Weekend Reading - Canterbury Home Educators

This week we travel northwards a little and have a nosy at the Canterbury Home Educators' website. The section that I thought would be most relevant to us was their FAQs page, covering such burning issues as;
"How do you go about writing an exemption?",
"How do home educated teens get into university?" and
"I have a child who has special needs and is ORRS verified. Can you please tell me what resources my child is entitled to receive now that we are home educating?"

It's a lovely little site. My one criticism is that if you find little jingles annoying you may wish to turn your sound down, as they have a little tune that plays every time you load a new page. I know I found it irritating :~)

Canterbury Home Educators Inc - FAQs Page

Diary Dates - 26 July 2010

every Monday during term time, 11:00 - 12:00pm: Swimsation lessons; 12:00pm on: lunch and socialising. If you are interested in joining the lessons, contact Swimsation at Moana Pool to book. Otherwise, just turn up!

every Tuesday, 12:30 - 2:00pm approx: tennis at Logan Park tennis courts. Contact Ted for more information.

Term 3

12:30pm, Wednesday 28 July: Meet up at the Edgar Centre, $2 per child. Don't forget to bring marbles!

7:30pm, Wednesday 28 July: Big People's Night Out, Nova Cafe.

12:30pm, Wednesday 4 August: Meet up at Claire's house, bring lunch and any games you'd like to play. Email Claire to let her know you're coming

12:30pm, Wednesday 11 August: Intriguing Dunedin Street Walk, blue book, walk 5. Meet outside of 103 Malvern St.

12:30pm, Wednesday 18 August: Meet up at Botanic Gardens playground (this may only be for an hour or so, as some of the group will be going to a museum workshop at 2:30pm).

2:30 - 4:00pm, Wednesday 18 August: Feel the Force workshop, Otago Museum, $3 per child. Contact Nicola to book

1:00pm, Wednesday 1 September: St John's "Safe Kids" first aid course for children. Contact Kathrin to book

Term 4

Wednesday 17 November: Life Education Trust visit, Calton Hill School. Contact Annemieke to book

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

Knitting Resources

From Nicola:

The kids and I are getting into some very simple knitting at the moment, and we've found these sites that send out regular newsletters with free knitting and crochet tutorials and patterns. You have to ignore a bit of advertising in each one, but they have some good information for beginners. Here are some examples of the newsletters we've been looking at:

The Weekly Stitch
Yarnplay
Knitbits
Lily Sugar'n'Cream

Nicola also sent out an article with the newsletter, written by Cat Bordhi on the benefits of including knitting in schools, which is quite interesting. Email her for a copy if you didn't get one with your newsletter.

Celestia

Speaking of astronomy, the following programme is recommended on the NCHENZ site:

"An excellent, free download open source program runs in planetariums… it is called Celestia. If your computer is not too old and your graphics card is more than 256K then this should work very well on your computer. This page will take you to the Educational version download, which has had activities programmed and documented for it. And, yes, those activities and worksheets are downloadable too. It pays to print out the overview to give you a starting point, and this will help you learn to navigate without too much overload. There is also an updated full version, and extra models and objects that can be uploaded – including spacecrafts from real life, and fiction ie. Star Wars, Star Trek."

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

Congrats corner - all our early morning astronomers!

Congratulations this week must go to everyone who woke up so early last Sunday morning for our observatory trip, and still managed to scrape together a pretty impressive space breakfast. We had an excellent turnout and the weather almost behaved for a short time! Sadly,we didn't quite get to see Matariki, but Jupiter was very bright and some people saw 5 of its moons.

MOE homeschooling stats

In connection with the most recent Weekend Reading, here are the most recent Ministry of Education stats - already a year out of date, but I'm sure still fairly accurate. Sadly, Otago is still lagging way behind...

http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/schooling/homeschooling2/homeschooling/61258

Maori Language Week

This week is Maori Language Week, so here are a few links with resources and activities:

http://www.korero.maori.nz/news/mlw

http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/news/july-2010/libraries-are-community-hub-for-mori-language-week

Board games Wednesday

For those planning on coming to Claire's house next Wednesday (4th August), please don't forget to email her so that she has some idea of numbers.

