SONORAN DESERT HOMESCHOOLERS

Tucson, Arizona

April 2001 Newsletter

             

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."        

**PLEASE NOTE**  Park meetings begin at 12:00 noon **

CALENDAR (check below for related articles)

Monday, April 2Lyle, Lyle Crocodile

Tuesday, April 3       Project Report Club

Wednesday, April 4  Marine Discovery

Thursday, April 5      4-H Bug Club

Thursday, April 12    Parents' Coffee Night

Tuesday, April 10     Early And Middle Readers Groups

Thursday, April 12    4-H Bug Club

Tuesday, April 17     Deadline For All May Newsletter Articles

Sunday, April 22      Kids' Meeting

Tuesday, April 24     Early And Middle Readers Groups

Wednesday, April 25Crafty Ladies

 

                  

ARTICLES

MARINE DISCOVERY PROGRAM 

This workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 4, in the UA Chemistry & Biological Sciences building, on the south side of the UA Mall near Highland Avenue.  The fun begins at 9:00, so plan to arrive at the southeast corner of the building no later than 8:45 AM.  You can pick your child(ren) up at noon.

Since UA parking is notoriously scarce and expensive, and also in the interest of "sparing the air," please consider car pooling with another family or taking SunTran.  Route #1 will take you right to the mall entrance at Park and University, and the bus riding experience will teach your kids some more life skills.  If you have not received maps, parking information, and the list of SDH participants from me by March 20, please contact Michelle.

LYLE, LYLE CROCODILE

For those who signed up, remember that the performance will be Monday, April 2, at TCC Music Hall (260 S. Church). There is a parking garage across the street.  The performance starts at 10:00; however seating is on a first-come-first-served basis and starts at 9:30. So PLEASE be there before 9:30 so we can have good seats.  I will have copies of info and a "study guide" to help your child become more familiar with the story before you go. Please see me at the park for a copy.

A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING - KIDS TALKING WITH KIDS

Kids of all ages from SDH are invited to come to this meeting.  The meeting will be held at the Gubernick home (near W. Grant Rd. and Silverbell Rd.), on Sunday, April 22, 2001, from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Parents are discouraged from participating in the discussion because this is a kids-only event. However, there will be adult supervision provided. There will be more information about the meeting on the website calendar. Use of the calendar is restricted to SDH members. If you need the password to access the calendar, please send email to sdhtucson@yahoo.com. 

If you have any ideas about what to discuss at the meeting, there will be a box available at park meetings for kids to submit suggestions.  Questions? Contact xxxxxx@xxx.xxx or talk with Debbie or Sam G. at the park.

PROJECT REPORT CLUB

Project Report Club will meet under the ramada the first Tuesday of every month immediately following announcements. Any child may present a topic they have been studying, and presentations may include pictures, experiments, or demonstrations.  This is a great chance for your child to practice speaking in front of a group. 

Questions? Call Alice G. 

CRAFTY LADIES

Meet to sip, talk about the travails of homeschooling and parenting, and catch up on projects. If you have a project you just can't get to, or you just need time to get away and recoup, please join us the last Wednesday of the month at 7 PM at COFFEE ETC. on Oracle.  Please contact Sybelle V.  for more information.

EASTSIDE PARENTS COFFEE NITE

Who: Everyone welcome!

What: A leisurely chat over coffee or tea. Discussion is very informal.

When: Thursday, April 12, at 7:30 PM.

Where: Borders Cafe, Park Mall on Broadway

Why: Why not?

EARLY READERS GROUP

The early readers or nonreaders will continue to meet the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. We meet at 11:15 am, just before the park meeting.  If you are interested in sharing a story with our group, please contact Mary Mc.             

4-H BUG CLUB

We are currently preparing our display for the Pima County Fair!  This month's meetings will be held on Thursday, April 5, and Thursday, April 12, at 4:30 PM At Tanque Verde Lutheran Church.  On Saturday, April 14, we will meet at the fairgrounds at noon to set up.  If you have any questions, contact Debbie D.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"What we learn to do, we learn by doing."

                        - Aristotle 

FYI...

THANKS FROM THE DYJAKS

A great big thank you to all the families that provided meals and showered Erich with gifts upon his arrival.  Your support, love and concern were greatly appreciated by our family.

END OF THE YEAR STAR PARTY

We will be having an end of year potluck and star party on Saturday, May 12, at the Metcalf's house.  (Contact Brian or Karen for directions.) The potluck will start at 5:00 PM.  Please bring your own table settings, drinks, chairs, swimsuit and a dish to share.  Viewing will begin at 7:30.  We should be able to see Saturn, Jupiter and different galaxies.  If you would like more information viewing, please speak to Josh L., Becky's son.

COUNTY FAIR COUPON BOOKS

Carnival ride coupon books (40 tickets for $20) and fair coupon fun books ($5) are available for sale from Debbie D. at park meetings.

