Homeschool Resource Fair in Elk Grove

Information for participating (and attending):
Each year we invite a wide variety of organizations to display their offerings for the homeschool community. From co-ops to museums, specialty classes to park district events, support groups to clubs.
We would love to have you join us for this event which will be held Tuesday evening, April 23 at the Elk Grove Village Public Library from 7-9pm.
Vendors: For a nominal $5 fee you will receive a reserved spot and table space at the fair and be part of our contact list which will be distributed to all participants of the event. To register, please click here. You will be contacted within a few days with a confirmation.
We hope that you will join us this year. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. We look forward to another successful event!
Thank you.
Amy Burnha
Beacon Homeschool Support Group
**please note that curriculum will not be sold at this event. Our curriculum sale will be held in May.

For homeschoolers – check out what’s new!!

STEM explore at Midwest Museum of Natural History

Midwest Museum of Natural History

STEM Exploration Lab this Saturday!

STEM Exploration Lab
This Saturday, March 30, 10-4:00

The Museum will be packed with 50 hands-on science experiments. From lasers and lights to magnets and mirrors, this event will be a blast for the entire family!

Admission (ages 3+):
$10/non-members, $8/members
Because the event will be throughout the Museum, this fee applies to all guests on 3/30
– OR – purchase a membership (or add a year to your existing membership) and get in for FREE!

STEM Exploration Lab is presented in partnership with NIU STEM Outreach and sponsored in part by CMJ Technologies, the Mary E. Stevens Concert & Lecture Fund, and 89.5 WNIJ

Learning Vine info for the year ahead

Passing along:

The Learning Vine has just published its 2013-2014 Enrichment Program catalog at the LV website:

http://www.thelearningvine.org/enrichment-courses.html

We offer 48 different courses this year, including graded high school electives that can count for credit. These include Music Theory, Advanced Art, Photography, Pottery, and Creative Writing.

We offer courses in athletics, life skills, visual arts, music, literature study, creative writing, and science enrichment for all ages.

New this year: Cartooning, Children’s Choir, Do-Re-Mi Music, Cinematography,
E-Commerce, Supreme Court Simulation, LEGO Robotics, and Young Investors’ Simulation.

Registration opens to the public on April 5th. Please see details at the website.
http://www.thelearningvine.org/enrichment.html

Blessings,
Karine Bauch
LV Director

www.thelearningvine.org

Upcoming Robotics Competition

Check out all the details at their website: http://www.ilfirst.org/frc/events/midwest-regional.html

April 4-6, 2013

UIC Pavilion · 525 S. Racine Street – Chicago, Illinois

The Midwest Regional is Open to the Public – Admission is Free!

The FIRSTRobotics Competition Midwest Regional is an international, intense three-day event showcasing robots developed and operated by teams of high school students. The competing robots are the result of 6-1/2 weeks of high school students and professional engineering/science mentors teaming up to solve the engineering challenges presented in the Season Challenge/Robot Game. The robots represent the product of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, and managing project deadlines. The mentor/student interaction is integral to the FRC program. It takes a lot of hard work to develop a competitive robot, and it shows when you see them in action at the Midwest Regional.

FRC robots are big, measuring up to 5 feet tall and weighing 120+ pounds. In the competition, two alliances (red and blue) each composed of three robot teams play each other on fields that are the size of a basketball half-court. All day Friday through Saturday morning a series of Qualifying Rounds matches are played between randomly generated alliance teams to determine the top eight seeded individual teams. These top eight individual teams will now select two other teams that they would like to join them in forming an alliance for the Elimination Rounds matches. Saturday afternoon starts off with the eight alliances competing in the Quarterfinal Matches, four alliances will move on to the Semi-final Matches, then the Finals where two alliances will vie for the title of Midwest Regional Champion!

Dubbed the “grand-daddy” of all FIRST Regional Events, Midwest is a highly competitive, exciting and fun premier spectacular! It is a spectator-friendly competition environment that has the feel of both a major sporting event and a rock concert, complete with cheering fans, crazy costumes, special lighting, up-beat music, a large video wall, and energetic emcees/announcers. In essence, the Midwest Regional is a celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics!

We hope that you will join us on April 4-6 for this year’s Midwest Regional at Chicago’s UIC Pavilion. Like all FIRST Robotics Competition events, Midwest is free and open to the public! If you do plan to attend, please remember to wear closed-toed shoes and bring along a pair of safety glasses so that you can visit the pit area to meet the robots and the students who built them. And remember…our team members, coaches, mentors, volunteers and Regional staff are all very friendly and will be happy assist you and to answer any questions that you may have.

Teaching Homes for Christ curriculum sale

Website: http://www.teachinghomes.org/

Annual Used Book/Curriculum Sale

Where:
First United Methodist Church of West Chicago
643 E. Washington St. (Geneva Rd.)
West Chicago, IL 60185
(1 block east of Walgreens on the corner of Washington & Rt. 59)

When:
Saturday, April 27th
2-5 p.m.

The contact person for the sale is Terri Moore. booksale@teachinghomes.com Please contact her if you have questions or are interested in selling. All sellers will be assigned a seller number to put on the official tags. You may not drop off materials for the sale without a seller number.

