Microscope Fun

Wow! Am I ever impressed! I never would have thought that I could get a microscope this solidly built and beautifully working for such a price. If anyone you know is interested in getting a microscope for their homeschool (or just because they're really fun), this one is great. I got this here.
I was actually able to put my camera up to the eyepiece of the microscope and take pictures of what we were seeing.



Here we have frog blood cells,



pollen,


and protozoa.

This has been so much fun for my family.

Snowmobile Safety Class

The following is a note from Andrea Lilienthal, Cook County Community Education Assistant

We are offering a Snowmobile Safety class in December. A pdf registration forms is on our web site to print (I've added a link to the site at the bottom of this post) and mail in or drop off. www.cookcountyschools.org/cookcounty/cmed. Here is a class description of it.


Snowmobile Safety Class

The annual Snowmobile Safety Training Course will be offered to students between the ages 11-15. The certificate becomes valid at age 12. The course be offered Monday & Wednesdays, Nov. 28 – Dec. 10. The class will be held in CCMS Room #110. Students who are between the ages of 11-15 are required by law to pass this training course before operating snow­mobiles on public roads and trails. The certificate becomes valid at age 12. The course covers; parts of the machine, maintenance and repair, pre-start checks, emergencies, safety and rules of the road. A registration form and fee of $5 must be paid to the Community Education Office prior to the first class. Registration Deadline is Wednesday, November 23.

Classroom:
• Monday, November 28 3:15 - 5:15 pm
• Wednesday, November 30 3:15 - 5:15 pm
• Monday, December 5 3:15 - 5:15 pm
• Wednesday, December 7 3:15 – 5:15 pm
Field Test:
• Saturday, December 10 10 am at the Old Airport

I also attached a registration form for you if you would like to pass on. If you have questions, please feel free to call.

Thanks so very much!

Andra


Andra Lilienthal, Community Education Assistant
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Cook County Community Education

101 West 5th Street
Grand Marais, MN 55604
(218) 387-2000 x 616
fax: (218) 387-1327
www.cookcountyschools.org/cookcounty/cmed

NOTE
If you're interested in this class, click on Snowmobile Safety Registration Form
on the page found here.
-Patty

Field Trip For Friday, November 18

Hey everyone-
Here's a message from Renee. This sounds like it will be a great time for all!
-Patty

Hi All!

Our field trip to the Care Center and Hospital was great. The kids and parents were led through the Care Center, the Hospital, seeing the inside of an ambulance, and finished up downstairs visiting Physical Therapy. It was fun learning where all the different hallways went to. It was encouraging to see the elderly so well taken care of- there are events everyday for these folks to do and look forward to.

Our Next Field Trip is open to all ages: we will be heading NE to Grand Portage National Monument for some historical education. This place has many things to look at, read and watch. They have a Junior Ranger activity for kids 8-14. You can read more here: http://www.nps.gov/grpo/index.htm

Friday November 18th at 10:30am we will be meeting at the Heritage Center.

Driving Directions for Heritage Center: From Grand Marais: Go North on Hwy 61. Turn Right on road just before Trading Post. Turn Left on Cty Rd 17/Mile Creek Rd (before Casino). Heritage Center will be on Left hand side.

Afterwards we will be heading over to the Community Center Pool to eat lunch (bring your own bag lunch) and do some swimming. There is a cost for the Pool of $20 for a group of 10-20 people. The Community Center will be providing tables for us to eat our lunches and I've heard that the pool is nice and warm!

Driving Directions for GP Community Center: Continue on Mile Creek Road. Turn Left on Upper Road. Community Center (and school) will be on your left.

This will be the last Field Trip for the year 2011. Next year, 2012, is going to be an exciting one. Your ideas are very helpful, so thank you for your suggestions!

Have a great week!

Renee

Hedstrom's Lumber Field Trip

Here are a couple of videos of the mill that Molly took. She has some more that I might add if I get some time. It looks like it was really interesting.

I had written down some of the things the kids learned on the field trip, but I can't find that at the moment (total chaos right now). I'll try to add more to this in future. Enjoy!

