September 2001 Newsletter
SONORAN DESERT HOMESCHOOLERS
Tucson, Arizona
MISSION STATEMENT
Sonoran Desert Homeschoolers is an open, not-for-profit home education network, providing social and creative outlets for homeschooling families. We are not devoted to any one homeschooling approach, political platform, religious outlook, or philosophical ideal. Our homeschooling community supports all families, regardless of their personal lifestyle or educational choices in the area of home education. Our motto is "hozho," a Navajo word meaning "harmony" or "walking in beauty or friendship."
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Curiosity is a delicate little plant which, aside
from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
CALENDAR
(check below for related articles)
Friday, September 7 City-Wide Homeschooling Information Night
Thursday, September 13 Eastside Coffee Night
Friday, September 21 Deadline for October Newsletter
Wednesday, September 26 Crafty Ladies
Friday, September 28 City-Wide Ice Skating
ARTICLES
CITY-WIDE HOMESCHOOLING INFORMATION NIGHT
Homeschooling support groups from around Tucson and Green Valley are
presenting an information night for people who are new to homeschooling
or are just plain curious about it. The event is scheduled for Friday,
September 7, at 6:30 PM, at El Rio Neighborhood Center, 1390 W.
Speedway (between I-10 and Silverbell). Check for more information at
SDH is participating by providing a panel speaker, hosting an
information table, and helping with set-up and clean-up. If you are interested in helping to man the information table, please contact me at
debbiegubernick@yahoo.com, or speak with me at the park.
CITY-WIDE ICE SKATING--2001-2002
CHET SW has arranged for three homeschooler ice skating dates:
September 28, December 14, April 19. The time for each date is
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM, and the cost is $5.50 per skater, which includes the skates (only if 10 people show up for the discounted rate). Money for each of the three days must be collected beforehand, and each support group will pay as an individual group. Where do you find ice in Tucson? At the Gateway Ice Center, 7333 E. Rosewood, just east of Kolb and Speedway.
EASTSIDE COFFEE NIGHT
The Eastside Parents Coffee group will resume meeting the second
Thursday of each month. Join us for coffee at Borders located at Park Place on Thursday, September 13th at 7:00 p.m. For more info, ask Mary Beth or Joleen.
CRAFTY LADIES
Every last Wednesday of the month we continue to meet at Borders on
Oracle for coffee or tea. We get together from 7:30 PM on, but some of us get there quite a bit later, after husbands come home or the kids are in
bed. We chat, laugh, and a few of us bring a project to work on (knitting,
crochet, sorting pictures, etc.).
This is open to any parent, but so far only moms have shown up. It is a great way to get to know others better and there is always a mix of parents with younger and older children, so you can ask lots of questions too and discuss things. For more info contact Sybelle V.
SCHOLASTIC BOOKS
I will arrange the book orders for Scholastics again this year. However, I will be out of town until the end of September. After my return I will bring the catalogs to the park for books and software for ages pre-K through high school. All you need to do is get the catalogs, fill in the order forms with your name and what you want, and write a check for the total to Scholastic Books. Then give me the order; I total all the orders and send it out. Within several weeks I receive everything, sort it by person and bring them to the park. They have very good prices on things! If you have questions, please contact Sybelle V. after I get back!
CHESS CLUB
All kids interested in a Chess Club should look for the sign-up sheet on
the bulletin board at park meetings. You do not have to be an excellent
chess player. If you are interested in learning how to play or in learning how to play better than you do now, please come by and give us a try!
ACTIVITY GROUPS
Girl's Group for Girls Ages - about 11-13
Boy's Group for Boys Ages - about 8-10
As a way for some of the homeschoolers in a similar age group to get
together on a regular basis, I am interested in having these groups
meet at my home once a month (separate days for each group.) We will do an activity, project or craft at each meeting, plus have time for the
children just to spend time together.
Ideas for the girl's group include activities such as swimming, making
fuzzy journals and sparkle pens, hair scrunchies and barrettes,
marbleized stationary, lanyard jewelry, and soap and lip-gloss making. We may also do some cooking/baking projects. Ideas for the boy's group include group games, making a decoder and completing a treasure hunt using it, painting snake sticks, and making Kachina-style masks.
We live on the far west (northwest) side of town, so this may be a good
way to get some of the families on our side of town together. If you
are interested in these groups, please call Wendy B.
PRE-TEEN AND EARLY TEEN DISCUSSION GROUP
Over the last year or so, I have watched my girls begin to form some
very strongly held personal opinions about lots of different subjects. In
response, I have been wanting to help them find an opportunity to
express those opinions and to examine them in the context of other differing points of view. Given SDH's diversity, there are a lot of different
points of view and I would like to hear them. So I am organizing a
discussion group for kids ranging in age from 11 on up to 15. (As
always, chronological age is just a starting point, maturity and interest is
what matters).
