Super-Important Announcements

• Thanks very much to Christy for creating the treasure hunt the week before last—it was well enjoyed by all, and we were very impressed by the efficient organisation, the cryptic questions and the fantabuloso prizes!
• A very belated congratulations to the talented, Irish dancing Liam for raising $70 for the Christchurch earthquake relief effort, busking with a friend!
• Finally, this is the last newsletter of Term 1, and the last one from me (Nicola) for a while. Please send any newsletter related goodies to Kathrin from now on (what a special birthday treat for her ?)!

Homeschooled student in the news

Stacey came across this recent article about 16 year old Christchurch homeschooler Reuben Posthuma , who just won a Bright Sparks Award for his invention, the Driver Minder.

Click here for more: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/4366879/Gadget-checks-driver-safety

Chain stories

Palin has sent through the two completed chain stories for our edification - these were sent as attachments with the email newsletter. Some very fun reading :)

Congratulations Corner

Congratulations to all the kids who played at the Saturday Morning Music Classes concert today! It's always an achievement to make it to the end of the concert, not to mention the term :-)

Congratulations Corner!

• Congratulations to Leighton, Palin, Aster and Miro for competing in the South Island Chess Champs in Ashburton last week! Scores were still being tallied when I last heard, so fingers crossed for a great result!
• Congratulations to Emily and Liberty for their great work baking and selling cupcakes for the SPCA’s Cupcake Day last week. They raised over $30
  

Congratulations Corner!

Congratulations to Palin this week! From Ted:
Just wanted to pass along that Palin won the Koputai Indoor Bowls Club "Pairs Tournament" last night. He also won the club raffle so it was a good night.

Congratulations Corner - 9 August 2010

Big congratulations to Ella! From Stacey:

Ella danced in her first Highland Dancing competitions over the weekend and came home with 2 ribbons!

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.

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!

Congratulations Corner! - diving competition, canine trials, irish dancing!

It would be excellent if we could make this a regular section so don't forget to send Nicola anything you'd like included, any time. Three great pieces of news this week:

1)Congratulations to Hayley!

We are very proud parents of Hayley (8yrs) as she competed in her very first competitive diving competition in Christchurch last weekend (Queen's Birthday). Hayley received a gold medal for coming first in the 1 metre events for her age (under 11yrs) and 5th in the 3 metre event. She did very well, even if we had to use some rescue remedy for nerves!! We are new to home schooling, but are loving it so far and are now into our 4th week.

Donna and Gary

2) Congratulations to Emily and Patch!

Congratulations to Emily C and her dog Patch, who competed in the Taieri Canine Training Club's Ribbon Trial this weekend.

3) Congratulations to Liam!

Congratulations to Liam, who performed Irish Dancing in front of a sell-out crowd at the Regent Theatre, for the "Regent Variety Concert" on the evening of Saturday 12 June.

Congratulations Corner - otago homeschool team wins chess tournament!

Kathrin has made this lovely suggestion: "it would be nice to have a section in the newsletter congratulating children for any awards or achievements they might get. Like a wall of fame or something, even just for "Player of the Day" at football, or completing dance exams, or whatever."
This is an excellent idea, so if anyone has anything they'd like to share, please email Nicola any time and she'll include it in the next newsletter - it can be anything at all that you or your children are proud of and want to share.

In this vein, read on for our first congratulations to Leighton, Palin, Miro and Aster on winning the Otago/Southland Interschool Teams Championship (Intermediate) chess tournament!

From Annemieke:
I would like to share this great news with the home school group. Yesterday there was the yearly Otago chess tournament. All schools in Otago could enter, and I had entered a home school team. Our team consisted of, Leighton, 12, Palin, 11, Miro, 10 and Aster, 8. As we had two children of intermediate age, we had to play against the intermediate teams. There were 24 teams all up, including 11 primary age teams.
As the day went on, it became clear that the home school group was doing very well, even Aster won a game and the three boys won many games each. And guess who was the winning group at the end of the day?? Yes, our home school group!!!
We are all very happy about that!! We went home with some money, and we are allowed to play in the National chess tournament in Christchurch this year.
Just had to share that with you...
A proud mother,
Annemieke
http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/otagochess/news.html