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March Meeting - Math

Math U See – Jaime Foil

Jaime taught many years in the public school setting before she became a mom.  Jaime and her husband, Randy, GWCHE members, have homeschooled their two daughters for 12 years and have used Math U See for most of them.   If your child is struggling in math or you are looking for a program that will make math meaningful with a program that continues to Pre Calculus, please come and listen to how Math U See works.

Math Marvel – Jan Watson

By following the basic constructs of our lesson design, parents can follow through in other academics for overall success.  Jan Watson and her husband work as a team to present Math Marvel.  He presents the technology and Jan presents the premise on which math is build and “how” to make math a “favorite” subject for all kids.  Also, a young colleague, math instructor at Rapoport Academy may assist in the presentation; he is a “walking testimony” of how “Marvel Math” inspires the elementary learner—their TAKS scores are superlative to those coming forth from public education.

Photos by Debbie

This is the last chance to get yearbook photos.  Photos will begin at 6:00 and will last till 7:00, so mark your calendars now if you need your pictures taken.

GWCHE Website

Renee Van Treuren will be available for your questions. Learn what the GWCHE website has to offer. Get the latest news by email, schedule your own reminders from the calendar.

Science Fair - Thursday, February 18

What is colorful, full of imagination and bubbling with excitement?

Answer:  The Science Fair!

Here are some reasons why you and your children don’t want to miss the Science Fair this Thursday at Highland Baptist Church:
1.  Come listen to Dr. Matt Porter (home schooling dad and physician) share about “Vision:  From the Sun to Your Brain”!

2.  To learn all kinds of interesting things from the students!

3.  To support the fellow home school students who prepared the projects!

4.  To see how to prepare a project for next year!

5.  To visit with friends and gain encouragement on the home school journey!

6.  To inspire your student to ask questions and find answers!

Projects can be viewed starting at 6:30 p.m. The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m.

Please contact Corina Kaul with any questions.
sciencefair@gwche.org

YEARBOOK PHOTOS will be taken before the Science Fair. Debbie from Photos By Debbie will be taking the pictures from 5:00-6:30. Thank you!

Raisin & Nut Cookies (from Set for Life recipe book)
(sometimes called breakfast cookies)

1 1/3 cups water                           5 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups raisins                               1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup oil                                    1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar                         1 teaspoon salt
1 cups white sugar                        2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs                                         1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla                        1 cup nuts (optional)

Boil water and raisins for 5 minutes; let cool.
Cream oil, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
Blend in cooled raisin mixture.
Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Add nuts, if desired.
Drop dough from spoon onto nonstick baking sheet.
Bake in 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or just until set.
Yield:  60 cookies

Note:  I actually was missing one ingredient – the raisins.  So, I substituted a mixture of dried fruit that I did have – a few currants, dried apricots and a few dates.

Science Fair - February 18, 2010

What do Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein, Pierre Curie, Thomas Alfa Edison and Blaise Pascal have in common?

The answer:  All of these famous scientists were home schooled or self taught!  The were inventors and scientists who contributed to various scientific disciplines such as engineering, anatomy, geology, botany, physics, mathematics, and more.

A great way to encourage the budding scientists in your home is to be involved in our GWCHE Science Fair!   Digging deeper on topics such as Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry, Computers, Engineering, Geology, Oceanography, Physics, Zoology or others can be a fun, educational and a rewarding experience!

The 10th annual Science Fair will be held during the general meeting on Thursday, February 18, 2010 at Highland Baptist Church.

Any student K-12 is welcome to participate.  This is a noncompetitive science fair where each participant is recognized.

Begin now by brainstorming with your child about areas of interest.  Any science project or model is welcome!

One way to do a Science Fair Project is to:

  1. Select a topic and ask a “big question”. Use this question to make a hypothesis.  Books in the city libraries, GWCHE library and websites can give great ideas for projects.  The GWCHE website has additional information and links.
  2. Test your hypothesis by performing experiments and record the data.
  3. Create a display that includes your hypothesis, experiment procedure description, data collection (can include pictures, drawings, charts) and the conclusion.  A research paper is optional.

