again. It was pretty incredible to be able to attend, given that I've given up on being able to get my hands on curriculum without first purchasing it. Maybe other "banned by CHEC" companies will follow suit.