Edgar Centre 28 July 2010

The meet up at the Edgar Centre this Wednesday is now confirmed. They charge $2 per child and seem quite happy for us to bring our own gear and have lunch there. It can be very cold inside the Edgar Centre, so wear your thickest socks! And don't forget Palin's idea of playing a big game of marbles - I'm not sure if it will be for keepsies or not, so we'd better sort that out before anyone loses their favourite marbles :-0

Weekend Reading - recent NZ stats

NewsWire.co.nz ran this article today. It's a lovely unbiased, informative glimpse at home education in NZ.

Home education keeps adding to its numbers

Also, see here for a link to the MoE's latest stats

Diary Dates - 18 July 2010

every Monday during term time, 11:00 - 12:00pm: Swimsation lessons; 12:00pm on: lunch and socialising. If you are interested in joining the lessons, contact Swimsation at Moana Pool to book. Otherwise, just turn up!

every Tuesday, 12:30 - 2:00pm approx: tennis at Logan Park tennis courts. Contact Ted for more information.

TERM 3

1:00 - 2:30pm, Wednesday 21 July: Survival Factor workshop, Otago Museum. $3 per child. Contact Nicola to book

12:30pm, Wednesday 28 July: to be confirmed: Meet up at the Edgar Centre, $2 per child. Don't forget to bring marbles!

7:30pm, Wednesday 28 July: Big People's Night Out, Nova Cafe.

12:30pm, Wednesday 4 August: Meet up at Claire's house, bring lunch and any games you'd like to play. Email Claire to let her know you're coming

12:30pm, Wednesday 11 August: Intriguing Dunedin Street Walk, blue book, walk 5. Meet outside of 103 Malvern St.

12:30pm, Wednesday 18 August: Meet up at Botanic Gardens playground (this may only be for an hour or so, as some of the group will be going to a museum workshop at 2:30pm).

2:30 - 4:00pm, Wednesday 18 August: Feel the Force workshop, Otago Museum, $3 per child. Contact Nicola to book

1:00pm, Wednesday 1 September: St John's "Safe Kids" first aid course for children. Contact Kathrin to book

TERM 4

Wednesday 17 November: Life Education Trust visit, Calton Hill School. Contact Annemieke to book

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

Political Correctness Corner - Mum's Night Out renamed as BPNO

From Nicola;

In the interests of not alienating half our adult members, I've taken it upon myself to rename our Mums' Nights Out as BPNO - Big People's Nights Out - and our next one will be at 7:30pm, Wednesday 28 July, at Nova Cafe in the Octagon. I hope it goes without saying that naming them BPNO does not exclude any little/medium sized people that need to come :-)

New SHEAF address list

Nicola sent out the updated SHEAF address list. Remember, you can email her changes/additions/deletions any time, and she'll make sure they are included in the next update.

If you didn't receive an update, I'm guessing that she has an incorrect email for you! Contact us at the email address to the right of the screen. Or if you haven't yet contacted us but would like to be more in the loop, then also drop us a line!

Weekend Reading - guide to homeschool parents

Kris at Weird Unsocialised Homeschoolers (remember her? We linked to her 'hands on learning' series) wrote this post a few months ago.

The public school parents' guide to homeschool parents

"We all know that there are a lot of misconceptions about homeschoolers, and, while most of those tend to be centered around the kids, there are a lot of misconceptions about homeschool moms (and dads), as well..."

Diary Dates - 14 July 2010

every Monday during term time, 11:00 - 12:00pm: Swimsation lessons; 12:00pm on: lunch and socialising. If you are interested in joining the lessons, contact Swimsation at Moana Pool to book. Otherwise, just turn up!

every Tuesday, 12:30 - 2:00pm approx: tennis at Logan Park tennis courts. Contact Ted for more information.

TERM 3

6:30am, Sunday 18 July: early morning observatory trip. $3 per child, $5 per adult. Contact Nicola to book

1:00 - 2:30pm, Wednesday 21 July: Survival Factor workshop, Otago Museum. $3 per child. Contact Nicola to book at

12:30pm, Wednesday 28 July: to be confirmed: Meet up at the Edgar Centre, $2 per child. Don't forget to bring marbles!

12:30pm, Wednesday 4 August: Meet up at Claire's house, bring lunch and any games you'd like to play. Email Claire to let her know you're coming

12:30pm, Wednesday 11 August: Intriguing Dunedin Street Walk, blue book, walk 5. Meet outside of 103 Malvern St.

12:30pm, Wednesday 18 August: Meet up at Botanic Gardens playground (this may only be for an hour or so, as some of the group will be going to a museum workshop at 2:30pm).