These coupons are a great savings over buying your ride tickets at the fair, and part of the proceeds goes to support the 4-H Bug Club.

SDH NEEDS YOU!

It's time to give others a chance to try out new "jobs" with SDH!  If you are interested in volunteering to maintain the roster next year,

please let Eileen D. know.  If you can do e-mail lists, word processing to help with the layout of the newsletter and print out mailing labels for those that receive the newsletter via mail, then you could do it! If you know how to use databases, that is helpful too. In the past, we have had an additional person to make copies of the newsletter and mail them out. A volunteer (or two) for that would be great, too!

LET ME GIVE YOU MY CARD...

I have created membership cards for Sonoran Desert Homeschoolers families. I need to know how each family wants their card to read -i.e., The Smith Family or  The Smith-Jones Family. Please let me know by April 15 so I can print them out. Email me at debbiegubernick@yahoo.com or see me at the park.

SOUTHERN ARIZONA HOME SCHOOL GRADUATION

When: May 25th, 2001

Where: Victory Assembly of God

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Attention all senior and 8th grade graduates! Graduation is quickly approaching! If you are a senior in high school or an eighth grader and

would like to participate in this year's Southern Arizona AHFE graduation, please call Nicole Lambros at 744-0446 to register. The deadline for registration is April 6th for Seniors, and May 4th for 8th graders. There is a fee for graduation this year. The cost is $20 for seniors and $10 for eighth graders. Your check should be made out to and mailed to Nicole Lambros at: 9152 N.

Alabaster Pl.  Tucson, AZ 85742.  The money should be mailed after you have called and registered with Nicole. If you have any other questions, please feel free to call Nicole and talk with her.

YO-YO WORKSHOP

I am going to cancel the yo-yo workshop due to lack of participants. The yo-yo folks have a pretty booked up schedule, but they can do it in May if there is enough interest then. Could people let me know if they would want to do this?  The yo-yos are Pro Yos, which cost more in the stores.  The cost is $5 per kid.  Please contact Mary Beth if you are interested.

ANOTHER QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"Literature is a form of permanent insurrection."

                       -Mario Vargas Llosa

INTERNET INFO

Sonoran Desert Homeschoolers has a new web address - [obsolete URL]. This change was necessary because our previous host, Crosswinds, has been experiencing numerous problems, one of them being that our site was completely lost. Sam G. is designing this new site, and there will be new features available soon, including a password-protected calendar for SDH members only [now available to everyone].

The e-mail address for the site is sdhtucson@yahoo.com. Both Sam and I will be answering e-mail and maintaining the site, so if you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know.

Thanks,

debbie g.

KIDS' STUFF

Eggcellent by Amanda O.

A mother duck had an egg as long as your foot and as fat as an elephant.  That egg finally hatched. 

The mother duck said, "excellent!"  The little baby duck said you mean, "eggcellent, eggcellent, eggcellent!"  The other ducklings came to see the new duckling.  They said, "excellent, excellent, excellent!"

Well, while all the ducklings were admiring the new one, the mother duck said, "why does my baby say eggcellent all the time?" Then the drake came home and asked "what's the matter?" The mother duck said, "the new duckling always says eggcellent and I don't know what to do." 

Then an old swan came and that swan happened to be the grandma. The old swan said, "What's the matter?" The mother duck said, "my new baby keeps saying eggcellent."  The old swan just smiled and said "I think that I know how to cure this. Just go get some blueberries and raspberries and strawberries and give them to the little duckling."  The mother did as she was told and soon the baby never said eggcellent again.  The End.

EDITOR'S FOOTNOTE

Did you see Eileen's article requesting someone to take her place as keeper of the roster?  It reminded me that this year-long commitment to edit the newsletter is almost at an end for me, too. I thought for awhile that I would continue through next year, but it really is time for someone else to take a turn.  So...the main requirements for being newsletter editor are (1) a computer with email capabilities, (2) the ability to set and stick to a deadline and (3) pathological pickiness about spelling, grammar and punctuation --- or a computer program that will be picky for you.  It helps a lot if you can type, too, even s-l-o-w-l-y.  The actual time commitment per month has been 3-4 hours.

See me if you'd like more details. 

Don't forget to send me your articles for the May newsletter by Tuesday, April 17, so that we can get the last newsletter of this homeschooling year to you by the 1st of the month. 

See you soon!

Michelle

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TO JOIN SDH, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR $10 DUES ($5 after January 1)

TO CAROL T.,  COMPLETE THIS FORM FOR THE SDH ROSTER AND

RETURN TO EILEEN D.

Parents' Name(s) ___________________________________________

Address ____________________________________________________

City, State, Zip ___________________________________________

Phone Number _______________________________________________

E-mail Address _____________________________________________

Child Name(s) and Birthdate(s)(M/YY)_______________________

Sonoran Desert Homeschoolers        Tucson   Arizona