Dollar Days at Scholastic - eBooks

Scholastic's Teacher Express is running a $1 sale on a large number of eBooks, now through September 20, 2011!

Better still, when you use the coupon code (10THANKS), you'll get $10 off your ebook download order. You get to choose the titles! Pick out the ebooks you'd like, then use the coupon code to get $10 off your order. Since they are having a Dollar Days Sale, you could get ten free ebooks! No shipping costs and no payment information requested.

How to Get this Freebie: Visit Scholastic Teacher Express. Use coupon code 10THANKS in the shopping cart to get $10 off your order (If you copy/paste the code, make sure you're not also copy/pasting spaces. If you type it, be sure to use capital letters).

Expires September 20, 2011

Art-i-Fact Crawl

Enjoy an evening of art, culture and fun with food and prizes at the annual MU Campus Gallery & Museum Crawl on Thursday, September 15, 2011. The crawl starts at 4:00 PM at any of the venues that are participating and runs until 7:00 PM (except Laws Observatory which will remain open until 9:00 PM).

This is a fantastic way to see many of the educational exhibits and offerings on the MU Campus that homeschoolers can utilize in their curriculum!

The nine venues that comprise Art-i-Fact Crawl include the:

• George Caleb Bingham Gallery
• the Museum of Art & Archeology
• the Museum of Anthropology
• the State Historical Society of Missouri
• the Craft Studio Gallery
• the Missouri Historic Costume & Textile Collection
• Laws Observatory
• the Enns Entomology Museum, and
• The Residence on the Francis Quadrangle

Door prizes are given out at each location during the evening.

Participants who get their Crawl postcard map stamped at all nine locations will be eligible to enter a grand prize drawing for a $100 gift certificate to the University Bookstore.

The map is HERE.

Watch for the orange deposit box at each location.

The Laws Observatory will be open until approx 9 pm so participants can view the stars and they will accept Crawl postcards until 7:30 pm that evening.

Musicians from the MU Department of Music will be playing at various locations throughout the Crawl for your enjoyment.

Taking a Day Trip for History

One of the great things about homeschooling is that we're able to integrate lots of local attractions and programs into our lesson plans. Visits to museums, nature centers and other places provides a rounding to our curriculum and allows our children to experience more than a textbook presentation of information. While mid-Missouri has many, many great options, sometimes going to a great program requires a trip in the car!

The Missouri History Museum (MHM), in St. Louis, has an incredible history program for homeschoolers and they recently released their calendar for the upcoming school year. If you haven't had a chance to review the program, check their website.

Each month the MHM hosts a Homeschool Days program. The line-up this year includes:

• Homeschool Days - America I Am (Registration Required)
  Monday, September 19 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Numbers and Notes (Registration Required)
  Wednesday, October 26 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - The Civil War in Missouri (Registration Required)
  Monday, November 21 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Winter Wonderland (Registration Required)
  Monday, December 12 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Bon Voyage, Lindbergh! (Registration Required)
  Monday, January 30 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Mammoths & Mastodons (Registration Required)
  Monday, February 20 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Community and Conflict (Registration Required)
  Wednesday, March 7 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Movement in Black and White (Registration Required)
  Monday, April 16 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Celebrating Missouri (Registration Required)
  Monday, May 7 2012 at 10:00 am

The programs are designed for homeschoolers and multiple age children. The above days are on our calendar above, but be sure to REGISTER if you plan to attend as registration is required!

Million Minute Challenge

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."

-Plato, Greek philosopher

Families and groups join the Million Minute Family challenge because it is an easy, yet effective way to re-energize and give incentive to spending time with family or friends. Board games and card games offer true face-to-face interaction that is disappearing in our daily lives. Playing a game creates a relaxed environment to converse, laugh and really get to know one another, and all of this can be accomplished in as little as 20 minutes.

Joining the Million Minute Family Challenge is easy:

Register your family or group and receive a free organizer kit by mail.

Gather your friends or family and play your favorite game. You can play one time or play as much as every day. Do what fits your schedule!

Keep track of how long your group plays and return to this website to log your minutes. Every minute you log helps us reach our nationwide goal of one million.

If you'd like to play, register at the website!

Conner's Cave Tours

This is on the calendar above, but I wanted to also post it since it's a great activity this summer!

Best of all, this one is free!

Every Saturday and Sunday from 1:00-4:00 through the end of August, you can take a guided cave tour of Connor's cave at Rockbridge.

Groups leave every 20 minutes or so, and you can just hang out on the platform above the stairs to the cave until the next one goes.

A park ranger will give you and your child a flashlight and a hard hat and then escort you into the cave. Conner's Cave has water at its entrance, so you'll want to wear footwear that can get wet, and they discourage crocs as they tend to be slippery. Aquasocks, pool shoes, old sneakers or rain boots are good options!

Big Muddy Speaker Series: Stocking Up On Sturgeon

US Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Tracy Hill joins us for a peek into the multi-state breeding and restocking effort to strengthen Missouri River populations of the endangered pallid sturgeon.

7:00 p.m. - Tues. June 12, 2011
Lower level of Les Bourgeois Vineyards Bistro, Rocheport, MO

Presentation is FREE!

