Summer bowling

Great deal for a summer of bowling. You do need to still pay shoe rental, any adult games are not free, and you just get one game per day. However, if you have a Brunswick bowl nearby and your kids enjoy bowling, and you plan to bowl a couple times this summer, it is definitely worth the couple minutes to sign them up.


Join the Brunswick Bonus Zone
and save money while you’re having a good time. Membership is free. As a Brunswick Bonus Zone member, you’ll receive exciting discounts and promotions on all the Brunswick fun, from bowling and food, to games, parties and more. Smoke-free times are available at all locations. Once you’re signed up, we’ll send you an e-mail with your first money saving offer!
NOTE: We have total respect for your privacy. We won’t share your information with anyone, and you can always unsubscribe with a single click. View the Brunswick Privacy Policy.
© 2009 Brunswick Bowling & Billiards Corporation. Brunswick Zone is a registered trademark of Brunswick Bowling & Billiards Corporation.

Crossroads offers sports just for homeschoolers

If you are looking for homeschool sports this is the place to begin your search. Excellent program and a variety of sports available. Check out all the details on their website Crossroads Christian Youth Center.

Fox Valley Music Camp

The Fox Valley Music Camp at Judson University

This week-long day camp for ages K-12 is held in Elgin, IL, June 27-July 1, 2011.

For K-2nd grade (half day) 9-12:30
Cost: $100

For Grades 3-12 (full day) 9-4:30
Cost: $200-$250

The camp offers private instrumental instruction,IMEA competition prep and both Classical and Contemporary ensembles.

Campers explore music history, theory and composition in addition to making music together. A recital concludes the week.

Where: Judson University, Elgin IL
1151 N. State Street

For more information: foxvalleymusiccamp@gmail.com

Website: www.judsonu.edu

Phone: Cheryl Richardson at 847.458.2729

Or Phone Robert Kania at: 847.628.1115 or email: rkania@judsonu.edu

Dance class

This class is geared for the very young beginner dance student and is a prelude to formal ballet instruction. Students will work on developing gross motor skills through music and movement in a structured environment. An excellent and fun way to introduce young children to the joy of dance.

Ages 4-5

When: Tuesdays 11:30-NOON (please arrive 15 minutes prior to class)

6/21, 6/28, 7/5, 7/12, 7/19, 7/26, 8/2, 8/9

Cost: 8 weeks 1x/ week                     $40

Where: 900 Robertson Road, South Elgin

Class size is limited.

Please call in advance to register. Payment is due in full at 1st class.

Needs: Sports shorts & t-shirt, long hair in a pony tail

If little girls have pink ballet costuming, they are welcome to wear it to class

Please DO NOT purchase new costuming prior to talking to instructors

Please bring a labeled drink bottle with water to classes

There will be a Final Presentation Tuesday, August 16 in the evening for family & friends to see what the children have accomplished. This will include presentations from the older dance students as well. An approximate $10 costuming fee will be required.

Kendra Knorst (age 16) & Megan Martin (age 17), accomplished students of MagnAttitude will be teaching the classes.

“Let them praise his name with dancing” Psalm 149:3

MELISSA MARTIN, director of MagnAttitude Dance Academy, began her fine arts training at a young age. She studied piano and later flute at the Chicago Conservatory. Most of her early dance training was with her mother at Valley Dance Center. Advancing rapidly  she continued  to study at many well  known studios in Chicago including the Ruth Page Foundation, Chicago City Ballet, Ellis-Duboulay and Elizabeth Boitsov. Madame Boitsov is a graduate of the State Ballet School and State Bolshoi University in Moscow. Melissa was selected to train for the International Ballet Competition and studied in New York City with Madame Darvash. She has appeared in the full length productions of Cinderella, Coppelia, La Fille Mal Gardee, and the Nutcracker and has performed solo variations from ballets such as Don Quixote. At the age of twelve Melissa held the leading role in a student production of the Wild Swans. She then appeared with Rudolph Nureyev and the Zurich Opera Ballet. She started teaching in 1990 and especially loves imparting excellent technique to her students. As a teenager and after a dramatic transformation that took place in her parents’ lives when they dedicated themselves to God, Melissa accepted Christ as her own personal Savior and Lord. She is married to David Martin and the mother of 11 children.

