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Here are a few ads that have come our way recently...

Celebrate Laurens and Feed the Hungry is booking local talent from the Upstate to perform at the Celebrate Laurens and Feed the Hungry event to raise funds to provide Thanksgiving grocery bags to needy families in Laurens on Saturday, September 14, 2013 from 2:00pm-8:00pm.  This opportunity is open to sing groups, bands, choirs and soloists either singing or playing an instrument.  Half hour time slots are available as are performance slots for individual pieces.
Questions/Signup/Contact: Jon Orcutt (864) 350-3444 jonorcutt@backroads.net

Geography Bee is Back! Sign your child up today!

        Ø  The National Geography Bee, run by the National Geographic Society, will begin this fall with local Bees around the country. These are open to all 4^th - 8^th grade students.  

Ø  In Greenville County, home schooled students will participate in our local Bee at the Pelham Road library.   

Ø  A basic study guide is available upon request. The guide describes Bee procedures and includes preparation tips and resources.

Sign up begins immediately and continues through October 15. Two practice sessions will be held before the actual event which takes place on November 21st.

The fee per student is $5.00 and is due by the date of the first practice.  The fee helps to offset the $120.00 fee required to register our local Bee.   

 Contact Stephen and Joanna Enjaian to sign up at:  enjaian@msn.com or 963-1560

 

Homeschool PE at the YMCA

The Caine Halter YMCA on Cleveland Street has a Home School P.E program. They offer a gym and swim format.  For the gym aspect, their goals are to be physically active, learn the basics of sports/games, stress the importance of cooperation and teamwork.  With the swim portion, they will teach beginners learn to swim.  For the more advanced swimmers, they would focus on stroke improvement.

The P.E. group will meet on Tuesdays.  Gym will be from 1-2pm and swim from 2-3pm.  For rates and a list of which sports will be covered each session, contact the Jamie Johnson at 864-679-9622.

 

Boxadoo

Jason and Joanna Herndon, homeschool parents of four have created a homeschool management tool called Boxadoo that they would like to share with the homeschool community. Boxadoo is an online tool that allows you to create a portfolio, record grades, upload photos, videos and manage events. 

They are currently working on sign-ups for our BETA that will take place in the next few weeks. They are excited to sign up homeschool families and allow them to check out the features and hear feedback during this initial BETA testing. You can find them at http://www.boxadoo.com/ or on Facebook at facebook.com/boxadoo. On their website, they will be collecting email addresses for those interested in participating in the BETA.

 

Grand Opening!

Reedy River Book Company, formerly “Brooks with Books” has a new store in Taylors, SC.  They are a seller of vintage books: classics, collectible and many books that are great for home educators because of the excellent writing styles, moral values and good, clean entertainment. To celebrate their new store they are having a huge Grand Opening Sale on Saturday, September 14^th.  They will open at 8:00 am and finish up around 3:00 pm, rain or shine! There will be lots of fun activities for the kids, as well as food and drinks. Everyone who visits on that day will receive 20% off any purchase, but homeschool families will get an extra 10% off—30% total!

Please plan to join them for some great book deals. You can find them on Facebook at Reedy River Book Company.

Art and Essay Contest
The South Carolina Foundation puts together a yearly Art and Essay contest for the Middle and High School students throughout the State. This year’s theme will be “Connecting Cultures in the Digital Age: How does Social Media Change the Future of our World?”
First-third place winners in each category win a trip to Turkey in the summer of June 2014 as well as a cash prize or iPad for first place winners. Please remember that the airfare is not included in this prize.
All essays and artwork will be due Dec 20th.
Art and Essay Awards Ceremony will take place Feb 22nd in the USC Law Auditorium in Columbia, students will be notified that they placed, but cannot be told where they placed.
Contact Christina Bell with any questions if you are in the Upstate (West of Columbia) at 864-991-8089 and if you are in the LowCountry area (Columbia to Charleston Areas) please contact Paula at the Columbia office 803-386-4377, her email is pludwig@scdialogue.org You can find more information on their website www.scdialogue.org/contest.

The Common Core

Pinterest

We have had several questions about the Common Core curriculum which is being put in place in many states and how it affects the home school community.  Below is Martha's response to some of those questions.

I have been asked about my thoughts on the Common Core Standards.  All states have state approved standards that define what each class is supposed to cover. This defines the college prep level for the high school classes.  My understanding is that South Carolina is moving to put the Common Core Standards in place.  I have read (on HSLDA and Parental Rights websites) about the controversies associated with the standards.  Within the standards there are requirements that deal with what has to be taught.  One of the biggest concerns to home school parents is over being required to teach things that are politically correct at the moment - global warming, evolution, etc.  From what I have read, I believe that the home school organizations are concerned most about the Federal Government coercing the States into adopting the standards that they (the Federal Government) wants the States to have.  I do understand the organizations' concerns.  This is a continuation of a long line of laws meant to shift rights and responsibilities granted to parents and/or the States by the US Constitution to the Federal Government. Here is a link to a recent HSLDA letter expressing some of their thoughts (http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/2013/201305030.asp).  I agree with them in general and find this trend very disheartening.

There are two things to keep in mind on this front.  First, these standards are for the public schools.  Home schoolers have never been required to meet the public school standards (though there are those who are pushing for that kind of regulation).  PHEA does ask parents to use the South Carolina standards (which when implemented will be the Common Core standards) to determine if their honors classes have exceeded those standards that are required for the college prep level of the class.  In doing this we expect parents to use their God-given wisdom and reasoning.  I want them to understand what level of work is required for the college prep level.  Based on information we receive from parents, I am certain that many do not know this.  If they want to designate a course as honors, I want them to be able to tell me how their course is more rigorous than the college prep level.  That does not mean that I am requiring that they follow every single point of the standard.  It is common knowledge that even the public school teachers (who are required to follow these standards) are not able to get in every point of the standards.

The second thing to keep in mind will sound heretical when I just state it - but I think my reasoning will make the statement make sense!  I believe that parents should teach those controversial subjects.  I have always taught them in my Biology classes.  I want my students to know 1) what the world has to say about the topic, and 2) how to think through the actual science and whether the current teaching is supported by the science.  We begin by learning what the scientific method is and then analyze the data and the conclusions.  A parent can (and I think should) teach their children many different worldviews and topics, teaching them how to apply the truth of the discipline (such as the scientific method) and even more importantly the truth of Scripture to their understanding of the topic.  There is a time for sheltering our children from the confusion and harm these views can do.  I believe that in early schooling children should be taught the basic values of the parents.  I also believe that as they grow into middle and high school that students must learn how to apply those values to all the other value systems they will meet in the world.  The parent who has not taught his child how to think through other points of view, leaves that child wide open to the attacks and seductions of the world once the child is out in it. 

In light of these two thoughts, I do not see the Common Core Standards as something to be up in arms about.  Keeping in mind that they do not apply to us, we could easily comply with the requirements by teaching the topic and then doing the very typical home school method of thoroughly analyzing the topic to 'see if these things be so'.