The group would meet at the park for about thirty minutes or so before the park meeting once every two or three weeks. We would focus on topics that have some meat to them and would be interesting to discuss like cloning, animal rights, civil disobedience, religious freedom, capital punishment, the meaning of democracy, etc. The purpose of the group will be to increase our own self knowledge, not to win a debate. The basic rule of the group will be mutual respect. I would act as a moderator, asking questions and encouraging discussion but not injecting my personal opinion (to the extent that is ever possible). THE FIRST MEETING will be at the park, thirty minutes before the regular park meeting on October 9th. The topic will be Cloning - what is it, should it be allowed and for what purposes, who should decide, what effect will it have on life as we have known it, etc. If you're interested you can do some reading and thinking about it and then just show up on October 9th thirty minutes before the park meeting. Any questions, call Brian M.
(P.S. I'll be gone until 10/1 but will be at the park on 10/2 and available for phone calls after that).
SCARF DYING PARTY
Saturday, October 13th will be a silk scarf dying party! We will have
several sizes of silk scarves available, and we will be using Kool-Aid
to dye them. The party will be at Sybelle V's house and will cost $2.00
for supplies, and the scarves need to be bought beforehand as I have to
order them from New York. Please contact Alica for more details- or to
sign-up.
SDH FALL CLOTHING EXCHANGE
The next SDH clothing exchange will take place on Tuesday,October 16.
If you have been considering going through your family's wardrobe to find
items that are outgrown or just unwanted, here's your chance to get
them out of your house. if you have any clothes, footwear, linens household items (we once had an iron) or books that are just gathering dust or taking up space, bring them to the park on October 16 - let someone else take them home! And remember, whatever is left over at the end of the day is donated to Tucson Shalom House, a shelter for women and children.
If you have questions, talk with me at the park or e-mail me at
TED WALKER YOUTH DAY AT OLD TUCSON
The 12th Annual Ted Walker Day will be held on Monday, November 19,
2001, from 9:00AM to 2:00 PM.
From a letter sent by Pima County Parks and Rec:
"This date is later than previous years in hopes of the weather cooperating to make for a pleasant day. Admissions to the park and a hot dog lunch with drinks will be provided to all students and chaperones FREE OF CHARGE. Several community organizations will have educational displays for youth to have hands-on experiences in addition to the fun ot the Old West experience. Ted Walker, a dedicated philanthropist, an advocate of children, and parks and recreation, created this special day. The event is open to 4th, 5th and 6th grades. We would ask that parents not bring younger siblings."
Amber A. will be handling arrangements for SDH this year (thank you for volunteering, Amber!), so stay tuned for more information. Because participating groups enroll on a first-come, first-served basis, the earlier people sign up, the better. The enrollment form for our group should be submitted by October 3. If you have questions about the program, you can e-mail me at debbiegubernick@yahoo.com and I will forward the message to Amber, or you can speak with Amber or me at the park.
SDH ON THE WEB
SDH Web Site - http://www.tucsonhomeschoolers.org.
SDH e-mail - sdhtucson@yahoo.com
This year SDH will work to expand and improve our web site. The first
contact that many newcomers have with SDH is through the web site, so
it is important to present accurate and interesting material on those
pages. At the same time, there is untapped potential to make the web site
serve Sonoran Desert Homeschoolers. Right now on the web site, you can find both current and archived newsletters, a calendar of activities and events, a message board, and a page for links.
SDH also has an account with YahooGroups. As of publication, there are about six members on the list. YahooGroups functions as a mailing list, and I have set it up so that members must be approved before joining. Once the new roster of SDH members is available, I will send e-mail invitations to everyone with e-mail access to subscribe. Until then, you can click on the link below to join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sonorandeserthomeschoolers
I am looking for ideas and suggestions. If enough people are interested,
we can organize a group of adults and kids to discuss possibilities for
the web site, including assistants to handle the message board, kids'
pages, etc. Any questions or comments? See me at the park, or e-mail me at debbiegubernick@yahoo.com. Thanks.
HOMESCHOOLING RESEARCH REPORT
A report by the National Center for Education Statistics (link in PDF
format) called "Homeschooling in the United States: 1999" is the latest
effort by the US Department of Education to make sense of homeschooling. It relies heavily on statistics and other information provided by the National Home Education Research Institute. The report provides estimates on how many families homeschool, characteristics of a homeschooling family, reasons for homeschooling and types of public school support for homeschooling.
EDITOR'S NOTE
I am really enjoying putting this newsletter together. So far, in just
one month, I have gotten to know many more of you than I did all of
last year! If any of you have suggestions on how to make the newsletter
better, or if you would like to see something specific done please let
me (Kim B.) know either through email or at the park. And I have one
final quote from an article in Time magazine before finishing up. According to Chris Lubienski, a teacher at Iowa State University's college of education, "Home schooling is a social threat to public education..."
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TO JOIN SDH, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR $10 DUES ($5 AFTER JANUARY) TO ALICE G., COMPLETE THIS FORM FOR THE SDH ROSTER AND RETURN TO SHARON A.
Parents' Name(s) __________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________
City, State, Zip ___________________________________________
Phone Number ___________________________________________
E-mail Address ___________________________________________
Child Name(s) and Birthdate(s)(MM/YY)______________________
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Sonoran Desert Homeschoolers Tucson, Arizona
