Diary Dates - 1 March 2010

As usual, if anyone has any suggestions for trips or activities, or would like to organise anything for our group, please feel free!

every Monday during term time: Swimsation lessons 11- 12pm, socialising from 12pm onwards. If you are interested in joining the lessons, contact Swimsation at Moana Pool. Otherwise, just turn up!

12:30pm Wednesday 3 March: Meet up at Marlow Park - bring bikes, scooters, rollerblades.

7:30pm Thursday 4 March: Mums' Night Out, Nova Cafe.

12:30pm Wednesday 10 March: Meet up at Chingford Park - bring soccer balls.

12:30pm Wednesday 17 March: Intriguing Dunedin Street Walk, blue book, walk 2: Trains and Trams, Mayors and Racecourses. Meet at corner of Rugby St and Royal Cres, St Kilda. No raindate - if it rains, we'll do it next term.

10:50am Friday 19 March: Macraes Gold Mine trip (the "second" trip), meet at Macraes Village - contact Claire to book.

9:50am Wednesday 24 March: Macraes Gold Mine trip (the "first" trip), meet at Macraes Village - contact Claire to book.

12:30pm Wednesday 31 March: Meet up at Mosgiel Memorial Park.

TERM 2

12:30pm Wednesday 21 April: Meet up at Marlow Park with bike safety talk by Police Education Officer Heather Rei. Bring lunch and bikes.

Remember, if it's raining, our outdoor meet-ups or walks will be cancelled/postponed

Some MORE advertising from Kiwi Kids Learn!

WIN! A years subscription to Kiwi Kids Learn. Order your copy of Issue 1 to go in the draw today. Winner drawn 20th April 2010.
If you have already ordered and paid for your copy you will automatically go in the draw and your magazine will be on the way to you. If you haven't ordered your copy yet then do so today to be in with a chance to win. For every copy ordered because of your referral you get an extra entry into the draw. www.kiwikidslearn.yolasite.com

Otago Association for the Gifted and Talented

Invitation to Otago Association for the Gifted and Talented meeting, 7:30pm Wednesday 3 March

Dear Teachers and Parents of Gifted Children

Have you ever heard of OAGAT - the Otago Association for the Gifted and Talented - and wondered who we are?

OAGAT: is a group of parents and teachers of gifted children who meet regularly in Dunedin to listen to speakers, share ideas and information and discuss issues regarding gifted children and gifted education. We are affiliated to NZAGC and have a library for members. Annual membership costs $25 per family or school.

We would like to invite you to our first meeting for 2010 next Wednesday 3 March, 7.30pm at Landcare Research, 764 Cumberland Street, Dunedin (on the corner of Cumberland and St David St). Landcare Research is on the same side of the road as and just before the University of Otago St David Lecture Theatre where we held some workshops in 2008 on parenting gifted children led by Dr Tracy Riley from Massey University. The powerpoints and notes from these workshops is available on the web: http://www.otago.ac.nz/marinescience/po/GiftedworkShop/giftedworkshoppresentataions.html

Our meeting next Wednesday will be an Open Forum. Come along to meet other parents and teachers of gifted children, ask questions and tell us what you need and want from OAGAT. If you have any ideas regarding a change of direction for us, we'd also love to hear them.

Recently OAGAT has been looking into the establishment of a one day Gifted Kids Programme in Dunedin along the lines of similar programmes in Invercargill and Masterton. For more information about this, come to our next meeting!

Best wishes
Carolyn Stein
Secretary
Otago Association for the Gifted and Talented
9 Newington Ave
Dunedin
03 474 1178

NCHENZ Student ID cards and membership

The National Council of Home Educators New Zealand has arranged to create ID cards for homeschooled students, and is also holding its annual membership drive.

Go to the links below for more information:

Student ID cards

NCHENZ membership (SHEAF is not a 'Member Group' of NCHENZ - but we are a 'Friend' - see the next link for more info)

What relationship does SHEAF have to NCHENZ?

Campaign to Save Radio New Zealand

For those RadioNZ fans out there, here's a petition to sign to protect our national treasure:
http://www.issues.co.nz/handsoff/Home

Preacher Cookies

Nicola's family had fun making these no-bake biscuits this week, and they're ready to eat in about 10 minutes. They're very sweet and rich, so we might try them with a bit less butter and sugar next time - not sure how that will effect the consistency.

Preacher cookies

From the webpage:

"This recipe got its name because it could be prepared quickly when a housewife looked out her window and saw the preacher riding up the mountain on his horse. By the time the preacher arrived, the cookies were cooling."

Weekend Reading - hands on learning

This week's article comes from Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, whom I think deserves a prize for coming up with such a cool name for her blog.

Her blog covers all sorts of things home-ed - product reviews, interviews with home education 'graduates', insights into her own family life and general musings on home education.

This week Kris started a short series on 'Adding Spark to Your Homeschool Through Hands-on Learning'. She was supposed to be speaking at an online home ed conference but had to pull-out - so instead of delivering her talk at the conference, she is serializing it on her blog.

Start here for the intro and keep checking back as she posts more up - I'll put the links at the end of this post too.

Second instalment here - Adapting Generic Games
Third instalment here - Internet games
Fourth instalment here - History and Geography