I enjoyed a CSA from this farm quite a few years ago now, and here they are with tours of their facilities. Great way to kick of the outdoor growing season and add a unique field trip to your schedule.

From Erewhon Farm:

Visit Our Farm – Learn How to Garden Organically

Edible Farm Tours — 2012 Schedule

February/ March, 2012, Maple Sugaring Tour! (Dates will depend on the weather)

See how we tap the maple trees, collect the sap, and boil it down to make the most delicious, all natural maple syrup!  Also, we’re planting and transplanting spring crops in our hoop houses!  We’ll show you how to start seedlings for your home garden.

April 28, 2012 @1:30

Early spring crops are growing in our hoop houses and you can taste anything you like.  We’ll show you how we grow seedlings indoors, how we fertilize them, and how we transplant them into our garden beds.  We’ll show you how to make a low-cost cover for your garden crops so you can start earlier in the spring.  Robin Migalla will demonstrate easy ways to cook kale and Swiss chard. Yum!

May 26, 2012 @1:30

We’ll show you how we prepare our growing beds and some techniques for minimizing weeds in the garden.  What’s growing in our raised beds and how we make them. Guess how hot is our compost pile.  Is anything blossoming in our edible forest garden?  We’ll taste a variety of salad greens and share a garden salad. Robin Migalla will demonstrate easy ways to cook kale and Swiss chard. Yum!

Please let Gayle Riley know you’re coming:  (630)776-1700 Cost: $10.00 per person, children under 12 are free! CSA subscribers $5.00.

Private Farm Events

Especially designed tours for school field trips, boy and girl scout troops, and individuals from clubs or organizations. This one hour tour will be themed for the specific time of year and your interests.  Vegetable tasting encouraged.

Cost per person $7.50 with a minimum of $50.00

Please contact Gayle Riley to plan your event.  (630)776-1700.

We can also organize more in-depth farm visits.  Contact Tim Fuller (timf7@yahoo.com or 630-485-9963) for more info.

Farm Location:

40W248 Hughes Rd. Elburn, IL 60119

Mailing address:  Tim Fuller, 968 Pattee Av., Elburn, IL 60119

www.erehwonfarm.com

Last year I heard about an event geared toward K-8th grade students that would help them understand and explore the various worlds of engineering. I had no idea how much we would enjoy this event.

Here’s the info on the event for this year:

Join us for a fun, free, family interactive event with displays and presentations that will excite children about science and engineering. The DuPage Engineers Week Expo includes cryogenic freezing with a few controlled explosions, model airplanes and a wind tunnel exhibit, robots, bicycle power, load testing and destruction, static electricity, levers and pulleys, building molecules and hands-on activities with ZOOM®, Design Squad, LEGO® Robotics, and the DuPage Children’s Museum. See a list the free public events.

You do not have to be an engineer to enjoy the 28th Annual DuPage Area Engineers Week Expo. The Expo is geared toward children in K-8th Grade, however, all ages will enjoy this event!

Details:
When: Saturday, February 25, 2012 from 10:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Where: Illinois Institute of Technology: 201 East Loop Road, Wheaton, IL (Directions)
Cost: Free, and open to the public

Lunch and snack items will be available for purchase as a fundraiser from Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.

IIT Alumni – Call for information on a special Alumni-only Breakfast!

If you are free and looking for something to keep your kids engaged, I would encourage you to check this out. It was packed last year, but we still managed to navigate our stroller through the hallways somehow. Our whole family enjoyed the event immensely, although our then 8 month old did not like Mr. Freeze’s explosions. If you have seen his show there or elsewhere, you can probably understand why.

Expect parking to be a nightmare, and the building to be crowded, but also prepare for your kids to enjoy themselves and not want to leave. We all learned a lot of new information.  Some displays have kids helping out, but many are staffed by engineers eager to share about their background, their education, the career choice, and their displays. They want to engage your student and help them learn about engineering and the various fields it encompasses.

