Coffee Chats are the perfect opportunity to meet up with other homeschoolers. Whether you are new to homeschooling or a veteran, please join us for an evening of discussion and sharing. Our Coffee Chat is scheduled for Thursday, Febraury 16, 2012 at the Caribou coffee shop located near the intersection of 694 and Rice St from 7-9pm.

• Layout redesign
• Incorporated blog
• Ability to modify and add new pages (HTML or blog-type interface)
• Incorporated (private) membership database

Please send detailed proposals, including qualifications, references, and cost, to mha@homeschoolers.org.

This event is completely FREE and open to ALL members of the homeschool community.  Please share with family, friends and other homeschool groups who have students interested in learning more about post-secondary opportunities.

Colleges and universities planning to attend include:

• Anoka Ramsey Community College
• Augsburg
• Bethel University
• Century College (White Bear Lake)
• Concordia University
• Dakota County Technical College
• Inver Hills Community College
• Metro State University
• Normandale Community College
• North Central University
• North Hennepin Community College
• Northwestern College
• St. Catherine
• University of Minnesota

Please let us know if you plan to attend!  Send an RSVP to mha@homeschoolers.org with your name and the number of people coming with you.

New Brighton Community Center is located at 400 10th Street Northwest in New Brighton.  Parking is free and there is an indoor playground (fee) for supervised younger children to use during the event.

How Lincoln Learned to Read by Daniel Wolff looks back at what may have started famous Americans on their paths to success. It identifies what experiences, classrooms, people or hardships cultivated Henry Ford into a mechanical mastermind instead of an environmental scientist like Rachel Carson.

Some of the personal histories are steeped with connections to homeschooling, more specifically unschooling and self directed education, while others are more traditional. But each retrospective reminds the reader that so much of the vital learning that takes place is not what was part of a plan or pre-described goal. Often, it is what happened despite the plan.

Reading this book will not give you a systematic guide to teaching your child to read. Nor will it give you the basic rules to help you raise the next famous American to add to the history books. Instead, this book clearly points out that each journey is different, influenced by countless factors, not reproducible, and only truly understood in retrospect.

Never the less, it inspires and guides. It opens your eyes to finding the value in the education being given by so many sources other than yourself. The influences of a child’s home, individuals they meet on a museum tour or nature center class, the world and local events of the time and so many more. Will the next great American biography include a description of how a field trip to a super computer began a lifelong passion or a TV documentary was the jumping block into figuring out a solution no one had thought of before? I guess we will wait and see. But as we wait, we will look at each day and activity as a piece of a puzzle without the box cover to know where each piece goes, at least not yet.

My kids have always drawn or played Lego while I read aloud. Once I learned that research shows that using your hands while listening actually helps you concentrate and remember better, I added to the list of quiet listening activities with things like latch hook, beading and snow flake cutting. The new favorite in our house is needlepoint.

Not only is needlepoint relatively easy for my kids who are as young as 7 but instead of following a pattern to make a picture like on latch hook, they love being able to take a premade needlepoint plastic form and choose whatever colors they want to use. We have made hearts or crosses. We have given them as gifts and made them just for fun. This latest visit to the craft store introduced my daughters to a fantastic new plastic pattern – a purse. Simply fill it in with needlepoint, fold and stitch the sides together. Add a button and a handle if you like.

A pack of small heart shapes is under 2 dollars and can be easily completed by Valentine’s Day so give it a try!

And they always do.  The notorious Windows hourglass (which, in all honesty, should be updated to a flashing sign stating “What you are trying to do is IMPOSSIBLE”) or Mac’s prettier-but-just-as-frustrating spinning, rainbow wheel-of-death.

I don’t have the time or resources to go back to school and get a degree in computer science or programming.  But I do have time to join Code Year 2012, a free resource to learn computer programming.  Signing up is as simple as entering your email address on the main page.  Once signed up, participants will receive a new, interactive programming lesson each week.  As the website says, “You’ll be building apps and websites before you know it.”

If that isn’t enough, there is also CodeCademy where you can begin learning JavaScript coding immediately, should you choose not to wait for those weekly lessons to show up in your inbox.  The lessons are simple enough for students to do, so my 12 year old and 11 year old will be learning along with me.

