Greetings oBX Community,
Our first day of joyful, secular enrichment begins next Tuesday, September 8, 2009. We have a lot of new faces this semester, so we are asking everyone to wear a name tag the first week. Get yours at the welcome desk.
The first day is gloriously chaotic. A few things to help reign in the chaos:
PARKING
We have an agreement with the Chrysler Museum to use their parking lot on Grace Street. DO NOT PARK in the church parking lot, which is reserved for our instructors and church staff. If you have a need of some kind for parking in the church lot, contact me off list to melina@3676.net before parking there.
PAYMENT
Many of our teachers are PayPal preferred, so you can pay from the comfort of your PC. The rest take cash in an envelope with your child's name on it, or a check with your child's name in the Memo section. Loose, un-named cash in a folder is a big no-no. All our instructors are all offering discounts for paying up front, rather than in three installments. Full payment or your first installment payment is due on September 8.
You can see the full Monty about payments, installments, and PayPal addresses at this spreadsheet.
You can also see it on our right here on our website.
PAPER PRODUCT DRIVE
As part of our registration fee, all families contribute a 6-pack of toilet paper and 2-pack of paper towels. If your child uses the nursery, also add a 4-pack of AA batteries.
EMERGENCY CARD UPDATE
Rosemary Ayres is our Mailbox Director. She will be making sure that each family (and every instructor) has a folder in the mailbox, which is on the welcome table. Your folder MUST HAVE AN UPDATED EMERGENCY CARD IN IT. This card should include the name, date of birth, and weight of your child(ren) as well as allergies and lots of emergency contact numbers. If you have any questions about your folder or your emergency card, find Rosemary and she will help you out.
USE OF THE NURSERY
Colyn Martin is our Nursery Director. Your child needs your direct supervision in the nursery. If you have any questions about use of the nursery, find Colyn and she will help you out.
MONART FORMS
All children taking the Monart class must fill out two forms. Contact me and I will send you out a PDF, JPG, or whatever format you need. (melina@3676.net)
OTHER QUESTIONS?
Just ask melina@3676.net.
First Day Information
Fall 2009/2010 Schedule
If you would prefer to visit this document in a larger format, as a separate browser window, please click here.
HSoBX Spring Finale
On Tuesday, we celebrated the final day of our spring semester. Hard to believe we're wrapping up two years of eye-popping academic achievement and seriously fun enrichment at Homeschool Out of the Box! Here are some of the cool things that happened during our finale:
We honored our first "Teacher of the Year," Patricia Richman, whose Play & Learn preschool seminar resumed almost immediately after Patricia gave birth to darling baby Anna. She taught for two months in a baby sling and rocked it. Her students crossed the continents, studying topics in science, geography, and literature, including reading and writing basics. No one could believe the props and materials Patricia was dragging up and down those stairs, without ever complaining or showing us anything but a sunny smile. Thank you, Patricia! Patricia's class gave us a show for our families, singing and acting out "The Three Little Bears."
The Architecture and Building class created a display for parents and peers to take a look at the various projects they've been working on all semester, including their giant cityscapes! They also took an architecture walk around historic Ghent, spotting different styles.
The Women's History classes put on a Jeopardy show in the common room during lunch, with a board full of questions, sound effects, and a four-person incarnation of Alex Trebek. The students beat the parents -- what a shocker, right? It was highly entertaining for the whole HSoBX family!
Check out the final video project from the Art History class!
Fabulous. It's absolutely amazing what these students have learned about historical periods, artistic styles, and specific artists and pieces, in such a short time. We were also able to look at their displays that they'd worked on throughout the semester. Check out their web site.
Our elementary literature classes read Arabian Nights Entertainments this semester, and wore turbans for their final show. They sang a song about the Sassanid Empire, a couple of Persian folk songs, and some poetry set to music: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and "Recollections of Arabian Nights" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. They also feasted on dates, sugared chick peas, and Turkish Delight!
Life Skills class rounded off their year of learning social skills through games and innovative group interactions with a face-painting party, complete with bubbles and hula hoops. Check out the Life Skills web site for more about their activities throughout the semester. Here's the morning session in their face paint:
We also had performances from our enrichment classes. Our writers hosted a reading upstairs in the blue room, and our Irish dancers knocked our socks off with three amazing numbers.
Thanks for a great year. We look forward to seeing everyone back in the fall! If you have pictures and videos to share, please post links to the Yahoo list, so that we can include them in this post!
Spring 2009 Semester Kick Off
Our first day of the Spring 2009 semester went off with barely a hitch.
A warm welcome to our new families and students, and a hearty hello-again to all our returning friends. Our community is literally bursting at the seams with 40+ families and 60+ students.
Next week will be the first day of Family Drumming, offered once per month, and there is still time to register for that class!
We will be accepting registration for our few remaining class openings through February 17, 2009. Please note that some classes will not accept students after the second week. You can check class availability here.
