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I received the following via email recently. I'm just passing the info on in case some of you are interested. (I am not affiliated or associated with this organization or event. This is NOT a sponsored post or paid ad.) Lyon Arboretum Invites Homeschooling Students to Participate in Field Trips April 2017 The Lyon Arboretum is offering two days of field trips to homeschooling families, April 6th for 5-8 year olds and April 7th for 9-12 year olds. Come join us for a morning at the Lyon Arboretum, partaking in an outdoor, place-based, hands-on education experience. Our programs address a variety of the HCPS III benchmarks for Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, and Math. Field trips are $5 per child and per parent, payable upon arrival with cash or check. These field trips are a fun and enriching way for your child to address the benchmark requirements of your homeschooling curriculum. 5-8 year olds (K-3rd Grade) –Thursday April 6, 2017 9am-11am
9-12 year olds (4th-6th Grade) –Friday April 7, 2017 9am-11am
Spaces are limited and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you are interested in registering for one, or both, of these field trips call or email the Lyon Arboretum’s Education Department. Please be prepared to provide the following information:
The Lyon Arboretum’s website is a great resource for information about our grounds, and the Education Department. Feel free to contact us with any further questions at 808-988-0461 or email us at lyonarboretumeducation@gmail.com . Lyon Arboretum - Education Department University of Hawai'i at Manoa 3860 Manoa Road Honolulu, HI 96822 (808) 988-0461 https://manoa.hawaii.edu/lyonarboretum/ 
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On Friday, February 3rd, Colonel Charles E. McGee, a decorated WWII Tuskegee Airman Pilot, will be at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor to discuss his career and the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, an all African American squadron who overcame segregation and prejudice to become one of the most highly respected fighter groups of WWII. This is for school groups and homeschool groups are invited to participate! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear from Colonel McGee, who not only overcame racism, but went on to become a fighter pilot in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, and at the age of 97, still holds the record for the highest three-war total of fighter combat missions of any pilot in the United States Air Force history. Colonel McGee travels across the country speaking to kids about the importance of remaining positive even when faced with adversity, as well as the importance of hard work and getting a good education. Please visit the following link for additional program information, including registration: http://eepurl.com/cyj8UP  (Stock photo for added interest.) Note: This post is for informational purposes. I am not affiliated or associated with this organization or event. This is NOT a sponsored post or paid ad.
A new art studio has recently opened up in the Kakaako area with Hawaiian and Contemporary art classes for kids. She is creating classes mid-week for parents with homeschooling children, so feel free to contact her if you are interested! Her Facebook page says "The Art Loft is a community arts space located in the heart of Kakaako that aims to support the development of Hawaii’s arts scene through its arts program, educational initiatives and community projects." You can visit her website for more information: http://www.theartlofthi.com/  Image for attention and is NOT associated with The Art Loft. Note: Note: This is NOT a sponsored post or paid advertisement. I am not affiliated or associated with this business in any way. I'm simply passing on information that some of my followers might find useful.
Homeschool Now USA is promoting awareness of homeschooling during National School Choice Week this January (22-28). There is a local event, to be held at Ewa Beach Baptist Church (91-743 Pohakupuna Road) on January 24th, 2017, from 7-9pm. Call Dianne Nowak at 808-429-8386 for more information.  Note: This is NOT a sponsored post or paid advertisement. I am not affiliated with this event so please contact the organizer directly with any questions. I'm simply passing on information that some of my followers might find useful. Enjoy!
For my military followers... You might want to take note of the changes to the USAG-HI Youth Sports and Fitness Homeschool PE programs, particularly the $20 fee (this program was previously offered at no charge). The next session will run from 7 Feb. to 2 May and cost $20. Children ages 5 and up are invited to participate. AMR PE will be held on Tuesdays (1130-1230), Schofield Barracks PE will be held on Tuesdays as well (1130-1230). Participants must register in advance at their local registration office. Contact the YS&F office with any questions at 808-655-6465 or 808-836-1923.  Note: I am NOT affiliated or associated with the USAG-HI Youth Sports & Fitness program (aside from that we might sign up to participate in their programs), so please contact them directly with any questions. This is NOT a sponsored post or paid advertisement. I'm simply passing on information that some of my readers might find useful/helpful.