Reporting to the School District

Just a reminder, report forms to ISD 166 are due by October 1. Report to the district if you are home educating a child/children aged 7 (on or before October 1) through 15. You can find report forms that allow you to report what is legally required HERE.

These forms completely take the place of those from the Department of Education that you may have received from the school district. Please take advantage of these forms as they have been created by MACHE to report all required information, and nothing else. They are very simple to fill out. It takes only a couple of minutes to do.

If you haven't filed a report before, use the form entitled Initial Report to Superintendent . If you sent in your report to the district last year, please use the form entitled Letter of Intent to Continue Homeschooling.

It is fine to use forms created by other state groups or organizations as well, such as Home School Legal Defense Association, Minnesota Catholic Home Educators, Minnesota Homeschoolers' Alliance or any others that I don't know about.

If you really want to, and you're aware that you're reporting more information than you have to, you can also use the forms from the Department of Education. This will result in more work on your part as you assess and document progress, as these forms still ask the parent/instructor to file quarterly report cards with the district as well as report the names of assessments you will use to assess your students' progress in areas not covered by standardized tests.

You can find a legal analysis of Minnesota Homeschool Law HERE, if you are interested in reading it.

As always, please feel free to email or call me with any concerns or questions you may have.
I wish you all the very best year of homeschooling!

Educational Opportunities In Our Community

Andra Lilienthal, the Community Education Assistant, recently sent me an e-mail asking if I would post some information about community education events. There are a lot of great opportunities being offered through Community Education this fall. Click here to check it out!

***Please check the Field Trip page for information on the field trip to Ocontoe***
- I will be bringing some of the new report forms and letter of intent forms to hand out at Ocontoe, and will be available to answer any questions about the new law that you may have. If you aren't attending the Ocontoe field trip, but have a question or want a copy of the new forms, please call or email and I'll get you the information that you need.

Minnesota Homeschool Law Changes

The Homeschool Mandate Reduction Bill has passed, and Minnesota now has new, simpler reporting laws. Please see the following link for a summary of those laws.
Summary of Homeschool Law Changes
I will be attending a webinar on these changes to our homeschool laws and what it means for us next week. I will try to post again if/when I have more information. If you have any specific questions you would like answered, please add a comment here or call/email me and I'll try to make sure I get an answer to your questions.

Best wishes to you all as you prepare for the 2011/2012 school year!

Apology

I apologize to whomever may have gone to the campground playground yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon and found that I didn't show up. I completely forgot to go! I will try hard to remember to show up next Tuesday at 12:15. I hope to get the chance to visit with some of you there.

Summer Kid's Camp

Hi all!
I hope you all are having wonderful summers, and feeling refreshed and energized for the school year ahead.
Christine Kunze has informed me of an opportunity for the kids to be involved in some great field trips through this Summer Kid's Camp program. If you're interested, explore this link for more information.

Christine will be attending the next two field trips (which will be the next two Thursdays) as a chaperone. The first will be to Wolf Ridge E.L.C. and the next to Fort William.

If you're interested in having your children participate in the Wolf Ridge trip you will have to register by Monday. You can call Christine at 387-2338 if you have any questions that aren't answered by following the above link.

As an aside, I apologize for not rescheduling our picnic, but hope to do so in the future. Until then, would anyone be interested in having a playground afternoon once a week? I'll plan to be at the campground playground next Tuesday at 12:15 (right after swimming lessons). I'm going to bring a picnic lunch for my kids. Anyone who wants to is welcome to join us. If there's interest, I'll be planning to be there every Tuesday at the same time. We hope to see some of you. :)
Have a GREAT weekend!

A Quote For the Day

"There's no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." -Jill Churchill

I read that and just loved it. It's true! We as mothers so often are focused on all of our short comings. That's too bad when we could pull some good mothering out of our hat and use it any time. When I read, "...a million ways to be a good one" some wonderful thoughts came to mind instantly. Too bad up to that point I was wasting useless time and emotional energy feeling like such an "imperfect" mother. Please excuse me; I've got some wonderful kids who could use a good mother right now! Happy Fourth of July weekend, everyone!

Homeschool Picnic Cancelled

I regret to say that the homeschool picnic scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled. My youngest has pink eye, and we'd hate to spread that to everyone else. Dan and I are going to put our heads together and choose a new date as soon as we can. We hope it can still work for most of you later in June of early in July. Have a great weekend everyone!