2:30 - 4:00pm, Wednesday 18 August: Feel the Force workshop, Otago Museum, $3 per child. Contact Nicola to book

1:00pm, Wednesday 1 September: St John's "Safe Kids" first aid course for children. Contact Kathrin to book

TERM 4

Wednesday 17 November: Life Education Trust visit, Calton Hill School. Contact Annemieke to book

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

Free Literature Resource

To pair up with Selina Jane's free math's resource, here's a free literature resource :-)

http://www.literaturepage.com/ "The Literature Page is your place to read classic books, plays, stories, poems, essays, and speeches online, brought to you by the creators of The Quotations Page. Our collection currently includes 243 works from 89 authors. We add new titles regularly."

Free Maths Resource

Selina-Jane, of DCHE, has forwarded a recommendation she was emailed of a free maths resource:

I just thought I would pass on a link to a free maths resource that we have started using and found to be really good. You can find it at http://www.khanacademy.org
According to his website:
"The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. We have 1400+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan."

SHEAF address list

Nicola is updating this again. Thanks to those who have got back to her - if anyone else has any updates, you know the drill....

NCHENZ AGM - this Saturday

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

National Council of Home Educators New Zealand Inc - NCHENZ (www.nchenz. org.nz)

Saturday 17 July - 2.00pm
by Skype linkup across NZ (NOTE - Stacey is in the throes of offering her place as the linkup for Dunedin)

Meet others who share a passion and vision for maintaining and developing a beneficial environment for homeschooling in New Zealand. Numbers have louder voices and it’s not all business!
-----------------------
From Dawn Headley, of NCHENZ;

Although no longer homeschooling, I maintain a solid interest in what happens to the home educating community I joined in 2000 and I'd like to share this with you. Please take time to read it carefully and then take action ...

Last Saturday was quite a biggie in the thought department for me. It was a nutshell of observations and then one question:

Why is it that such a smart, passionate community is content to leave to so few the huge burden of endeavour to maintain and develop its rights?

Are you aware that Sweden has now banned homeschooling; Germany is jailing homeschooling parents; even the UK and Ireland are having their challenges? Don't think for one moment that New Zealand is immune or that such exclusions could never happen here. We have exemption application challenges, lock-outs from various activities and opportunities; and there are major upheavals in place right now regarding access to Qualifications routes and standards. Make it your business to know what they are. You teach your children to be informed and help others, do you? Then practise what you teach and make a stand!

We all know the well-worn phrase "United we stand; divided we fall". But is it practised by NZ home educators? Do you practise it? You'll know the answer. Small contributions from many reap rewards for all. So back to last Saturday when two things struck me:

a) All Blacks v South Africa. Even the strongest and tallest of players needs to be supported and raised up by the others to gain ball possession in a line-out. He can't do that alone. Team effort. Another old chestnut - T-E-A-M - Together Everyone Achieves More. Remember?

b) David Burge's farewell. It was a humbling privilege to attend the awe inspiring, moving, engaging and humorous farewell to David, husband of Tarnya Burge (AHE's and NCHENZ's webmaster and supporter). David gave his life of just 42 years of service to others. His cerebral palsy did not define him; indeed, it appeared to be a blessing as he went on to inspire. As did the family's journey with leukaemia to which he succumbed last Sunday. Tarnya shared their journey, their prayers, their hopes, their challenges, their beliefs, through an incredible blog website. Others could leave messages; many across the world received messages from Tarnya and David. Who was supporting whom here???. And during the whole of this time, what was Tarnya doing? Battening down the hatches? Ignoring community need and the bigger picture? You must be joking. This is one feisty lady! Amongst all of this heartache but hope, she carried
on doing what she has done for years - her various home ed emails; NCHENZ and AHE website maintainenance and development continued, she rises up in practical ways.

I'm not advocating that, given similar circumstances, we would all do the same. I'm pretty sure most of us would not .. The Burges are, indeed, extraordinary people.

I am asking you to consider your contribution outside of your own family and local support group and to get stuck in to the regional and national challenges facing NZ home education. Your families and their children will bear the fruit of the collective effort put in now. Remember - you are currently reaping the rewards of past changemakers and leaders. This is an ongoing story.

So what are you doing personally? Think you can't contribute? All forms of support are needed to achieve the end goals - from basic membership, to a note of encouragement, to attendance at a group discussion once in a while, to enlightening yourself about the issues, to volunteering to help out as and when needed, to committee membership, to leadership ....

