A Peek into the 2013 WECA Conference

Another WECA Conference has come and gone, and a good time was had by all. Or at least by Teacher and I!

I wasn’t in a picture-taking mood this year, but I did snap a couple of photos:

Lisa Murphy aka the Ooey Gooey Lady was keynote speaker on Friday. She was absolutely HILARIOUS, yet had important things to say too. Yes, I was sitting in the WAY back. How did you know?

 

Here’s a short video of her talking about respecting children, especially babies: Not from the WECA Conference, but it’s the same speech.

 

Global Babies is a beautiful book I saw at the Follett booth and bought at Half.com for .75. Ever since Teacher introduced me to Half.com I haven’t been able to pay full price for a book. And I’ve added a LOT of books to my child care and personal libraries!

 

I also fell in love with this Easy Grip 3D Pond Puzzle from Kaplan Co. You know I’m only in this job for the toys, right? No, not really; but they’re definitely one of the perks of the job!

Sadly, I couldn’t find the Pond Puzzle on Half.com. Amazon doesn’t have them any cheaper than Kaplan, so I guess I’ve got to start saving pennies… LOTS of pennies because there’s also an Easy Grip 3D FARM Puzzle that’s just as cute!

 

I went to both of Lisa Murphy’s workshops: Infant and Toddler Curriculum and the Importance of Early Experiences. And as expected, she was fantastic in both!

You may have noticed that she’s wearing a different shirt in my photos than she is in the videos…

 

This is the back; I had to buy one because it made me laugh.

 

Here’s Lisa talking about the “B-word” and about cloth diapers and potty training. Again, not recorded at the WECA conference, but the same material.

 

No Friday night would be complete without Margaritas, so Teacher found a fun Mexican restaurant about 20 minutes away from the hotel. The food was good, but it was the decor that made the place.

 

So that’s a peek into 2013 WECA Conference. Of course I went to more workshops besides just Lisa Murphy’s – Tom Copeland leading expert on family child care business had a great one Saturday morning. And Teacher and I spent some quality time together going out for lunch, hitting the water park, snuggling in front the fireplace more about our room later and just enjoying some stress-free, child-free time together.

I guess the main reason I didn’t take more photos is because I was thinking so hard about the information I gained from the workshops that taking photos didn’t occur to me.

And I’m OK with that. I’d rather have a headful of new ideas to try in my program and few photos, than a ton of photos but nothing new for the children.