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Swimming classes

Elgin and Elk Grove have homeschool swim and/or gym classes. Other park districts offer theses as well, or are willing to if you just ask and have a small group ready to enroll.

Many of the classes I come across started because a homeschooler asked or initiated it. It is amazing what people are willing to arrange for you if you just ask, so grab a couple other homeschool families and explore your options!

Elk Grove:
Home school swim lessons are starting up again at the Elk Grove Park District in September!

The fall session will be 8 weeks, beginning the week of 9/14 and ending the week of 11/2.
The cost is $58 per student (which is a great deal at only $7.25 per class).
New this session will be an open swim in the Lagoon for all the kids enrolled in the lessons.
This open swim time is included in the cost.
That means you are getting a 40 minute lesson AND 30 minutes of open swim. Not to mention a great opportunity to make new friends and meet up with old ones. (Thank you Deb D’Onofrio ).

Here’s how it looks:
Tuesdays
12:30 – 1:10 Lesson A: #71935
*1:15 – 1:45 Open swim for those enrolled in lessons A & B
1:50 – 2:30 Lesson B: #71936

Thursday
1:00 – 1:40 Lesson C: #71937
*1:40 – 2:10 Open swim for those enrolled in lesson C

*You don’t need to register for the open swim since it is included in your lesson cost.
Please note that we do need a minimum of 10 students per lesson and a minimum of 4 students per swim level (maximum is 6 students per level/teacher). Classes and/or levels may be canceled or combined due to low enrollment.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact Deb D’Onofrio at 847/690-1406.

Elgin:

Hey Home Schoolers—we have the perfect way to add physical
fitness and socialization time to your curriculum. Our Gym & Swim
program features a one-hour swim lesson and one-hour physical
education class each week. A variety of sports and cooperative
games will be played in our gym time. Meet in the gym on first day!!
Fee: $54R/ $64NR
Time: 1:00—3:00pm
Days:

9/14-11/16 Tues

9/15-11/17 Wed

9/16-11/18 Thu

This program is for youth ages 5-15 years

Creation Museum Homeschool Days

Dinosaur Den
Natural Selection

From: “Eddie Lutz” <elutz@creationmuseum.org>

Subject: Fall Home School Days at the Creation Museum

Summer is over, and by now I’m sure your Homeschool classes are back in full swing. One of the best ways to reinforce what you are teaching in the home (in Science, History, Bible, and more) is to take a trip to the Creation Museum (located in the Greater Cincinnati area).

The Creation Museum presents a unique and unparalleled experience, a walk through time portraying significant, life-altering events from the past, illuminating the effects of biblical history on our present and future world. Be prepared to experience history in a completely unprecedented way. Our state-of-the-art exhibits, Stargazer’s planetarium, life-sized dinosaur animatronics and beautiful outdoor gardens with paved walking trails and petting zoo make this an exciting addition to every homeschool curriculum.

For the months of September and October (Sept. 7 – Oct. 28), the Creation Museum will be running a special promotion especially for Homeschool families.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday’s are Homeschool Days. Admission to the Museum is only $10 for adults (13 and up) and $7 for children (5-12). The Stargazer’s Planetarium is also specially priced at only $4.

To take advantage of this special Homeschool offer, simply present the printed PDF form at the Creation Museum on the day of your visit. This pricing is ONLY available with the PDF coupon.

Please pass this along to any, and all, homeschooling families you know. This is not a group rate. It is available to ALL Homeschool families. When you forward this message on, please be sure to include the attachment. You can access it here: http://tinyurl.com/37z8atr

If you have any questions regarding the Fall Homeschool Days, contact Eddie Lutz at 888-582-4253 ext. 377 or email elutz@creationmuseum.org.

LEGOs in the classroom

Check out these free resources for teaching your young ones. They do request that you order for your whole school rather than just one classroom at a time if possible. So, check with your co-op or support group and see who else might be interested, and order for the whole group!

Here’s all the details:

Shop at LEGOeducation.us

LEGO^® Education and LEGO Club are proud to offer exclusive LEGO Club Jr. School Edition Magazines and LEGO Education Teacher’s Guides to first-grade educators this fall!

These special publications continue the LEGO philosophy of providing children with products that promote imagination, pique curiosity, and enhance learning. Both focus on fire safety and provide important information on what these young learners should know in case of an emergency.

The LEGO Club Jr. School Edition Magazine is designed specifically for first graders. The edition includes exciting puzzles, comics, and games with a fire safety theme. These activities focus on basic reading, math, and critical-reasoning skills.

The LEGO Club Jr. School Edition Magazine combines the thrill of LEGO building with content that will help your students learn important safety tips – and best of all, it’s FREE!