The program for the event is now available online, so check that out to get a good idea of what to expect from the displays.

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

Have you entered the essay contest? A couple months still to get your entries in. Take advantage of being stuck indoors by having your kids do some writing with a purpose. All the details below and at Midwest Creation Fellowship’s site.

Here’s some info to get you started (but, fyi, I think their ages are switched on their categories):

Purpose:
To encourage the development of skills in research, analysis and logical reasoning through preparing an effective presentation of a thesis in a creation-oriented paper.

Prizes: Senior High Level (Ages 11-14*)

• $250 First Place
• $100 Second Place
• $75 Third Place

Junior High Level (Ages 14-18*)

• $100 First Place
• $50 Second Place
• $25 Third Place

* Entrants 14 years old on April 30 may enter either Junior or Senior division

Topics: must strongly relate to the subject of creation vs. evolution, from a creationist perspective. Suggestions:

• Why do cultures around the world…
  …have the same star constellations?
  …have very similar legends, such as a gigantic flood?
  …offer blood sacrifices to their god(s)?
• Reasons why I believe in creation
• Vestigial organs: a vestigial argument
• More topic suggestions

Unless you are traveling out of the Chicago area you will miss the “total” part of the eclipse, but you might still be able to catch a rare viewing of both the sun and the eclipsing moon. This chart gives you the time to be looking (7:05 a.m. for us):

For more info on this special eclipse, check out space.com

Join the museum for “Around the World in 90 Minutes.“ It is an action packed show given by Marty Essen.  It is one-part theater, one-part lecture, one-part comedy, and one-part slide show. It features interesting facts, humorous stories, and the best of thousands of photos taken while traveling the world for his multi-award-winning book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. From swimming with piranhas to surviving a hippo attack, Essen’s high energy presentation is a unique exciting and educational opportunity.

Who:Suitable for ages 8 to adult.

Where: Sycamore State Street Theatre
420 West State Street, Sycamore, IL, 60178 — right across the street from the museum

Cost:  Tickets are $9 per person or $7 for museum members

When: Tuesday November 15^th at 7pm

Homeschool classes coming up in Rockford. They have these available each month, and look like some great topics. I like that the teacher is a former homeschooler as well. You’re not stepping into a class with a teacher that doesn’t understand where you or your kids are coming from. That’s a great plus!

From the Burpee Museum website:

Education : Home School – Fall 2011

Burpee Museum has been offering classes for students who are home schooled for over 9 years. The current teacher home schooled her own four children, has extensive experience as a teacher in a local home school co-op, and has been on the education staff at Burpee for 7 years.

Classes are for 9 – 13 year olds and Workshops are for 6 – 9 year olds. Participants can sign up for the entire month, or pick and choose which classes to attend. These classes are inquiry based; hands-on activities and experiments are the core of all classes. The curriculum is based on the AIMS (Activities Investigating Mathematics and Science) and GEMS (Great Explorations in Math and Science) curriculums. Students will measure, estimate, observe, predict, classify, and gather and record data.

Burpee Museum reserves the right to limit enrollments or cancel any class. Every effort will be made to notify registrants when a class is cancelled.

November

When: Tuesday 11/8 2.00– 4.00 pm

Cabbage Chemistry

For 9 – 13 year olds
Students delve into proportions working with cabbage juice to study chemistry.
Pre-registration and payment is required
Call Education Department 815 965 3433 ext 1020 to register
Fees: $12 per child members, additional siblings $9 per child
$16 per child non members, additional siblings $13 per child

******************************

Tuesday11/22 2.00– 4.00 pm

Household Mysteries: What’s Lurking in Your Cabinet?