What can you do right now? Send an email to confirm that you'll be sparing an hour or so this Saturday 17th to get yourself along to NCHENZ's AGM (see below). There are Skype hookups across the country; the one in Auckland is in Mt Albert. Show your physical support and make the effort to find out what's going on that will affect your family. NCHENZ's small committee is buckling under the strain and I believe is unable to do what it takes to hold our ground without
membership support, both for numbers for credibility and unity and for those small/medium/ larger contributions you know you are capable of making ... if you want to. NCHENZ needs the line-out support!

If not a member or yet to renew, bring along just $5 (that's the 50% discounted price if your local support group's an affiliate (eg, East Auckland) or if you're an AHE member. Individuals and full group members (like AHE) have voting rights; affiliate groups do not.. Forms, etc, can be filled in on the day.

Be proactive. Be supportive. Protect your family. See you there!

Dawn

Weekend Reading - Youth on academic honour roll

Always nice to see good-news stories in the press! This week we extend our congratulations to Nicholas Trezise-Ashley (and his mother, who home educated him) of Christchurch. Nicholas is the youngest person named on the Massey University dean's list award for academic excellence.

Youth on academic honour roll

Diary Dates - 5 July 2010

We had a lovely bonfire on Waikouaiti Beach yesterday, and the kids had great fun roasting sausages, toasting marshmallows, digging tunnels, cuddling pet rats, and running up and down the beach, playing hide and seek in the pitch-black night like mad things! As usual, they were immune to the cold, and the fire kept the wimpy, old adults quite cosy, too. Thanks very much to Annemieke for organising the bonfire, and we look forward to another one soon :-)

There’s nothing scheduled this week for our Wednesday meet-up, but if anyone’s interested in tennis or indoor bowls, there will probably be a good number of SHEAF families at both activities this Tuesday.

For more information about Term 3's events, see this blog post :)

Term 3

every Monday during term time, 11:00 - 12:00pm: Swimsation lessons; 12:00pm on: lunch and socialising. If you are interested in joining the lessons, contact Swimsation at Moana Pool to book. Otherwise, just turn up!

every Tuesday, 12:30 - 2:00pm approx: tennis at Logan Park tennis courts. Contact Ted for more information.

6:30am, Sunday 18 July: early morning observatory trip. $3 per child, $5 per adult. Contact Nicola to book

1:00 - 2:30pm, Wednesday 21 July: Survival Factor workshop, Otago Museum. $3 per child. Contact Nicola to book

12:30pm, Wednesday 28 July: to be confirmed: Meet up at the Edgar Centre, $2 per child. Don't forget to bring marbles!

12:30pm, Wednesday 4 August: Meet up at Claire's house, bring lunch and any games you'd like to play. Email Claire to let her know you're coming

12:30pm, Wednesday 11 August: Intriguing Dunedin Street Walk, blue book, walk 5. Meet outside of 103 Malvern St.

12:30pm, Wednesday 18 August: Meet up at Botanic Gardens playground (this may only be for an hour or so, as some of the group will be going to a museum workshop at 2:30pm).

2:30 - 4:00pm, Wednesday 18 August: Feel the Force workshop, Otago Museum, $3 per child. Contact Nicola to book

1:00pm, Wednesday 1 September: St John's "Safe Kids" first aid course for children. Contact Kathrin to book

Term 4

Wednesday 17 November: Life Education Trust visit, Calton Hill School. Contact Annemieke to book

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

Indoor Bowls Open Day

10:00am - 12:00pm Tuesday 6 July:

Indoor Bowls Hall, on Victoria Rd (above the Iceskating Stadium). Bring friends and family, free entry. There will also be a pairs tournament on Tuesday 13 July that anyone can register for.

Free trial of Reading Eggs

Recommended by Sarah and enjoyed by Emma (also see the email newsletter for an informative PDF):

FREE 4 Week Trial for your Friends and Family!
Dear Sarah,

If you are enjoying ABC Reading Eggs we would love it if you told your friends, with kids in the 3-8 age group, about the program.

For each new unique user who registers on the site by 20 July 2010 for a FREE trial, using the access code below, we will donate $1 to Children's Cancer Institute.

The Institute has a fantastic record in doing research that is focused on improving the chances of children surviving their fight with cancer. The vision of the Institute is to cure 100% of children with cancer through world-class research.

So not only will your friends thank you for helping their kids improve their reading, at no cost for 4 weeks (normal free trial period is only 2 weeks), but you will also be helping a great cause.

