Support Group– South/Central Connecticut
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Sleeping Giant HomeschoolersMay 2000
Next Meeting: Curriculum Sale!
Thursday, June 1, 2000
7:30 p.m.
Grace Baptist Church
Country Club Road, CheshireDirections:
Follow Route 10 north through Cheshire (past Stop & Shop). About one mile north of the center of town on the right is Country Club Road. (There is a public service announcement sign at the intersection.) The church is 3/10 mile down on the right.
Bring your used curriculum and/or books to sell to fellow homeschoolers! In between transactions, help stuff information packets for Info Night. Let’s have a big turnout for the last regular meeting of the school year!
Info Night Fast Approaching!
Information Night will be held this year on June 14 at the Cheshire Public Library, and we need your help!Publicity: If we don’t get the word out, we’ll be all alone informing ourselves, which isn’t the idea. Everyone should photocopy the enclosed flyer and post it wherever you can: grocery stores, YMCA, libraries, bookstores, wherever you think parents might see it. This is very important! We also need volunteers to send press releases to local newspapers; contact Denise Waldron for more information.
Curriculum tables: Liz DePalma is coordinating this; contact her (271-2330) to volunteer to have specific samples of curriculum or other learning materials available for folks to browse. Remember when you first began and couldn’t imagine what curricula might look like?
Refreshments: Contact Carrie Crowder to volunteer to help with light refreshments.
If you’re interested in attending a meeting specifically to plan the details of the night, let Nina Spacek know as soon as possible.
Plan Now for Big E: Coordinator Needed!
Every year the Big E in Springfield, MA, offers free admission to school groups on weekdays and includes homeschoolers in this. A specific number of tickets for specific dates must be requested in the spring. For the past several years, Karol Ann Shalvoy has organized our trip to the Big E. Last year she requested a volunteer to replace her for this year. So far she is still waiting, so if you are interested, call her ASAP at (203) 272-8849.
This year the Big E will take place Fri., Sept. 15-Sun., Oct. 1. Free tickets are available for students in grades K-8 (next year’s grades). If you have to pay for children's tickets (age 6-12) they cost $8 each and there is no discount in advance. Children age 5 and under are always free. This year adult tickets will cost $12 each. They will be available for $10 at Stop and Shop 8/20-9/9. Opening day tickets are available at at lower cost at the gate. The order deadline, as always, is in early June. You can sign up at the May or June Sleeping Giant meeting. If you cannot make the meetings you can call Karol Ann until there is a volunteer, but unless there is a volunteer, there will not be a trip. The volunteer will set the specific date(s).
Math Olympiads for the 2000-01 School YearInformation Meeting Tuesday Evening June 13 at Woodbridge Library
Diane Vasseur and Janice Ninomiya are starting a Math Olympiad group for elementary and middle school aged homeschoolers. Exposure to challenging problems, interesting puzzles and associated rich mathematical topics is essential for the development of skill in problem solving. In the Math Olympiad program, practice and competition are done in groups. We will only be practicing during the 2000-01 school year. We may compete in future years. There will be an Information Meeting at the Woodbridge Library on Tuesday evening June 13 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. At the meeting, we will break into groups (of similar age) and try out some Math Olympiad problems from previous years. Mom and Dad, you will get to try out these problems yourselves, in a group with other parents. Bring the family and join us! No reservations are necessary but for directions or more information call Janice Ninomiya at 203-387-0392.
Press Release for Info Night (let Denise know which publication/radio station you are contacting) Note: this is the suggested text for announcements for your local newspaper for Info Night; just retype and send.
Denise Waldron
Sleeping Giant Homeschoolers Support Group
822 Woodruff Road
Orange, CT
e-mail: denise.waldron@snet.net
COMMUNITY EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:Homeschooling Information Night
Those interested in homeschooling will find information at a presentation to take place on June 14 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Mary Baldwin Room on the main level of the Cheshire Public Library, 104 Main Street, Cheshire. Please use the back entrance; parking is in the rear of the library. Topics will include reassurance on getting started, legal issues, a panel discussion, and more. Sponsored by the Sleeping Giant Homeschoolers Support Group.
Help Wanted!