Sacred Hearts Academy in Honolulu is hosting a "Science Symposium for Girls" on February 18th, 2017, 7:45am-11:20am! Girls in grades 5-8 and their parents are invited to participate in this FREE program with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities and workshops. After a keynote address, students will attend two 50-minute workshops of their choice (see their website for details). Must register by February 13th!  Note: I am NOT affiliated or associated with this event, organization, or school. This is NOT a sponsored post or paid advertisement. I am simply passing along information that some of my readers might find helpful.
When you hear someone say "memorize the periodic table", the word "fun" probably doesn't come to mind. "Run", maybe... but not fun, right? Well we recently learned all the elements of the periodic table in a short amount of time and we did enjoy it! "How?" you may ask. It was with silly stories and fun whiteboard animation videos! I'm don't remember how I found Memorize Academy and the "Memorize the Periodic Table" videos, but I'm glad I did! Chemistry is an upcoming subject of study for our homeschool, so I thought it would be good to refresh my understanding of it. Knowing all the elements by heart seemed fitting as well, especially because my daughter, Big Sis (age 9), has had an increasing interest in it lately. So I was quite pleased - and a tad excited even - to try these videos that gave us an easy and fun way to remember all the elements... and now I'm excited to tell you about it too! About Memorize AcademyMemorize Academy is a website with several videos and supplemental materials by Kyle Buchanan, an author and whiteboard animation memory coach. His offerings aim to help users learn how to memorize information fast and easy. Some videos are free and others are considered premium content and available at a reasonable fee. Amazingly, the associated vlog on the site offers a number of other free articles and videos that help viewers memorize a variety of topics! Kyle also authored the book, Memorize the Periodic Table: The Fast and Easy Way to Memorize Chemical Elements [<-- NOT an affliate link], available on Amazon. Our ExperienceWe received online access to the following videos from Memorize Academy:
I love to exercise my memory but had never before attempted to learn the periodic table of elements, so Big Sis and I took this on as a mother-daughter challenge. Lil' Sis (6) also enjoyed watching the videos with us and was the first person to ask to start the next one each time we finished a segment. Baby Sis (4.5 months)... well, she mostly just drooled on my keyboard. Par for the teething course. The videos are entirely whiteboard animation with a little background music and Kyle's explanations and narration of memory tips and the short, often crazy, stories that utilize visual associations to remember key information. In this case, the elements. As is usually the case, my 9 year old outpaced and outshined me on the speed at which she remembered things, but with the aid of these silly mental imagery stories, I was able to keep up fairly well nonetheless. The key, I found, was most definitely to focus and really visualize the story in my own mind. So while the videos were certainly helpful in creating a mental picture, it wasn't as simple as casually watching them and hoping it'd soak in. No subliminal learning while you sleep here. So you can't just stare at the screen like the Watching Dead. You definitely need to stay on task and engaged. Thankfully, for us and in this case, that was pretty easy to do. (And as a hot mess of a homeschool mom these days, I love things that are easy to stay on task with and accomplish!) Big Sis and I had the first 50 elements down in less than an hour total, though that was spread out over multiple shorter sessions - not one hour-straight stint. The rest were accomplished in a bit more time (maybe 1.5-2 hours total - again, in shorter sessions spread out over a few weeks), due to having to explain a few things from some videos to Big Sis, which caused her to review things 2-3 times before she felt confident in knowing those elements. That is still less time spent memorizing and far fewer repetitions than she would do in other circumstances! You can see Big Sis' first attempt at reciting the first 112 elements (on our brand new You Tube channel)! She missed one element and some pronunciation might be a bit off, but we wanted to share the reality of her result, so we decided not to retake and fix it. Here's the video and the link: https://youtu.be/gCy3T116CLo. What We LikedThe process of memorizing the elements was made easier because these are short, "bite-size" videos, never more than about nine minutes in length. We liked this because even though it took mental energy to reap the benefits, we didn't have to sustain the effort for very long. We stayed focused intently to learn a chunk of the material and then had a chance ot rest our minds in between or save the next video for another day. We could easily fit in a video here and there in the midst of our busy schedule. Very nice. The story Kyle weaves to help each element stick in your mind is rather strange and quite far-fetched, but I guess that's why it worked. It is so odd and silly that it is harder to forget. (At least, most of the time. Read on for some exceptions we encountered.) Our favorite part of the memory story was the one for phosphorus and both Big Sis & Lil'Sis still giggle and yell out the story association nearly every