In addition, a custom LEGO Education Teacher’s Guide will be sent with each magazine order. The guides are filled with hands-on activities, classroom tidbits, and articles about how you can create a LEGO Smart^TM classroom for your students!

To recieve complimentary copies of the LEGO Club Jr. School Edition Magazine and Teacher’s Guide, simply complete our online request form located at www.LEGOeducation.us/ClubJrRequest.

For additional information or to inquire about other LEGO Education promotions, contact Debra at dsmith@LEGOeducation.us.

Orders will be processed weekly. Shipment of items will begin in October 2010. Magazines are packaged in groups of 50, 100, and 200 for easier distribution. Please consider ordering for your school’s entire first grade and not just your first grade class. Any specific ordering or delivery directions should be noted in the Comment section of the order form.

Free Homeschool workshop available for your group

Matthew Bullington is a homeschool graduate who was paid to go to college, and has now produced a variety of resources specifically targeted to help homeschoolers prepare for college.

Along with resources, he also gives workshops. He is going to be traveling through Illinois the week of September 20^th through August 25^th, and if I can find an interested group in the area I would be willing to give a 90 minute free workshop on one or two of the below topics of your choice:

-Earning College Credit: Details on Dual Enrollment and Credit by Examination

-Financing College: Details on How to Locate Scholarships, Grants and Alternative Ways to Reduce the Cost of a College Education

-Standardized Exams: Preparing for the ACT and SAT

-Homeschooling High-School: How to Approach College Preparation with Confidence

-The Application Process: How to Make Yourself Marketable to Colleges and Universities

-Is College the Right Choice? College and the Alternatives

If you would be interested or know of a group that might be interested in having a workshop and would like to know more details please contact Matthew by e-mail or cell. Please feel free to forward this to other groups!

Contact: Matthew Bullington

Phone: 615-653-6816 (Cell)

Website: www.UniversityReady.com or www.HomeschoolCollegePrep.com

Email: Matthew@HomeschoolCollegePrep.com

“Wonderful!!! Full of information but taught with the heart of a homeschooler. Just what our family needed to start our college prep with confidence!”

–Jamie K, previous workshop attendee

“The wealth of information that you gave that will ultimately save me boat-loads of time. Plus I feel that I got incredibly beneficial information that I wish that I had known in my highschool/college career. Now I feel that we can get funding for college.”

–Kim A, previous workshop attendee

“Matthew Bullington, honors graduate of both his homeschool high school and his 3 1/2 years at Middle Tennessee State University, has produced an excellent and very thorough two-part DVD series giving homeschool parents and their Junior and Senior high school students step-by-step guidelines to prepare for all aspects of college. In conjunction with the DVD series, Matthew has also developed a web site at www.HomeschoolCollegePrep.com and workshops to assist homeschool families in this journey from homeschool to college. We highly recommend Matthew to you as an excellent coach and his DVD series as a most-helpful road map to guide you and your students alon the path to a successful transition from your homeschool to college.”

–Claiborne and Lana Thornton, parents of three, homeschooling over 25 years, President of the Tennessee Home Education Association

TOS Crew Review — Peterson Directed Handwriting

I like finding people passionate about their products. Rand Nelson falls into that category. If you want to know the ins and outs of handwriting and have lots of rationale for teaching a certain methodology, he is your man. And, Peterson Directed Handwriting is your product.

Product: Peterson Directed Handwriting
Details : Peterson Directed Handwriting offers an involved handwriting curriculum based on lots of research. The books begin with posture and procedure as well as teaching actual letter formation. I received the print books.
Price : $19.95 for each e-book

What we loved . . .

Foundational. Peterson Handwriting offers lots of rationales and instruction for establishing good writing habits that even help pre-readers. Too often kids get into bad habits quickly in teaching themselves to write. Peterson addresses these and helps prevent or change them so children can write well fluently.
Step by step. The product doesn’t rush into the writing. Students have four steps to follow — Illustrate and Describe, Air writing, Finger tracing, and finally write and say. This helps to ensure success by the time they take pencil to paper.
Reuseable. Because this is an ebook, one purchase will satisfy all your kids. Copy and recopy as needed.
Helpful. You don’t face this alone. Aside from a website full of articles and helps, Rand is available to personally answer questions and guide you through effective use of this product.
Informative. The website is packed with information on how to teach handwriting. It also will help you understand why certain expectations are important. The even have a page full of coaching helps to guide you the teacher through the process.
You can preview the product. You cannot print it out (you obviously need to pay for that option), but on their website you can see the complete product before you buy. One of the challenges of purchasing online is that you can’t flip through the pages and really see what you are getting. With Peterson you can! Look at the book, look at the table of contents, look at all 65 pages if you want. You know exactly what you are getting when you buy these ebooks.