We’re in need of a new newsletter editor (or three) for the coming school year. If we get several volunteers, each will only have to do the newsletter every few months rather than monthly. If you can help, let Nina know.On the Web
Home Education Magazine's NEW online Homeschooling Information & Resource Guide:
http://www.home-ed-magazine.com/ORD/mtrlst.html
Hoover Institute - How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education:
http://www.educationnews.org/hoover_institutehow_home_schooli.htm
Yahoo news - Clinton Speaks About Home Schooling:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000504/pl/clinton_home_schools_1.html
Michael Moy's homeschooling news links can be read at:
http://www.geocities.com/mmoy/hsitn.html
American Library Association - How to Raise a Reader:
http://www.ala.org/parentspage/tfp2.html#raise
Exploratorium:
The Museum of science, art, and human perception: http://www.exploratorium.edu/
National Geographic's "At the Tomb of Tutankhamen":
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/egypt/index.html
Ask Jeeves for Kids - kid-friendly internet search engine:
http://www.ajkids.com/
American Library Association - The Librarian's Guide to Cyberspace for Parents and Kids:
http://www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/guide.html
Homeschooling On The Cheap:
http://www.bcpl.net/~owl/homeschool/HomeschoolingOnTheCheap.html
Highschool Hub - portal for high school studies (includes SAT Question of the Day):
http://www.highschoolhub.org/hub/
The Act!vated Storytellers - Family theatrical storytelling performances:
http://www.Activated-Storytellers.com
AlgebraWizard - Home of Josh Rappaport's free Algebra Times email newsletter:
http://AlgebraWizard.com/
Learningware Reviews:
Specializing in children's software reviews:
http://www.learningwarereviews.com/
Coalition for Quality Children's Media - KIDS FIRST! News:
http://www.cqcm.org
"INVENTING A GIRL," by Fernanda Rossi, first documentary on homeschooling
http://www.inventingagirl.com/released.html
J.L. Hammett - Teaching materials and school supplies for over 137 years:
http://www.hammett.com/
Selected articles and columns from the May/June Home Education Magazine are available:
http://www.home-ed-magazine.com/HEM/137.00.html
How Stuff Works - Answers to questions about almost everything: http://www.howstuffworks.com/
State winners of the National Spelling Bee - at least 20 are homeschooled:
http://www.spellingbee.com/spellerindex2000.shtml
CONTRIBUTE TO LINDA DOBSON'S NEW BOOK!
Work on a new book begins, this time focused on the first year in homeschooling. To this end, I turn to the vast pool of homeschooling experts across the country--YOU!--who will receive a complimentary copy when your ideas are included. So that we can show the variety of ways people homeschool, I'm looking for ideas from many people on several different topics. Once you receive them, please feel free to respond to one or several of them--the sky's the limit! Write to Linda Dobson at Ldobson@northnet.org for a short, topical list of questions. Or you may send snail mail to Linda Dobson, POB 85, Rainbow Lake, NY 12976. Either way you respond, please include your name, city and state of residence, and information on how I may contact you, if necessary (phone, address, and --best--email). DEADLINE: June 1, 2000. Your contributions to this advocacy are appreciated as the priceless gifts they are. Please feel free to share this message with your friends and support group. <>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>VIRTUALTEACHER
Announcing a great new newsletter - VirtualTeacher - Computer Solutions for Teachers. The VirtualTeacher Newsletter is delivered FREE to your e-mail box every fortnight. You'll receive Online Lesson Plans, Great Sites, Free Stuff, Tips, Time savers, and templates. Ask a question, get answers, ideas for using computers in the classroom, ideas for using the internet in the classroom, and share your ideas with other teachers--all free. Check out the website for great ideas at http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/directory.htmlEmail List for parents who both work and homeschool:
WORKandHOMESCHOOL@egroups.com
Purpose: Work and homeschool: It can be done!! This is a support group for working parents who have chosen to homeschool their children or are considering homeschooling, as well as for homeschooling parents who are thinking of returning to work. Whether you are working or thinking of working, inside or outside your home, this list is for you. Please join us as we discuss our unique challenges and concerns. Language: English
Maturity: Safe for kids
URL: http://www.egroups.com/community/WORKandHOMESCHOOLThanks for reading!
MassHOPE Convention, April 28-29, 2000
(508) 755-4467
Worcester Centrum Centre, Worcester, Mass.
http://www.masshope.org/fr_convention.htmlTEACH Convention, June 9-10, 2000
1-800-205-7844
The CT Expo Center, Hartford, CT
http://www.teachct.org/New England Homeschool and Family Learning Conference, July 7-8, 2000
(207) 657-2800
Holiday Inn Conference Center, Boxborough, MA (activities provided for the entire family)
http://www.homeeducator.com/conferences.htm
New Additions to Sleeping Giant’s Lending Library
Several books have made their way to Sleeping Giant’s homeschooling library in recent months. Sidetracked Home Executives by Pam Young and Peggy Jones is written by two successful sisters, who tell you how they moved from pigpen to paradise, from clutter and chaos to order—and how easily you can do it too. Along the same lines, our library is also home to The Messie Motivator, by organization maven Sandra Felton. Spring cleaning, anyone?Refuting Evolution is the title of a new book by Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D., with a foreword by Ken Ham. The book is a response to the pro-evolution educator’s guidebook put out recently by the National Academy of Sciences. From a young-earth creationist viewpoint.
The Well-Trained Mind is the title of a book by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer that is receiving a great deal of attention on the homeschooling lists and forums I frequent online. Subtitled “A Guide to Classical Education at Home,” the over-700-page tome is a practical, step-by-step approach to homeschooling children from Kindergarten through high school. Following the model of the classical approach to education, authors Wise and Bauer, mother and daughter, provide instruction in teaching the three stages of the trivium: the grammar stage, grades 1-4; the logic stage, grades 5-8; and the rhetoric stage, grades 9-12. The study of such oft-omitted subjects as formal logic and Latin are discussed at some length, and the authors give book titles to use for each subject in the curriculum.
Homeschoolers who want to educate their children classically but who may not know just how to accomplish it on a day-to-day basis will find their steps well laid out within these pages. Others will also find a wealth of practical ideas, from ways to study history chronologically to recommended texts for science, language arts, and math to reasons for studying Latin and logic.
To arrange to borrow these or other titles from our library, email me at laura@honeypot-hollow.com. —Laura Bush
Thanks for reading!
Laura Bush
laura@honeypot-hollow.com
http://www.honeypot-hollow.com