Homeschool classes through IIT in Wheaton

Here is a fantastic looking opportunity, and very affordable! Hat-tip to the Naperville Home Educators Yahoo group for sharing.

Hello Home School parents~

I would like to invite your child to participate in the Illinois Institute of Technology science offering, Let’s Be Water Wise! Home schooled students will meet together for 8 weeks (Thursdays), beginning February 21st, at the IIT- Rice Campus in Wheaton. See http://www.iit.edu/rice/about/directions.shtml for directions and location. The class will run from 8:00 AM until 10:30.

The group will be comprised of six to ten students, aged 11-15, and interested parents. I will facilitate. I have taught biology, chemistry, physical science, environmental science and methods in science education for 36 years, working with students aged 6 through adult. After examining the attached syllabus, if you would like your child to participate, respond to this email with your child’s name and age. Next, please send a check for $25 payable to the IIT School of Applied Technology, to my attention at the address below. This will reserve a spot for your child and will cover the lab fee for the class. There may be field trip entrance fees and transportation costs as well, but there will be no other course fee. If you have other questions, let me know.

Looking forward to this new IIT collaboration,Susan
Susan Camasta, PhD
Adjunct Faculty
School of Applied Technology &

Department of Mathematics & Science Education
Illinois Institute of Technology
Rice Campus201 East Loop Road Wheaton, IL 60189
(630) 408-8054

This pilot program, supported by the IIT School of Applied Technology, will run for 8 weeks, meeting once/week at the IIT Rice Campus in Wheaton.  Each session will be approximately 2.5 hours. Field experiences will meet off campus, and at least two are planned.  Six to ten students will be enrolled; the intended audience is young people, aged 12-16. Parents are welcome participants.

Please contact her for more details and a preliminary syllabus.

Our curriculum plans and link to more

Not Back to School Blog Hop

The new year!
We have a couple weeks yet before we begin. August 22 is our official start date at this point, but at least we know where we are headed.

I made myself a master list like the following but just with the generic subjects listed and then a box for each day of the week. Then I won’t forget what they should be doing each day. And, I can use it to record their grades for each assignment in each subject which will make record keeping so much easier.

In the past I would pull out their individual notebooks and pull their grades off the top of each graded assignment. Now, I will just record it all onto my master sheet throughout the week and just have one paper of info to put into the computer on the weekend. That will make my weekend job a 15 minute one rather than an hour long one.

Lots of the same. We know what works for us and what we love, but some new stuff, too. Of course, since we don’t really follow the regular school calendar, many of these books and subjects they are already in the midst of.

I am streamlining a bit this year and doing history all together. Obviously their homework and their interaction with the material will be quite different over the 8 year age span, but we will all be in the same time period and it will tie into our Bible time as well. Science for all 2-8th will be the same as well. My 8th grader already finished Physical science and General Science so she gets to have fun with us this year as she isn’t really ready for high school science yet.

I am mixing up grammar this year. We love Rod & Staff, but it gets a little repetitive year after year. So, I am going to switch every other year and pepper in Shurley and Easy Grammar. We gave both of these an introductory run during our summer school and they seem to fill the need well.

High School continues to stretch us, but mostly in a good way. This year we will tackle Spanish and Advanced Mathematics (including pre-calc) together.

Nathan — 2nd grade
First Language Lessons (mostly oral)
Saxon Math 3 (already half way through)
Handwriting without tears — big focus!! Trying to improve his pencil grip and penmanship this year
All About Spelling level 3 (almost done)
Truth quest History (Beginnings — ties into Bible)
Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology
PE — baseball, gym and swim, PE at co-op
Brooke – 3rd grade
Rod & Staff English 3 (half way through)
Saxon Math 5/4 (half way through)
All About Spelling level 3 (almost done)
Truth quest History
Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology
A Reason for Handwriting T (half way through)
PE — soccer, gym and swim, PE at co-op
Faith – 6th grade
Easy Grammar Level 1
Saxon Math 8/7 (half way through)
All About Spelling level 4
Truth quest History
Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology
PE — soccer, gym and swim, PE at co-op
Paige – 8th grade
Shurley English 7
Algebra 1 (half way through)
Puppetry (Co-op)
IEW Level B (Co-op, I’m teaching)
All About Spelling level 4
Truth quest History
Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology
PE — soccer, gym and swim
Blake – 10th grade
Apologia Chemistry (Co-op)
PE — baseball, gym and swim, PE at co-op
Bible
Spanish 1
Advance Mathematics (Saxon)
IEW Level C (Co-op, I’m teaching)
Truth quest History
Full days, but wonderfully full. I look forward to another year of exploring life and our amazing world with my kids. In between it all we continue to enjoy the antics of a two year old who breathes new life into everything. Thankful to God for another opportunity to live life in the midst of my family each day.

Free science classes

I received the following information via email. Please contact the teacher at the bottom of the invitation for more information.

A Special Invitation!!!

Dear Parents of Home School Students:

I am an instructor in the Teacher Education Department at Judson University
and would like a pre-service teacher that I am instructing to have an
opportunity to work with a multi-age group of students. I would like to invite
you and your second through sixth grade home-school students to come to
four special science/math learning experiences.

Mr. Matt Langston and I will be preparing four hands-on integrated science,
mathematics, and language arts experiences. There would be no charge for
the lessons but parents must attend with their students. (Please do not bring
children who are younger than second grade.)

Where: Judson Teacher Education Building – (Creekside)
Located at the bottom of the hill on Jerusha Street, Elgin, IL

When: 8:30 – 10:30 Monday, February 13

8:30 – 10:30 Monday, February 27
8:30 – 10:30 Monday, March 19
8:30 – 10:30 Monday, March 26

Thinking Like a Scientist – Process Skills
Ramps and Rollers – Physical Science
Fractions and Geometry
Height and Hands – Life Science

Please RSVP at lfiggins@quixnet.net. I need to know the dates you can attend
and the number and grade levels of the children who will be attending with
you. It is not necessary to attend all sessions but I think the experiences would
be very beneficial for all learners. (Please include the names of all participants
as well as a phone number.)

Feel free to call me with any questions of clarification.

Dr. Linda Figgins
630-319-7913

Co-op in Fox Valley area holding open registration

Please contact Tri-Cities Enrichment Co-op directly for course descriptions or more detailed schedule information:

Are you looking for a homeschool group for your family, some additional enrichment classes, or academic classes to round out your curriculum at home? Consider Tri-Cities Enrichment Co-op (TEC)

We are a Christian homeschool group of families who will meet on Tuesdays (new day) for the 2010-2011 school year at Lord of Life Church – La Fox, IL – just west of Geneva in order to provide various classes to our children.  Our instructors are qualified teachers who love the subject areas that they are teaching. We pay these teachers to teach these classes.   As part of the co-op, parents are expected to serve at the co-op during the times that their children attend.   Since this is a parent run co-op, the success of our group depends on the involvement of caring, committed parents.

We offer Apologia Chemistry, Apologia Biology, Apologia General Science, Apologia Physical Science, and Science- God’s Design series, Spanish, Literature, Shurley  Language Arts/IEW Writing,  Art, ballet, Bob Jones US History, Speech , Old Testament Bible, American Girl History, Elementary Geography, Gym, and Classical Conversation’s Foundation classes.   We have classes for kindergarten through High School.

Please email tricitiesenrichmentcoop@gmail.com if you would like more information.

Open Registration for classes will be held at Lord of Life Church, Corner of Rte. 38 & Burlington Road-LaFox on May 17  from 12:30-2:00.   Registration packages will be provided at Registration or are available upon request.