Swimming Lessons

The swimming lessons schedule is now listed on the events page.

I hope everyone's having a great summer so far. If it's like mine, it's probably filled with sand, bugs and butterflies, and...


lots of vases full of wilting love bouquets. :)

Enjoy!

More of a Question than a Post

Has anyone researched swimming lessons yet? Wondering about dates for the summer sessions. If anyone already has the info, could you fill me in? If not, I'll be researching that and getting it up here soon. Thanks!

Homeschool Picnic and "Farm" Day

Homeschool Family Picnic

Friday, June 17
5:00 P.M. (Feel free to come later if you can't make it at 5:00. We'll probably be eating between 6:00 and 6:30.)

Directions:

5081 E. Hwy 61
Hovland

We are on the upper side of the highway just past the Hovland Volunteer Fire Department. We have a red house with a green roof.

We'll be supplying hot dogs (Applegate Farms beef, **gluten free**) and lemonade. Please bring a dish to share. We look forward to sharing your company!

Questions?: E-mail me, leave a comment on the blog, or call 475-2343.

Lake View Natural Dairy

The cream separator was really interesting. The kids watched the cream going into a jar to be used in making butter while the skim milk went into a bucket to be given to the pigs.


Looking at the bull and the cows in the night pasture.



That bull with the ring in his nose was pretty rank. OK, not really. His name was Cupcake, and he looked pretty sweet. :)



Molly couldn't resist taking a picture of a pig's nose.






Bottle feeding the calves was a big hit with all the kids. :)




If you haven't been to Lake View Natural Dairy lately, you should definitely check it out. I recommend Heidi's wonderful homemade cookies with a glass of all natural, healthy and super fresh milk...or chocolate milk...or take home some wonderful yogurt and add strawberries and maple syrup (my favorite). There's sure to be something there to tempt you!

VERY HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some inspirational Mother's Day quotes for you. Hopefully there's something special here for each of you. You are a bunch of fabulous women and mothers, and I'm glad to have each of you in my life

"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness."
-Honoré De Balzac

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."
-Washington Irving

"The mother loves her child most divinely, not when she surrounds him with comfort and anticipates his wants, but when she resolutely holds him to the highest standards and is content with nothing less than his best."
-Hamilton Wright Maybie

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
-Abraham Lincoln

"We never know the love of the parent until we become parents ourselves."
-Henry Ward Beecher

Sometimes the poorest mother leaves her children the richest inheritance.
-Ruth Renkes

A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.
-uthor Unknown

Who is getting more pleasure from this rocking, the baby or me?
-Nancy Thayer

By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacation-less class.
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Making a decision to have a child-it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
-Elizabeth Stone

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
-Tenneva Jordan

Women do not have to sacrifice person hood if they are mothers. They do not have to sacrifice motherhood in order to be persons. Liberation was meant to expand women's opportunities, not to limit them. The self-esteem that has been found in new pursuits can also be found in mothering.
-Elaine Heffner

Woman in the home has not yet lost her dignity, in spite of Mother's Day, with its offensive implication that our love needs an annual nudging, like our enthusiasm for the battle of Bunker Hill.
-John Erskine

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.
-Rajneesh

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
-Author Unknown

All mothers are working mothers.
-Author Unknown

The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.
-Jewish proverb

Remember that behind every successful woman......is a basket of dirty laundry.
-Author Unknown

Summer Field Trips

Our field trip on May 20th will be the last field trip that Renee will be planning for the year. For the summer months, please contact me if you have a field trip/outing idea, or want to plan one and invite the group. I would love to know what people are interested in for the summer months, and suggestions as far as how often you would like to have a group activity.
In September, Renee will resume the planning/coordinating of the field trips, so you can again contact her with requests, ideas or offers to help plan an event.