For 9 – 13 year olds
Students bring household chemicals from home and determine if they are acid or base, to develop a new understanding of chemistry.
Pre-registration and payment is required

Call Education Department 815 965 3433 ext 1020 to register
Fees: $12 per child members, additional siblings $9 per child
$16 per child non members, additional siblings $13 per child

*******************************

Tuesday 11/29 2.00– 4.00 pm

Become a Field Biologist

For 9 – 13 year olds
Experience field biology techniques and data collection to study animal behavior.
Pre-registration and payment is required
Call Education Department 815 965 3433 ext 1020 to register
Fees: $12 per child members, additional siblings $9 per child
$16 per child non members, additional siblings $13 per child

This is still far off, and not many details, but if you want to save the date, or if you need another reminder that local science fairs will be here before we know it . . .

Northern Illinois Regional Home School Science Fair
April 27, 2012 * Rockford, Illinois

A few more details on their site: http://ilregionalsciencefair.org/

They do have info on classes that are coming up:

Please do not contact the Discovery Center about workshops! Contact ilregionalsciencefair@gmail.com with any questions. The Discovery Center will be unable to help you.

Workshop #1:
“How To” with Discovery Center’s Christopher Berndt
Date: November 18, 2011
At the Discovery Center Museum
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.

Workshop #2:
Date: January 27, 2012
At the Discovery Center Museum
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.

Workshop #3:
Finishing your project Q&A’s with the experts
Date: TBD
At the Discovery Center Museum
1:00pm-3:00pm

Cost : $10 per class. Checks should be made out to NIRSF.

Registration forms will be made available on the website.
DO NOT contact or pay the Discovery Center.

Questions should be directed to our email at ilregionalsciencefair@gmail.com.

Your local science fair will be here before you know it! Check out this site for great tips on getting started now.

A New Twist on Science Fair Projects Impress the judges this year with a clever and unique winning science fair display that will turn heads. Visit Science Fair Central for new project ideas, an interactive display board and tips to get started and guide you and your students through the science fair process. At Science Fair Central parents, students and science fair coordinators will find all the resources needed to ensure an exciting and fun-filled science fair season this year. Project samples Customizable timelines Detailed checklists Judging criteria Shopping lists Rebates and special offers Encourage students to get involved in science fairs and give them the opportunity to practice science investigation and invention . Science fairs can be the first step in developing future young scientists and engineers. Visit Science Fair Central to get started!

Cantigny Catapult Contest

Saturday, October 22, 11am

Overview

Catapults have a long history in warfare. We want you to build a working version of these war machines. The challenge is to build a catapult which is designed to throw a tennis ball as far as possible. Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place distances. Most importantly, contestants get the chance to build a catapult, compete, and possibly earn eternal glory! This project is fun, exciting, and as easy or intricate as you want to make it.

Participants

1. This contest is open to all catapult enthusiasts; no matter your age!
2. Teams are allowed (and encouraged). No more than 4 people per team please.
3. All participants must register in advance by filling out this registration form by October 15, 2011.

Specifications

1. No ready-made kits. Each catapult must be designed, constructed, and launched by contestants.
2. No part of the catapult can extend over 6 feet high.
3. All catapults will be launched on a grass field. They must sit on the ground. No tables.
4. The catapult cannot be staked into the ground.
5. All catapults will fling tennis balls provided by the First Division Museum at Cantigny.
6. Your catapult must have a triggering mechanism which will allow you to stand 2 feet away.
7. No explosions or air pressure may be used to assist the performance of your catapult. In other words, the energy used to power your catapult must be provided by the device itself.
8. Any type of hurling machine is acceptable: Ballista, Trebuchet, Mangonel, etc.

Scoring

Each group will be allowed three launches. The best launch will be used as your score. The longest launch wins. Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place distances.

Sign Up Now

If you’d like to register for the contest, click here to download the entry form. After filling out the form, save it and email it to mtyer@firstdivisionmuseum.org. If you have any questions, please contact Melissa Tyer at 630 260 8274.
Please click this link for a printable flyer for your classroom:
http://www.firstdivisionmuseum.org/events/schedule/catapult.pdf