Some considerations . . .

Lots of preperatory reading and pre-teaching. The actual writing is the goal, but there are lots of steps and instruction before you get to that point.
Not for every student. While the printable pages can be used by any student, the methodology might not be a good fit for all students. My son loved the verbal cues that matched the movements and the other prep steps. My daughter found them cumbersome. She likely did not really need all of that to get the point across, but it did definitely cement it in her thinking and habits.

Peterson offers a great product for beginning writers, or for those that need to relearn due to poor writing habits. It does involve a lot of teacher intensive time to make sure the student truly settles into the best writing habits. In the end, the time invested is worth the effort as these are habits that will last a lifetime.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This ebook was provided to me free of charge through Peterson Directed Handwriting as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

Homeschool Mom’s brunch

Following invite to Homeschool Mom’s brunch to help you start the school year off on the right foot. This is coming quickly, so be sure to RSVP asap to hold your spot.

No Place Like Home

Cordially invites you to kick off your school year with Rob Rienow of Visionary Parenting

Rob is husband to Amy and they have been blessed with six children. He is a speaker (visionaryparenting.com), author, and Family Pastor at Wheaton Bible Church in Wheaton, IL. He will encourage us as Women of God growing our children in the Light of the Lord. As a homeschool dad himself, Rob will share the priority of passing faith and character to our children, uplift us as homeschooling moms and cheer us on in our homeschool year ahead

He will instill in us the Godly confidence that homeschooling is worth the difficulty and sacrifice of our time and energy! Come and join us for a lovely brunch while getting Charged Up for an Incredible Year of Hero Building!

Questions or R.S.V.P. to Michelle Larsen: marlarsen@foxvalley.net or (847)697-8813

Living books

In reading on Charlotte Mason’s style I came across a term I have heard many times now — Living Books. She says this about choosing reading material:

For the children? They must grow up upon the best . . . There is never a time
when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well
told. Let Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ represent their standard in poetry
DeFoe and Stevenson, in prose; and we shall train a race of readers who will
demand literature–that is, the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas
and pictures of life.

She warns against twaddle, a word I just love. So, I have started a vigilant hunt for books that breathe.

We read living books because we love them, they bring us together. They prompt incredible conversations. Even my little ones surprise me with the observations that they make about a book and its connections with real life. They bring something to our home school that no unit study, hands-on project, or even a field trip can. They spark the imagination and make creativity soar.

Some look alive, but hold nothing of value beyond the front cover. Others look old and dry and yet have carried us on amazing adventures. How do I know? Where do I find a good book?

Just wanted to share some great resources for finding a good read:

Ambleside Online — This website builds directly off of the Charlotte Mason philsophy. It assigns a time period for each year and can and is used by many as the core of their homeschool. We used them loosely for a couple years. Now, I still refer to that site because the book lists are excellent. We have loved probably 90% of the books we found through that site.

Curriculum reading lists — I started looking through other curriculums (like Sonlight — which we also used for a year) to see what books they recommend at various grade levels. Lots of great recommendations made it into our reading list this way as well.

Five in a Row — For books and accompanying activities, these books can give you plenty to choose from. Books that have stood the test of time, and you will love reading and rereading with your kids.

The Book Guardians — This is a brand new site for which I will be a contributor. Be sure to check it out over time as more books get added to its ranks. It will list books and share in 10 key areas if they have content that might need consideration. I talked more about it on my blog post about book reviews.

Common Sense Media — This site offers a number of reviews, but does not seem to have a strong moral slant. I did not find the reviews as helpful because I tend to have a stricter standard on what I deem appropriate reading for my kids. Still, definitely some value in the sheer quantity of books they have reviewed.

Christian Children’s book reviews –A good site, but seems to review only Christian books.

Focus on the Family has a book review section — Some good reviews, but they seemed to be lacking a depth in their recommendations and information provided. Does come from a conservative preference morally.

Facts on Fiction — Lots of reviews and clearly targeting key areas of concern. Alphabetized and easy to find what you are looking for.

1000 Good books — compiled by 25 homeschool moms, you can find 1000 of their recommendations. That should keep you busy for a while!

Many books also offer lists and reviews:

– Honey for a Child’s Heart

– What Shall We Then Read

– Hand that Rocks the Cradle (from the Bluedorns)

– Books Children Love

– Invitation to the Classics

– The Read-Aloud Handbook

Finding the time:

With six kids, five of them now school age, the trick is finding time in a day to read books. We have employed a variety of means to do so. We read a bit each day. Sometimes at bedtime, sometimes in the afternoon. We have a silent reading time each day as well. Books on CD also help. We listen to these in our rooms, at bedtime, and definitely in the car. We “read” an extra book or two each month by listening in the car. And, it keeps the kiddos quiet while we travel!