Magn Attitude

“O Magnify the LORD with me, and            let us exalt his name together.” Psalm 34:3

“Your attitude should be the      same as that of Christ Jesus” Philippians 2:5

900 Robertson   Road, South Elgin, IL  60177

847-931-0698   mmartin0698@sbcglobal.net

Judson Music Camp

Music Camp

(June 27-July 1) for Guitar-strumming, drum-pounding, keyboard-playing 6th-12th grade students interested in learning how to form and play in a worship band.

Form a worship band on Monday — Play a concert on Friday!

Cobey Bienert  from the band  The Hudson Branch will
show your students how to do it at the Fox Valley Music Camp at Judson
University, June 27- July 1.

Sign up now by sending in a registration form found at:
http://tinyurl.com/FoxValleymusiccamp-form

Questions? e-mail foxvalleymusiccamp@gmail.com

Meeting Location: Thompson Center at Judson University

Address: 1151 N. State Street, Elgin, IL

Website: www.judsonu.edu

Phone847.628.2500 or Cheryl Richardson at 847.458.2729

Chicago area chess club — for homeschoolers!

I received this information via email (thanks, Kimber, for passing this along!):

Announcing the Chicagoland Homeschoolers Chess Club!  The chess club
will be meeting most Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m beginning
May 14th.  The club is open to homeschooled children 5-17 years of age
(K-12) who would like to:

-play chess
-receive instruction and evaluation
-learn to analyze each others games
-study new ideas with others
-compete in club tournaments individually and scholastic tournaments as a team

Currently meeting space is generously being donated by the First
United Methodist Church of La Grange.  A small fee is required to
cover the cost of materials and children under 13 must be accompanied
by a parent for the entirety of the club meeting.  For more details
please contact coach@chchess.org

TOS Crew Review — Go Trybe

I have my favorites for math, English, history, and science. But, when it comes to PE, every year is different. We like to try different things, but most importantly we like to be active and continue to improve our health each day. I want my kids to be healthy and have fun in the process. GoTrybe has a similar goal and we enjoyed using their tools this past month.

Product: Go Trybe online membership

Details: An online fitness membership for kids to use on their own or with their class to encourage them to get active and take a more hands-on interest in their own physical fitness.

Price: $19.95 for an annual membership (regularly $39.95)

What we loved . . .

  • Quick to figure out. Login is easy, they even have a free trial to check it out before you buy. As soon as you are in you can click around, create your avatar, plan a workout, or listen to the daily messages.
  • Not just exercise. While GoTrybe’s main focus is exercise, they offer incentives to improve your health in many other areas as well. Each day the member can earn points for viewing quick videos or reading quick tidbits about nutrition, motivation, and wellness. These generally offer tips and advice on how to stick with your exercise plans, how to pack the most nutrition in your meals, and how to set and stick with goals to improve your health. They use the points to dress their avatar and buy various items.
  • Lots of variety and choose your own. I really enjoyed the way they made the workouts available. They are not just premade videos that you pick from and follow along with only a few to choose from. You create your own workout by pulling from a pool of exercise videos most about 3-5 minutes in length. Each workout must have a warm up, three cardio sets, a strength one, and then a flexibility video. There are lots to choose from and my kids made many videos that we used on different days. No two were alike.
  • Kids exercise along, too. Each video is led by an adult, but kids play an important part in the group as well. You can even be in a video if you get in touch with them and are willing to drive to their studios in Tennessee. 😉
  • Geared to a variety of ages. You choose your age group when signing in and the videos that you have will vary based on your age at sign in. They have targeted them, and we enjoyed the older group although it was definitely challenging for my little ones that were following along with us. They all still got a great bit of exercise.

Some considerations . . .