Review and Giveaway: VeggieTales The Little House That Stood

We have enjoyed talking to tomatoes and smiling with squash for as long as we’ve had kids. Our two year old has now reached the age of enjoying Larry’s silliness and Bob’s wisdom as well.
They continue to crank out enjoyable kid-friendly, God-honoring videos as the years go by. This time around VeggieTales has taken some well knows nursery rhymes and combined them with the truths of Scripture with a healthy ensemble of vegetables.
My kids enjoyed this twist that combined the parable of the wise man building his house on the rock with the three little pigs. The story line keeps moving, and even though they know both stories well, it didn’t seem overly predictable to them, until they had watched it over and over and over throughout the week. Even then, they asked for it again.
I always like to interact with my kids over their media interaction, and VeggieTales even helps with that. Check out their website for printable coloring pages and some discussion questions.  Help these great lessons sink in even further!
About The Little House That Stood
When the Three Little Pigs roll into Cabbageville looking to build some new houses, they meet one builder with a plan and two without a clue! Larry builds with hay, Mr. Lunt with bricks, but only Bob builds his houses on a firm foundation – following the wise plans from the Master Builder’s Handbook! Will the Little Piggies make the right choices when it comes to building their houses – and their lives – on solid ground? Find out in this parable that shows kids when they follow God’s blueprints, then can stand strong when the storms come!
Be sure to pick up your own copy maybe for someone special’s Easter basket!
If you would like your own copy of this movie, please leave a comment. I will choose a winner on Thursday evening March 21. You may leave extra comments for additional entries by sharing about this giveaway elsewhere (facebook, twitter, email, etc.)
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

No Place Like Home advertisers directory

For those of you in or near the Fox Valley area, you may or may not have been able to attend the Homeschool Resource Fair this past Monday. Either way, I am making the vendor booklet available online for those that might be interested in many of the resources local to that area.

Here is the link to where you can find it: http://chicagolandhomeschoolnetwork.com/docs/nplh%20full%20ad%20booklet%202013.pdf

You can either right click the link and select  “Save As” to save this file to your computer or click “link” to open from website.

Hope this is helpful especially to those that were unable to make it on Monday night.

Primrose Farm event — FREE!

Historic Plaque

Our homeschool group enjoyed a field trip at this farm last year and I appreciated that it was different than other living history farms. It seems the common era for farms around Chicagoland falls somewhere around the 1840s. Primrose settles in around the 1930s and has a whole different feel to it. This would be a great multi-generational event as some in the earlier generation might even remember some of the artifacts and such around the farm and enjoy sharing some of their own personal history.

Received this info via email:

FREE to the public!
Saturday, March 23rd AND Sunday, March 24th!
9:00AM – 4:00PM each day

As winter winds down, farms begin to bustle with activity. Planting
begins and spring cleaning starts even before buds blossom! Primrose
Farm is a 1930s living history farm.

Participating in the following activities:
–planting potatoes or other vegetables in the garden
–broadcast oats in the field
–spring cleaning in the kitchen
–white washing in the barn
–wood-fired oven cooking demonstration

Where: Primrose Farm,  5N726 Crane Road, Saint Charles, IL

Check out their website: http://www.primrosefarmpark.com/

Homeschool and Gym group meeting in Beverly area

A homeschool friend shared this on facebook:
The Beverly/Morgan Park Home School & Gym Group, Inc. is hosting a Visitors’ Day on Tuesday, March 19, at 9am-noon. Our co-op gathers weekly in the Beverly area on Tuesdays. Our age range is Infant thru High School.
The Beverly/Morgan Park Home School & Gym Group, Inc. is a co-operative non-profit. We exist to provide Chicago area and nearby suburban home schooling families opportunities to participate in sports, academics, creative co-op classes and other activities in a God-centered learning environment.

Some of the Gym Activities and Co-op classes we are doing this year:
Soccer Literary Sessions
Basketball Choir
Floor Hockey Science Experiments/Dissection
Ultimate Frisbee Cooking

Please RSVP to our Membership Coordinator Laurie, membership.bmphsgg@gmail.com to reserve your spot. Please include the following information.

Name of Parents Attending:
Names and Ages of Children as of Sept. 1, 2013:
Phone Number:

Once Laurie receives your RSVP, she will email you a confirmation with additional details about the day. Please note: We are limited in the number of visitors we can accommodate at one time.

ETA: Wanted to let you all know this is a Christian group so you have a better idea if it will suit your needs or not. ~Thank you!

Home School Resource Fair

Monday, March 11

7:00-8:30 p.m.

Riverside Community Church

in St. Charles at Randall & Crane Roads

Area homeschoolers are invited to attend a Resource Fair featuring organizations offering services to the Fox Valley home school community.

Come, discover local co-ops, support groups, sports opportunities, private lesson instructors, tutors and more!  Representatives from each organization will be on hand to answer questions about their services.

Take home a directory listing each organization and their contact information for future reference, free of charge!

For more information, please email nplhgroup@gmail.com