Curriculum Supplier Visit

From Selina-Jane:

Christina Green from Christian Education services is coming back to Dunedin to give us a chance to look at and buy the curriculums she has available. She has a huge range of items, including new ones, unavailable at her last visit. Christina is now the only national distributor in NZ, after Erina at Learnex has moved on to focus on other things.

It has been 2 years since Christina was here, and due to poor numbers coming along and looking at that time, it is likely to be another 2-3 years before she is here again. So, if you are at all interested, it would be great if you could make an effort to go along and see her stuff.

Note that although CES does specialise in resources for christian home educators, they also carry resources suitable for secular home educators.

Venue: Elim Church, 67 Harrow Street, Dunedin
Date: Tuesday April 3rd
Time: 1 – 4.30pm
Orders and sales can be made on the day.
Credit Card and Eftpos facilities are available
http://www.cesbooks.co.nz

City of Dunedin Cadet Unit

We were given a brochure today about the City of Dunedin Cadet Unit - something I didn't know anything about, so I've included some links below for those who might be interested.

Cadets are for 13 - 15 year olds (boys and girls) and it looks like they do a lot of army-type actvities - drill, first aid, shooting, bushcraft, navigation, radio telephone procedure, etc. The fees are only $45 per year, and a uniform is supplied. There are also Air Training and Sea Cadet Corps in Dunedin.

For more info, email dunedincadetunit@hotmail.com or phone 466 4462.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Cadet_Corps
http://www.cadetforces.mil.nz/

Fun link of the week

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide" - need I say more? http://www.wordle.net/

NCHENZ News

The National Council of Home Educators (NCHENZ) has just released its 3rd Quarter Newsletter for 2011. It can be read in full here:

http://www.nchenz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/NCHENZ-2011-3rd-quarter.pdf

***Inside the newsletter:***
- Introducing our new Executive
- Feedback from the recent ERO and MoE meeting
- Proposal to allow under-16s to enrol in the Correspondence School as Young Adults
- New-look NCHENZ website – including a Classifieds Listing Service! (Buy, Sell, Exchange your curricula online!)
- NCHENZ membership is now FREE
- Painless ways to raise funds for NCHENZ
- Support for the Smith family
- Like us on Facebook

Kind regards
Stacey Wilson
Co-coordinator, National Council of Home Educators

Energy production resources

Thanks very much to Kathrin for organising the gasworks museum tour last week. It was very interesting, and even little Ben found plenty to keep him amused :-)

Obviously coal is not a very clean, green energy producer, so if anyone wants to look at some environmentally sustainable energy info with their kids, Zilowatt looks like a great resource: http://zilowatt.org/

Dunedin Free Event-Finder

From Nicola -
Free events in Dunedin, updated regularly:

http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/theme/2009/free-events/in/dunedin

Home Education Awareness Week 31 October – 5 November 2011

Home Education Awareness Week (HEAW) is later this year because the fourth term begins later – October 25. We have traditionally held HEAW in the first or second week of the fourth term, trying to miss Labour weekend. So this year the Home Education Awareness Week is 31 October through to 5 November 2011

Home Educators all over the country use this as an opportunity to do something special to raise their profile locally and develop a bit of positive public relations. This helps in gaining the movement a bit more credibility, especially when applying for grants or discounts with resource suppliers, or for admission to tertiary institutions or gaining help and advice from schools and perhaps even the use of some of their resources. And of course the benefits would be examined by more people, thereby bringing more people into the home schooling movement and your local support group.

For more information on HEAW go to: http://hef.org.nz/2007/home-education-awareness-week/

Craig and Barbara Smith are available to speak at any activities/meetings/conferences/workshops you may be organising for this.

For more information Free Call 0800 100 692

Evening on vegetable fermentation

From the CHEF group -

DIETEASILY.COM IS SPONSORING AN EVENING ON VEGETABLE FERMENTATION

This will be the second evening of four on the subject of fermentation and will cover:

How good gut health and probiotics are essential for strong immunity and a healthy mind and body.

How to make sauerkraut easily and foolproof.

How to make Moroccan and Indian preserved lemons.

How to make lacto fermented vegetables/pickles and health tonics.

How to make lacto fermented mustards and ketchup (tomato sauce).

Other bits and bobs if we can fit them in.

Location: 811 Mt Cargill Road, Waitati. More parking further down drive at 813.

Time: 7 p.m. Wednesday 22nd June.

These evenings are free but a small charge ($2.00) will be made if you wish to purchase pre-made sour dough starter and recipe sheets from last months evening on sour dough.

The third evening will cover-fermented drinks – kefir, ginger beer (the original probiotic kind our Great Grannies made), and beer, including Blueberry Beer. The aim is to make drinks that add to our family’s health. A sour dough cake recipe will be demonstrated as a bonus!

If there is enough interest we may do a fourth evening on fermented dairy products – yogurt, cheese (cottage, feta and ricotta).