I don’t think I’ll be adding hardware or building computers from scratch any time soon, but if I can lift the veil a little?  For free?  Sounds good to me!

For more information about Code Year 2012,  check out CNN Money’s article or Wired online.

Ahhh, the beginning of a new year.  With decorations safely stowed and everything in the house fresh and clean again, my thoughts easily turn to what else I can tidy up and invigorate.  Guess what’s usually next on the list?  Yep — homeschooling.

I make lists of things I want to accomplish with the kids.  I browse bookstores and online categories for new material.  I contemplate schedules and online classes and textbooks and worksheets.  I visit blogs and hit inspiration overload.  I ask the kids to list everything they want to learn.

We go gangbusters for about a week.  Two if we’re lucky.  And then, inevitably, life takes over and things fall by the wayside and we’re back to our zany, unorganized homeschool life.  The life that absolutely works for us.

So this year, I’m trying out some different homeschool resolutions. They look a little like this:

• Avoid homeschool comparison and envy.  It’s easy to get caught in this trap — to listen to other homeschoolers gathered at open gym or to read blogs and think, “Wow.  Those kids are entering essay contests and building rockets and racing snowmobiles and the only thing we did this week was make scented play-doh.”  So what?  Are your kids happy?  Did they have fun with the scented play clay?  That’s all that matters.
• Embrace white space. For a lot of homeschoolers, a full calendar provides a soothing impression of a thriving homeschool.  If you’re gone every day, doing field trips and classes and play dates, surely the kids must be learning.  But days at home — to put together puzzles or play outside or, heaven forbid, help Mom clean — are just as valuable.  Learn to see the value in those slower moments.
• Value what you have.  We live in a society that conditions us to continually want more — more material goods, more money, more everything.  There are many a day where I think to myself, “I wish each kid could have their own laptop.”  Or, “Wouldn’t it be great if we had a real piano instead of this cast-off Casio keyboard so the kids could really learn to play?”  But we don’t.  And we don’t have the luxury to contemplate buying any of those things.  But we do have a laptop the kids can share and we do have a keyboard with working keys.  And I am grateful for all of it.
• Lower your expectations.  As an unschooler, I tend to jump on the kids the minute they express an interest in something.  They want to learn how to count to ten in Spanish?  Great!  Let’s join LiveMocha and watch all your TV shows with Spanish subtitles — you’ll be fluent in no time! Interests will be fleeting.  They’ll come and go.  Do I support and nurture these?  Of course.  But they need to be in charge of how far they want to go.  Not me.

So there you have it.  I’ll call these my “Realistic Resolutions.” Will I slip up?  No doubt.  They’re New Year’s resolutions, after all.  But, just like every year, I’ll do my best…

CAMP is a winner of the Dr. Toy Best 100 Children’s Products. It is listed as a game for ages 4 and up which makes most people think it must be a very easy game but it uniquely incorporates questions cards that offer 4 levels depending on the age of the player answering the question.

As you roll and move around the game board you my land on a Go To Clubhouse space. In some cases this moves you ahead, and at other times sends you back. No one is too upset when this happens, however, since going to the clubhouse means you get a read a fun fact to everyone. Did you know that a baby oyster is called a spat?

And don’t worry if you are not a camping family, most of the questions are animal facts such as “Which bird can fly backward?” and “What is a baby owl called?” All are multiple choice and again easy questions are available for young kids with 3 more levels for older kids and adults.

Join MHA and local homeschool specialist Kim Jaworski on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 1:30 PM at the Ridgedale Library for this popular workshop.

Minnesota offers an education credit and deduction that most homeschoolers don’t take full advantage of. Come and hear the ins and outs of this process. Kim will clarify the guidelines and discuss some “gray areas” as well. Even if you have a tax preparer or tax software, you could be missing out on key items that qualify for homeschoolers. If you don’t know to save the receipts, you can’t get the deduction at tax time. Bring your questions and go home with a whole new understanding. Don’t miss out on the credit you deserve!

Cost: FREE for MHA members ($10 for non-members)

RSVPs (include names of those attending) to mha@homeschoolers.org. Non-members may pay at the door.

Ridgedale Library is located at 12601 Ridgedale Drive in Minnetonka. The workshop is in Room 172.