I would like to invite all of you, husbands/fathers too, to a picnic and "farmish type" day at our house on Friday June 17th. If things go as planned, we should have cuddly little bunnies and fuzzy baby chicks for everyone to see by then. We'll spend some time getting to know the animals (I'll try to talk about their care, how their babies are hatched or born and how they care for their young. The kids can gather eggs and feed some treats to the animals. After we're done exploring the barn and possibly gardens (should anything actually be growing in them), we'll have a cook out. We'll provide grilled hot dogs and drinks if you all can bring something to go with that. Plan to bring some camp chairs if you have them. We look very forward to having you here!
I would like to know from any who plan to come what time you'd like to meet. Would it be better to start in the AM, around 10:00, and eat lunch around 12:30, or meet after lunch and have supper together.
If the day happens to be rainy, we'll set a new date and try again.

Fire Department Field Trip and Great Expectations Science Fair

The fire department field trip was lots of fun, and also very valuable. I'd never considered before how frightening a fire fighter fully dressed in all the gear, oxygen mask and tanks included, crawling around inside a burning house would be to a small child. It was so great that the children all got to see what that looks like, and were reassured to run to them and not away if ever their house was on fire. I'm so glad that our kids are getting some exposure to all of these different facets of our community!
It was also great to meet more homeschool families at the fire station. Our group is growing! :)





The Great Expectations science fair was a very good experience for some of our group. Alice, Boston and Hattie Rose each did a wonderful job presenting their projects to the group.
Alice asked the question, "What kind of cheese do mice like best?" She put her two pet mice in a big bowl with some different varieties of cheese that she'd weighed. She left them in the bowl for 1 hour. Then she came back and weighed each cheese cube. If I remember correctly, she found that they liked colby the best. She was surprised by their choice. She'd guessed that they might like mozzarella the best, since she does. Mozzarella turned out to be their least favorite cheese variety. We all were able to visit with her little pets at the science fair. They were very popular! :)



Boston studied volcanoes, and built a model of a volcano. It was a very impressive model - the largest I've ever seen. It had a magma chamber, into which they put some baking soda. They then added vinegar to make it erupt. It was very exciting!



Hattie Rose wanted to know, "What is static electricity?" She studied atoms, with their neutrons, protons and electrons. She found out that when a balloon is rubbed against something like hair or a wool sweater it gathers electrons from that object. When it has extra electrons in has a negative charge. A negatively charged balloon can do many things. At the science fair, Hattie touched a negatively charged balloon to a neutral fluorescent light bulb. When the electrons rushed into the bulb, it flashed. She also attracted a neutral piece of cereal to the negatively charged balloon. The cereal was able to stick to the balloon until some of the electrons from the balloon went into the cereal, then they pushed away from each other. The flashing light bulb was very surprising to all of us!

Bike Rodeo Information

I have a great event for the county. On May 12th from 3:00 to 5:30 there will be a bike rodeo in the community center parking lot. Lots of cool things and free food. There will even be trail riders who jump on rocks and over things. Even a blender bike that you pedal to make a smoothie. We the event planners through the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic would like to be sure that all of the community is aware of it. This gets me back to the reason we need volunteers for any event there is never enough. I was wondering if any of you would be interested in preparing fruit the day before in the afternoon or the morning of it would just be cutting and washing etc.
Thanks,
Christine

For more information on the Move It! program and the bike rodeo, and to register for the Move It! program, go to the Sawtooth Mountain Clininc website.

**See the events page for information on our next field trip.

More Law Enforcement Pics

Wednesday, April 13 at 1:30 P.M.

We were informed Monday that the Grand Portage pool is down for repairs. I attempted to switch to the Grand Marais pool, but there are swimming lessons for the next two weeks.

As an alternative, I would like to invite everyone to meet at the community center playground / skate park in Grand Marais at 1:30, weather permitting. We'll be bringing bikes and roller blades / skates.










Thank you, Amber, for sharing these pics.

An Oompa-Loompa Song

I came across this and thought it was so fun! Enjoy!

“The most important thing we’ve learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set—
Or better still, just don’t install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we’ve been
We’ve watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone’s place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they’re hypnotised by it,
Until they’re absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don’t climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink—
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK—HE ONLY SEES!
‘All right!’ you’ll cry. ‘All right!’ you’ll say,
‘But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!’
We’ll answer this by asking you,
‘What used the darling ones to do?
‘How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?’
We’ll say it very loud and slow;
THEY. . . USED. . . TO. . . READ! They’d READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!...
...Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks—
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They’ll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start—oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did...”

—Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

It's Getting To Be That Time of Year Again...

Just a reminder: It's time to be thinking about standardized testing again. If you have a home schooled child who was 7 - 16 at the beginning of the school year, you'll need to plan for testing. The Testing page might be of use to you as you learn about and plan for these tests. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions about this.

Law Enforcement Center

We had SUCH a cool field trip to the Cook County Law Enforcement Center! Some highlights for the kids were
-seeing how a Taser works
-seeing the jail cells
-the two way mirror
-finding out that the inmates get to eat food from Blue Water
-seeing how the police drive into the garage with the people they arrest and lock up their guns in the lockers before they bring the people into the jail
-finding out that there's a cell where kids 14 and up can be put if they break the law
-seeing that the jail cells don't have bars on them

Thank you, Christine, for sharing your pics with us!

Pics From Post Office

Thanks, Amber, for sharing your pics with us!

Great Expectations Science Fair

Great Expectations School is hosting a science fair. They have opened it up to all students enrolled at GES, Birch Grove Community School, or Oshki Ogimaag Charter School, and to home school students in Cook County.

The event is Thursday April 28, 2011 at 6:30pm - students kindergarten through 8th grade are invited to participate.

The Student Entry Application Form is to be returned by Friday April 1st, which is coming right up, but "might" be flexible? If you're interested, you can pick up the application at GES.

What an absolutely cool opportunity for our kids! Thanks so much, Amber, for letting us know about this!

Post Office Field Trip

We had a great visit to the post office! I thought I'd share the trip from my children's perspective. If anyone else wants to share pics of our outings, or any photos of special projects your working on, or just anything at all, please feel free to send them to me and I'll post them. I'm just itching to do a "featured family" post, so if you'd like to be the first featured family, please send me photos and captions or text to go with them and I'll create the post. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Our Ideas from the Meeting

I decided to quickly post all the ideas I wrote down from the meeting here, and I'll add some of them to the resources page as I get information on them.

- home school group swimming lessons
- home school group swimming at Grand Portage Community Center
- Whole Foods Co-op cooking class for kids
- Older kids do presentations for younger kids in the group
- presentation brought here by Great Lakes Aquarium
- "germ tent"
- Spanish classes
- Local field trip to post office, bank, hospital and lab, dentist, fire department, ambulance, police, border patrol, dairy, etc.
- WTIP spot, field trip, etc.
- Sven -n- Ole's make your own pizza
- home school group garden
- day hike/picnic
- day canoe trip/picnic
- local library passport program (free passes to museums, etc. in Duluth)
- Arrowhead bus for trip to Duluth
- UMD Planetarium
- Hartly Nature Center
- Children's Museum (curriculum tubs can be checked out)
- ECFE Resource Room (toys, activities to be checked out)
- Grand Portage National Monument
- Sawtooth Lumber woodworking classes for kids
- Texas Roadhouse restaurant reading program (read three books, get a free kid's meal)

If you can think of other things, please comment so people can see your ideas. If you are particularly interested in doing any of these activities, pleas let the rest of us know, and we'll see if someone can make it happen.

Homeschool Meeting Success!

What a great meeting! I'm so excited to have met each of you, and your wonderful kids. Thanks for coming and sharing all of your great ideas with the rest of us. We now have a pretty long list of field trips and other exciting possibilities to get us started. What a great bunch of people to spend the morning with!
Please remember to check the events page for information on next weeks field trip to the post office (when I post it) and any other opportunities that I become aware of. Please let me know if you find out about an event we might be interested in and I'll post it. Have a great weekend, everyone!

First Homeschool Meeting

Hello everyone,

We are so excited to invite you to our first homeschool meeting!

Date: March 17th, 2011

Time: 10:00 A.M.

Place: Evangelical Free Church basement

Who's invited: If you're homeschooling or interested in homeschooling in the future, yourselves (moms and dads) and your children are welcome to join us.

Agenda: We will serve a snack at 10:00, and introduce ourselves and our children. After that, the children can play while we discuss ideas and expectations, and bounce questions off of each other.

We look forward to seeing you there!