Please note that the evenings will be filmed. RSVP Carolyn or Shana 482 1111 as there are limited places. Sour dough cakes will be served for supper to show you that you can serve healthier treats to your family.

New at the Broad Room

From The Broad Room, via Donna -

I have a new article on my website. Check it out here: What Homeschoolers Can Learn From Shakespeare

And if you have a question you would like to ask me about homeschooling, click here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VZQLNTF leave your question (all anonymous) and we will have an online Q&A soon.

Happy mothering,

Stephanie

www.thebroadroom.co.nz
www.CharlotteMasonMadeEasy.com
www.GrammarLessonsMadeEasy.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheBroadRoom

Lantern Making Workshops

Dunedin Midwinter Carnival,

Lantern Making workshops are filling up fast.

http://www.midwintercarnival.co.nz/LightNEasy.php?page=workshops

A reminder about Student ID cards - NCHENZ supply student ID cards for Home Educated children - http://www.nchenz.org.nz/tag/id-card/

Vision and Hearing Checks - free

A reminder about the free Vision and Hearing checks our children are entitled to :

Dunedin Central - Dunedin Hospital, ph 03 476 5800 Every Monday morning (Vision, Hearing and Glue Ear).
South Dunedin - Aurora Health Centre, ph 03 455 0006 Approx 1st Thursday each month. (Hearing and Glue Ear).
Mosgiel - Mosgiel Health Centre, ph 03 489 5135 Every 2nd Friday morning. (Vision, Hearing and Glue Ear)
All by appointment only.

German lessons, anyone?

Nicola wants to know if any children are interested in learning German - We need a minimum of 3 children, it costs $10 per 1 hour lesson, and classes will be at either 4 - 5pm Mondays or 4 - 5pm Tuesdays in Harwood. Email Nicola for more information or to book.

workbooks, craft supplies etc

From Kathrin:

One of our ex-homeshooling families has dropped off some materials from The Correspondence School, to be shared among our members. There are supplies, workbooks and cassettes for all subjects, including craft supplies and rolls of paper, science, maths etc, and they mostly seem to aimed at lower-primary age children. Please email me to arrange a time to view.

Careers Services

From Selina-Jane -

Selina-Jane, I have been referred to you as a key contact within the home-educators network. I am practice leader for Career Services in Dunedin. Career Services is New Zealand's leading provider of independent career information, advice and guidance. We are a government organisation and aim to provide all people living in New Zealand with access to the best careers information, advice and guidance to achieve their life goals. This means promoting the importance of career planning at every stage of a person’s life.

I would be very interested in talking with you to learn more about the experience of home-educated learners and about ways in which we can support home-educated learners and their families with careers advice and guidance. As an agency we produce a range of excellent career education and information resources that teachers and parents can use to support the career development of their young people.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind regards

Tess Livingstone

Selina-Jane has suggested a dessert evening either at her house or Feast Cafe, on Wednesday 18 May for a talk on careers for our children - please contact her to book in.

Careers Services

Selina-Jane and Nicola are in the process of organising a talk with Tess Livingstone of the Careers Service one evening next term. In the meantime, if you have children that are preparing to look for work, see the following link for Careers Service workshops being run in conjunction with the library.

http://www.dunedinlibraries.govt.nz/latest-news/november-2010/online-job-search-skills-for-teenagers

Dental Services for High School aged children

A quick reminder that children aged between 13 and 18 are entitled to free dental care, regardless of whether they are homeschooled, at school, work, unemployed or on a course. The School Dental Service is only available to children up to the age of 13, and then they must enrol with a dentist if they wish to receive free care. If you’d like a list of dentists who accept new adolescent patients, email Nicola and she’ll send you a copy.

NCHENZ newsletter (plus Student ID card info)

We've just received the latest NCHENZ newsletter (thanks, Stacey!) which is chockfull of info, including details of how to apply for an ID card for our older children. This can be used to prove that they are not truanting, or to show that they qualify for child/student fares on buses, movies etc.

http://www.nchenz.org.nz/2011/03/14/national-council-of-home-educators-nz-1st-quarter-2011/

Music course

From the CHEF newsletter:

My course - www.thecontemporarymusiccourse.com - is perfect for Homeschoolers.
Here are a couple of reviews you may be interested in and want to let your students and/or teachers know of.
Click here to read Homeschool Review by Michael Leppert
Review by Barry Walmsely - Music Teachers Association NSW, Australia

Regards,
Clive Cockburn
Film and Television Soundtracks
www.nzfilmcomposer.com
www.thecontemporarymusiccourse.com
www.islandsoffire.com
www.boadicea.net.nz
Tel. 64-9-373 9904
Mobile
64-21-1748518
P.O. Box 137210
Parnell
Auckland 1151
New Zealand

Music in the Community

From Tarnya Burge of NCHENZ:

A new article has been added to the NCHENZ website:
http://www.nchenz.org.nz/resources/community-sports/music-in-the-community-for-homeschoolers/
Kind Regards Tarnya