Looking for some recommendation? Here are some of our favorite books:

The Little House on the Prairie series

The Princess and the Goblin

Gone Away Lake

The Calico Captive

The Endless Steppe

God’s Smuggler

Bruchko

Robin Hood

Galileo and the Magic Number

And, every year we discover a few more favorites. Stay tuned to hear what we unearth this year.

Please add some more resources or book favorites of your own in the comments. We are always looking for well loved books.

This post linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Science classes in Oak Forest

CHESS homeschool group is offering the following classes on CPR, First Aid, and dissection to support your homeschool.

Class size is limited ~ register early!

To register for the following classes:

email Sandi Grutzius at sgrutzius@ymail.com and designate the class and time you would prefer and then a second option if the class is full. Upon confirmation of availability, send a check made out to CHESS to Sandi Grutzius, 16620 Grant Avenue, Orland Park, IL 60467.

CPR and First Aid Training

The instructor will be Robert Niemic, father of five homeschooled children, Firefighter/Paramedic for the last 18 years, American Heart Association CPR instructor, and founder of How 2 Save a Life. How to Save a Life was created to provide CPR and First Aid training using the American Heart Association guidelines.

The CPR instruction

This class offers three hours of training in adult, child, and infant CPR. Bob will demonstrate the use of an AED or Automated External Defibrillator and will teach skills needed to help an infant, child, or adult who has stopped breathing, is choking, or has a cardiac emergency. Upon completion, students will receive an AHA CPR certification card.

CPR Class – Tuesday, October 26 9:00 – Noon, or 6:00 – 9:00.

The First Aid class

In this three hour class students learn how to handle a wide variety of medical emergencies including heart attacks, diabetic emergencies, stroke, shock, trauma, environmental emergencies and more, should you ever be faced with one. As a student you will leave the class feeling confident that you will know how to handle many difficult situations in public or at home. At the end of the class, you will receive an AHA First Aid certification card.

First Aid Class – Tuesday, October 26 1:00 – 4:00

Both classes meet on the same day, October 26. Each class has a fee of $16 for CHESS members.

After the September meeting, both classes will be open to non-CHESS members for a fee of $20.

Classes meet at Grace Fellowship Church in Oak Forest, IL and are open to ages 12 and up. Parents are welcome to certify. Payment is due upon registration

YUCK 103

(for Jr. and Sr. High students)

Dr. Lainna Callentine has a great love for teaching. She is a pediatrician, home school mother, and former classroom teacher with a certification and masters in elementary education. Dr. Callentine continues to have wonderment for the beauty of God’s creation in the human body. She left formal medicine in the ER to stay home and home school her three children. However, she still practices her hobby of medicine at a Christian clinic in Bolingbrook

Yuck 103 – The Circulatory System

– Young scientists will be able to experience and examine some of the vile and wonderfully disgusting elements of life. In this hands-on lab, students will study the circulatory system. Activities include dissecting sheep pluck (trachea, heart, and lung unit), blood typing, and investigating the forensic chemistry of blood types. See the fascinating innards of God’s creation. Two sessions of this 2 hour class are available.

Thursday, November 4 ~ cost $20/student for CHESS members

9:30 – 11:30 or 1:00 – 3:00

cost $22/student for non-CHESS members

Coming in 2011

– Plan to join us for YUCK 104 and YUCK 105 in the winter and spring as we investigate the digestive system and the central nervous system.

Timber-Lee Science Class

Camp Timber-Lee, located just to the North in East Troy, Wisconsin, offers a homeschool science program for the serious high school science student.

This class spans the full school year and includes time spent at camp, books to read, lab work, and written assignments. Building on Jay Wile’s well known science texts from Apologia, these experienced teachers challenge the students to grow in their faith and academics.

The early bird discount period has already ended, but it is not too late to get in on the class for the upcoming school year. Find all the details on the Timber-Lee site.

Bug fest

The Red Oak Nature Center, part of the Fox Valley Park District is having a bug fest this coming Saturday, August 21.

The time will be full of fun with activities, crafts, competition, and lots of learning. This event is geared to the whole family.

When: Saturday, August 21, 9-noon

Where: Red Oak Nature Center
On Route 25, one mile north of Route 56
2343 S. River St.
North Aurora, IL 60542
Directions

More information: 630-897-1808

Dinosaur Den

Natural Selection

Following invite to Homeschool Mom’s brunch to help you start the school year off on the right foot. This is coming quickly, so be sure to RSVP asap to hold your spot.

No Place Like Home