To access the 4 weeks free trial, your friends and family simply need to register at www.readingeggs.com and add the following access code: CHT55JJF

Let's see if we can get the total donation up to $10,000 by the end of the month!

Yours sincerely
Matthew Sandblom
Chief Eggsploring Officer

Free Shop Dunedin

From Nicola:

I came upon an interesting idea that is just starting in Dunedin - a shop where you can give away things you don't need, and pick up others for free. The aim is to encourage recycling and "discourage the basic notions of capitalism" - serious stuff! A meeting will be held this Monday evening to discuss the set-up of this venture.

Date:
Monday, 05 July 2010
Time:
19:00 - 21:00
Location:
69 Malvern St, Woodhaugh, Leith Valley

And since Stacey has only just put this on the blog, and the meeting has already started, go to their Facebook page instead :)

Family Open Day with Norma, the Town Hall Organ

Hear Norma play! Learn how she works!
Take a look inside! Play her yourself!
(keyboard players of all ages: bring a favourite piece of music)

Dunedin Town Hall Organ Trust presents a Family Open Day with ‘Norma’ the Dunedin Town Hall Organ
Wednesday 14 July
Sessions at 10:30am, 12 noon, 2:00pm and 3:30pm

See and play the WOOFYT demonstration organ
(Wooden One-octave Organ for Young Technologists)
http://www.nzorgan.com/vandr/woofyt.htm
Further information from David Burchell on 473 6476

Congratulations Corner! - 5 July 2010

From Nicola:

Please send ANYTHING you'd like me to add to this section - no-one's volunteered a thing this week, so I'll have to resort to using my own children, which is just not humble or modest :-) Anyway...

Congratulations to Liberty on passing her Proficiency badge, and Harper for passing his Basic badge at their Kiwiskate classes!

Term 3 Wednesdays - comments and suggestions?

Term 3 is rapidly approaching, but the details of our Wednesday meet-ups are not completely sorted yet!

There will be a museum workshop on the first Wednesday of term 3, then Palin has suggested that everyone brings marbles to our next meet-up for a huge game. Kathrin is looking at booking a court at the Edgar Centre for this. We've met there before, and they were really open to kids bringing bikes and scooters, as well as playing tennis or basketball, or pretty much anything. There was a charge of $2 per child, which will probably be the same this year - we'll confirm these details once Kathrin has heard back.

Someone also suggested a games day, so Claire has kindly offered her home for us to meet in for the third Wednesday of term. Bring your lunch and any board games that you and your children would like to play. Email Claire if you're coming.

We'll do another walk from the Intriguing Dunedin Street Walks series - this time it will be Walk 5 from Book 2 (the final walk in the blue book). These can be bought from various bookshops or borrowed from the library, or Nicola can scan the walk if anyone would like to have it emailed to them, as they are quite interesting to read through before actually walking them. This walk is supposed to take about 2 hours (so that's 3 for us), and will be quite hilly in parts so be warned! It also travels along part of Leith Valley Rd, to Nichols Creek - we think this is a 100km no-footpath zone, so be doubly warned!! Or we might just skip that section, in the interests of preserving lives....

There are a few other things scheduled, but we still have 25 August, 8, 15 and 22 September free, so if you have any ideas, please let Nicola know and she'll book them in. Otherwise, it will be more of the autocratic same - parks and walks!

Another SHEAF address list update

We've had quite a few new families join in the last few months, so Nicola'll be updating the address list again very soon. If she doesn't have your details, and you'd like to be added, please send them to her. If you're already on the list, can you please check your copy and see if any additions or alterations need to be made. Thanks!

If you are one of our Blog regulars, but haven't made contact with us yet, please email us at the address on the right. We'd love to keep you in the loop.

NZ International Science Festival

Don't forget the NZ International Science Festival is on this week!

From 6 - 11 July. To check what's on, go to http://www.scifest.org.nz for the events calendar.

Weekend Reading - 10 things you need to learn

This weekend's reading is

10 Things you need to learn by Stephen Downes:

Guy Kawasaki wrote an item describing ‘ten things you should learn this school year’ in which readers were advised to learn how to write five sentence emails, create powerpoint slides, and survive boring meetings. It was, to my view, advice on how to be a business toady. My view is that people are worth more than that, that pleasing your boss should be the least of your concerns, and that genuine learning means something more than how to succeed in a business environment...