  • Modesty. My only real beef with GoTrybe is their choice of clothing and body stance for the older girl avatar, in particular. This is often a problem for me when I consider products that focus on physical fitness. Presumably they want to give you a visual that is physically fit, but it often ends up somewhere between questionable and inappropriate in the modesty department. I would have preferred a more neutral stance and more feminine clothing, but obviously they can’t please everyone, so in this area I fell into the part of everyone that they didn’t please.
  • Workouts seemed to lack a cool down. We really enjoyed the workouts that we put together and each of my kids took a turn putting one on for us. However, we found that they needed a little more transition from the heart pumping cardio to the muscle building strength clips. We would just pause and walk around the room a few times while our heart rate relaxed a bit.
  • Nutrition information might not mesh with your slant. Each day the kids have an opportunity to hear a quick little nutrition tip and take a one question quiz on their comprehension. This was an easy way to earn points and my kids learned something in the process. However, there are a variety of approaches to healthy eating in our society today (whole foods, vegan, Nourishing Traditions, etc.) and again they cannot please everybody. For the most part they did a good job of remaining general (eat lots of fresh, whole foods), but if this is an area that you feel strongly about in your home you might want to use these as discussion starters rather than lessons for your kids to swallow.
  • Offers forum and chat features. Social media will always open the door to inappropriate conversation. Just be careful who your kids friend, or have them avoid that part of the program all together. They will not miss out on anything if they don’t get all the shoutouts like, “Make an avatar” ” r u a boy or girl?” etc. Really meaningful stuff right there. 😉

GoTrybe set out to create a motivational site for kids to get fit, to realize the importance of diet and exercise in our society that continues to struggle with obesity and weight related medical issues. I think they did a good job of making this kid-friendly and interactive. This web based program gets you out of your chair and improving your health from the first day you log in. Definitely worth the less than $20 to enable your kids to plan your PE for you.

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

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through Go Trybe 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.



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Science resource

Dr. Callentine boasts an impressive resume. A doctor, a homeschool mom, a former teacher, a parent rights advocate, and much more. Some of you may have run into her at the ICHE convention in past years.  If you have not had the privilege of meeting her you can do so again this year at the convention, or you can check out her other already scheduled classes, or schedule one of your own.

With her background she brings all of her passions to her presentations. As she says, she is passionate about, “the biological sciences, children, education, families, and the God who created all things.”

If you are looking for someone to lead a dissection or present on a certain biology related topic, you will want to look more closely at her website. She has lots to offer in areas that many homeschoolers are looking for a helping hand.

Homeschool Football!

Just crossed paths with a coach from this football team. I have heard lots of great things about this organization and this team in particular. If you are looking for some activity for a teenage boy, you will want to check this out. It is based at Crossroads in Big Rock, but they hope to have practice in the Naperville or Aurora area. I know people are coming from all over for this, so if you are interested, get in touch with them. If you are looking for some training and physical conditioning, or an actual team sport, this will be of interest to you:

Classical Conversations Practicum in Chicago

Thank you to Jennifer for passing along this information:

I wanted to let you know we will be hosting a free parent practicum on May 23-25th at Moody Church.  This 3-day event seeks to encourage homeschool families while equipping them to use the classical model at home.  There are also wonderful low-cost academic camps available for your kids during the practicum.  The registration is open and families can sign-up at www.classicalconversations.com and go to Equipping Events. Parking is available at Piper’s Alley for $12.

Chicago, IL 3-Day Practicum
From Monday, May 23 2011 –  9:00am
To Wednesday, May 25 2011 – 4:00pm
Every day
Improving Your Vision for Homeschooling
May 23-25
Moody Church

Childcare:
Nursery: 0-2 years old
Playcamp:  3-5 years old
GeoDraw Camp: 6-8 years old
Debate Camp:  9-14 years old

Tutor Training:  Foundations and Essentials

***Please Note:  Parking is $12 near Moody.***

Location: Moody Church, 1635 N. LaSalle Dr,
Country: United States
Training for contracted directors and tutors available for: Essentials, Foundations
Camps Available on event

Camp name: Nursery Seats availables: 4 Cost: $33
Camp name: Play Camp Seats availables: 15 Cost: $33
Camp name: GeoDrawing Camp Seats availables: 13 Cost: $33
Camp name: Communications: Public Speaking Seats availables: 35 Cost: $33 Required Resource: Beginning Debate