time we recite the elements! Big Sis is rather fond of the manganese segment as well. The animations are not super fancy because it is all hand drawn whiteboard illustrations, but they were well done and usually clear and helpful. A thoughtful touch was that the key point of the story that associated to the element was usually highlighted with more color or emphasis, drawing your attention to that aspect. We also liked Mr. Buchanan's voice. His narration was easy and pleasant to listen to. My daughter particularly appreciated the "action replay" at the end of each video, which was a quick review - a shortened version of the information presented earlier in the video. It always helped solidify what we just learned/saw. She later used these sections of each video to review the material and make sure she still had it all correct. I suggested to Mr. Buchanan that he make a single, full action replay of all the elements in one video for future reviewing purposes, so I hope that is something that gets added later on! We also appreciated the printable illustrated review sheets. I almost missed these, though, because I didn't see the download link on the right of the screen in that section. I'm glad I found it though! The review sheets are a handy way to be sure we don't miss an element when we review them now and then, over time. Mr. Buchanan suggests going back over the story occasionally to further cement it in your mind and keep it fresh, so that is what we are doing. Another reason I personally like what Memorize Academy has to offer is that it fits well with our homeschool approach. While these videos and this method is not marketed toward homeschoolers or to families that use a classical style of learning, I think it lends itself well to both. This may or may not be applicable or suitable for your own situation, but for us, it was a big plus. Our family appreciates the classical approach to education and we have a focus on memorization of facts and information in the early years; facts upon which futher knowledge is later built and explored in depth. To that regard, these videos are a perfect fit. NoteworthySome parts of the story were more of a stretch than others, making some parts easier to remember quickly and others took a bit more effort. A few times, we modified or even changed a small part of the story entirely to better suit us. This wasn't frequent, but it did happen now and then. I don't think this was a negative reflection on the product/videos, but rather a personal preference. I can't imagine the time and effort it would take to create an entire memory story ourselves, so for us - these videos were valuable and I'd say they are worth the cost. I do think that each user's results might vary a bit according to how well suited the story is for them. But overall, it seems a very good tool that likely only needs a little tweaking for personal preferences, if any. Some of the references in the memory story might not be familiar to young children - such as valium, Celine Dion, James Dean, and Neo from the Matrix. This made those points of the story less memorable for my daughter and we had to make some adaptions for her or spend some time learning about the references so that portion of the story would stick better for her. Also, while it was not an issue for us, I thought I should mention that the vidoes use the word "ass" (in reference to a "donkey", not as a swear word) a few times... since it is the name of the animal - and used in that capacity alongside the image of the donkey - I didn't mind it, even though it was another word that my daughter was not familiar with and needed explaining (once explained, it worked well). But I thought it worth mentioning so you know what to expect ahead of time. I also think, and suggested, that it might be helpful to have the written name of the elements appear on screen during the "action replay" portions of the video too, but again, this is more of a personal preference thing. I find my mind does well for spelling when I can see the word, so repeated exposure is good for me. In fact, I'm far better at remembering someone's name when I see it written on a name tag or roster and sometimes "read" notes in my mind when trying to recall something. So the more I see something written, the better it is for me. Final ThoughtsIf memorizing the periodic table of elements, presidents, or other information is something of interest to you or your children, I would definitely recommend looking into these videos and trying out his free ones to see if they would work for you! Every child (every person) has a different learning style, needs, wants, and methods that work for them, so I always say that nothing is perfect for all. Not everyone will love any given product or service. The same holds true here. Luckily, the free videos are plenty to give you an idea of if it'll work for you and if you want access to the rest or not. You might wonder if this is only good for visual learners, but I think that it could actually be valuable to both those who are already strong visual learning types AND those who are not. For those that aren't, I wonder if the method that is used in the Memorize Academy videos might even help one learn how to better benefit from or strengthen their visual memory. While I was given access to the videos at no cost, this review is my sincere opinion and all thoughts are my own or that of my kids. There are NO affiliate links in this post. I'm sharing about this because we enjoyed it and I think others may be interested.
The Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii (CHOH) Conference this year will be held on March 10-11, 2017! * Details can be found at: http://www.christianhomeschoolersofhawaii.org/w/index.php/conference-2/ * You can register online this year too, at: https://choh2017.regfox.com/christian-homeschoolers-of-hawaii-conference-2017 * Childcare is available through CEF. Details for that are here: http://www.cefhawaii.com/choh2017 ... NOTE: I share information that is both faith-based and secular since my followers/readers come from all kinds of backgrounds. I'm not affiliated or associated with CHOH or their conference. This is NOT a paid advertisement or sponsored post. Just sharing information that might be of interest to some of my readers.
"Battleship Missouri Memorial invites the public to celebrate “Living History Day” aboard the majestic USS Missouri on Saturday, January 28 from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. This event is free for Kama`aina and Military. Living History Day commemorates two special occasions for the Mighty Mo – the battleship’s first launch in 1944 and its 18th year as a living educational maritime monument in Hawaii. Living History Day will have something for the entire family, including live big band style music, exhibits of historic vehicles and wartime weaponry, 1940’s memorabilia, historic reenactments, photo displays from other historic sites, and oral histories from World War II witnesses and survivors. For a full listing of “Living History Day” activities and event schedule, visit https://ussmissouri.org/get-involv…/…/celebrate-our-birthday"  NOTE: I am not affiliated or associated with this event or organization. This is NOT a sponsored post or paid advertisement. I'm simply passing along information that might be of interest to my readers. Please direct any questions to the event organizers. Enjoy! Looks like there is a new gymnastics and "ninja" facility opening in Kailua (they always get cool stuff over there)- it's called TumbleKids Kailua! Their GRAND OPENING will be Sunday, January 15th, from 12-2PM, where they will offer a FREE mini trial class (from about 12:15-12:45), open gym, bouncy house, and more, plus registration opportunities! All children must have a signed waiver to participate and be accompanied by an adult. TumbleKids Kailua is located at 201 Kapa'a Quarry Place, #51, Kailua, HI. Their brand new facility is 6,300 square feet and is filled with state of the art gymnastics equipment including a spring floor, balance beams, bars, vault, a trampoline, tumbletrak, rings, bouncy house and more!
Gymnastics classes start at just 18 months with recreational classes for boys and girls as well as a Women’s Junior Olympic competitive team. Ninja Kids is a fun and exciting class for keiki with boundless energy! Classes are for all children 5-12 and include martial arts, gymnastics, parkour and other free style movements. TumbleKids Kailua can also offer a trial Ninja class for your group! For trial lessons families pay $20/Child or $35 for the family, which can then be applied to the yearly registration fee, should they choose to join. Individual or group trial classes can be set up by phone at (808) 798-5413. Registration for Session 1: January 23rd-March 18th (2017) is available online at www.tumblekidskailua.com. Sign up for classes before the grand opening to be entered in a chance to win a FREE Birthday Party for your child! ($300 value!!) For more information, visit their website. You can also find them on Facebook! NOTE: I am NOT affiliated or associated with Tumblekids Kailua and this is NOT a sponsored post or paid advertisement. I am simply passing on info that some of my readers might find useful or interesting.
Please contact the company directly with any questions or for more information. |
AuthorI'm a homeschooling mom of three, enjoying our time in Hawaii and hoping to share some of that experience with you, including ideas, reviews, resources, and information. 
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