The pallid sturgeon has become a living symbol of the old, natural Missouri River struggling to survive in the new river we've created. This odd looking, prehistoric fish only lives in the Missouri River and the Mississippi River below St. Louis. It's uniquely adapted to the intense environment of this turbid, sandy and free-flowing river.

Channelization, loss of sediment and damming of the Missouri River have all impacted the spawning ability of the sturgeon and the survival of its young. As biologists study the habitat needs of this fish and engineers attempt to recreate this habitat on our channelized river, emergency measures have been taken to restock hatchery raised sturgeon throughout the Missouri River basin.

USFWS biologist Tracy Hill will join us for a peek into the extremely difficult process of tracking and catching breeding age sturgeon, spawning them in the hatchery and reintroducing the young fish to the wild Missouri River. It takes the cooperation of several state and federal agencies and a trial and error learning curve that continues to improve.

Additional details: Big Muddy Speaker Series

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

If you have a child interested in the Paleolithic-era, the Ragtime Cinema has a movie for you! Cave of Forgotten Dreams opens on Friday, July 15, 2011 at the Ragtime and is about the Chauvet Cave in southern France. The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and consists of footage filmed inside the cave as well as interviews with various scientists and historians. The film also includes footage of the nearby Pont d'Arc natural bridge.

The Ragtime website says:

In 1994, the archaeologist Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the earliest known visions of mankind: a stunning collection of over 300 Paleolithic-era works of cave art hidden in Southern France. Many writers and photographers have since attempted to gain access to the famous Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave, but because of fear that overexposure — even contact with human breath — would damage the incredible discovery, none were let in. That is, until legendary auteur Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo, Encounters at the End of the World, et al.) asked. Naturally. Using lights that emitted no heat, Herzog created The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a fascinating, as well as breathtaking, experience that has earned raves from many critics. "A typically quixotic documentary in which great unknown artists from 35,000 years ago collaborate with one in 2011. Profound, mysterious and utterly absorbing." (Adam Smith, Empire)

For more information and showtimes: Ragtime Cinema

Museum Day 2011

Saturday, September 24th is the Smithsonian Magazine’s 7th Annual National Museum Day and over 1,000 museums nationwide are offering two free admissions per family.

There are 23 museums in Missouri participating, so check the website and order your free tickets today!

Discounts for Homeschoolers

There are a number of ways to save money on your homeschool purchases - some online, some local.

Barnes & Noble has an educator discount card that gives 20% off purchases. All you need to do is ask for the application in-store and fill it out as a homeschooler. You can also download the application online and fill it out before heading to the store.

Jo-Ann stores offers a teacher rewards program that homeschoolers can also use; again, it's simply asking for the application when you're in-store and filling it out. The discount offered is 15% each day and you'll get a coupon for 20% off your first total purchase once you sign-up.

FedEx Kinkos offers a 15% discount to teachers and it includes home educators! This is a great discount for those of us who cut the spines off workbooks, need to do a lot of copying and/or are doing some color printing throughout the year. For this one you can apply online too!

A new entry to teacher discounts on a daily basis is Michael's. Each day if you're a teacher, you'll get 15% off your total purchase. Michael's does not have a card though, so you'll have to ask for the discount at the register and may encounter some difficulty since the policy of the headquarters, in Texas, is to require proof you homeschool (ie. a letter from the state, district, etc.). I've gotten the discount after explaining to the store manager that Missouri does not have any such proof I can offer.

Both Staples and Office Depot have educator rewards programs. Neither are discounts per se. Office Depot's Star Teacher Program gives 10% back in rewards on ink, toner, & paper; 1% back on almost everything else; 15% off copy & print orders. Staples' Teacher Rewards Program: 10% back in rewards on most purchases. These rwards can add up, so do the math to see if it's worth shopping there for supplies or elsewhere!

Field Trip Plans 2011-2012

Thoughout the school year I try to plan a variety of activities and field trips that are fun and educational. Planning takes some time, but is worth it when I can tie what we'll be working on with a day-trip or local activity. Right now, our plans include:

July

MU Museum of Art & Archeology
Butterfly House
Science Camps
Art Camp
Boone County Fair
Arrow Rock

August

MU Museum of Art & Archeology
Rock Bridge State Park
State Fair in Sedalia
Katy Depot and Railroad Heritage Museum
Powell Botanical Gardens
St. Louis Science Center

September

Magic House
St. Louis Zoo
St. Louis Science Center

October

Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO
Walt Disney World, FL
Cahokia Mounds

November

Capitol and Governor's Mansion, Jefferson City
St. Louis Science Center
Gateway Arch, St. Louis
Laws Observatory, Columbia
Big Muddy Speaker Series, Rocheport

December

Missouri History Museum
St. Louis Science Center
Concert Series Show

January

MU Museum of Anthropology
AutoWorld Museum, Fulton
Empire Roller Rink

February

Denver, CO
Vail, CO

March

Concert Series Shows
Federal Reserve Bank Visitors Center, Kansas City
Union Station, Kansas City

April

Runge Conservation Nature Center, Jefferson City
St. Louis Science Center
Boone Junction Village

May

Concert Series Show
Katy Trail Cycling
St. Louis Science Center
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis

June

Discovery Center, Springfield
Entomology Museum, Columbia