Get started today!  If you have any questions or to sign up, please contact Corina Kaul at sciencefair@gwche.org. Deadline for entry is Friday, February 12th.

Some additional resources or support for your science fair project that may be helpful are:

  1. Janice VanCleave’s Science Experiment Sourcebook
  2. A Science Project by Abeka
  3. Bill Nye’s Teacher Guide

The Waco-McLennan County Library has numerous books in the Juvenile Section- 501.8-507.8 and 535-579

Do a Google search on Science Fair Projects and hundreds of ideas can be found.

You can even ask Janice Van Cleave a question. She can point you in the right direction. Janice is a regular contributor to our GWCHE website. Click the Ask Janice link on the left side of any page on the website. There you will see all the questions she has already answered. Click here for complete information about asking questions.

January Meeting - Quick Cooking

Little ChefsI know what you must be saying.

After that wonderful Christmas break, my brain is dead from planning and organizing.   And now I have to get back in the swing of teaching.

Don’t despair.  GWCHE has a wonderful way to add life to your cooking rut.  We are one week away from our GWCHE QUICK COOKING MEETING on Thursday, January 14.  You are invited to bring your favorite quick dish to share with our membership next Thursday.

Can you through together a fruit bowl that pleases the crowd?

Do you know how to make a killer bread?

Last minute meat cooking your signature?

Your breakfast burrito ”the bomb”?

We WANT you!

Come and set up your recipe and then you can then walk around the room and taste the yummy foods of other moms who need something quick on the table after working on Algebra all afternoon.  We need you to bring ONE copy of the recipe for everyone to see on your table.  This is just for those with food allergies to check to make sure there is nothing that will cause them to have a reaction.

At the end of the night, we will take the recipes and add them to the list that we are compiling on the website.  You don’t need to buy a thing to get all the recipes …just sit in your pjs with a cup of tea looking at the GWCHE website (www.gwche.org) for ideas for the next day.  How cool is that?!!!  At the end of each post there is a link to “print this page”.  This will print only the information in the center column of the page.  You won’t waste ink by printing all the extra information we have on our website.

It will help us out if you put your recipe on the website either before or after the meeting.  Please go to Here are the directions to add your recipes to the website. We have a step-by-step tutorial to show you how easy it is to share your recipe with everyone.  But if you don’t want to do that, we’ll do it for you.

Not only will we have great recipes to taste at our meeting, but our guest speaker, Jessica Kaczyk, absolutely has a passion for talking about nutrition.  She is going to share some great ideas on how to feed our families with health in mind.  Got any nutrition questions? She’s your girl to answer them.  Come and be prepared to come away with lots of fantastic ideas to rev-up your meals.

To see the recipes that have been added so far, click Recipes for Quick Cooking.

If you would like to put your 1-5 year olds in the nursery for the evening, please contact Lisa Sterner at childcare@gwche.org to reserve their spot.  We only want to hire child care workers that are needed so your reservation is requested by WEDNESDAY, January 13th by 4:00pm.  After that date, we may not guarantee that there will be space for last minute drop offs.

All other children are welcome to stay with you to taste the recipes and listen to our speaker.  Please make sure that children don’t wander the church.  We are guests at Highland and want to honor their wishes.  The playroom is only for the 1-5 year olds.

See you on Thursday, January 14th at 6:30 PM.

YEARBOOK PHOTOS

We will have Debbie from PHOTOS BY DEBBIE taking pictures again for this year’s yearbook.  She will be setting up and taking photos from 5:30-6:30pm.  This is before the regular meeting/check in so if you would like to have your kids in the yearbook, come a little early.  This is at no cost to you.  If you would like to take advantage of her family sitting or CD deal, please ask her for a flyer.  She offers home schoolers a free sitting fee and you can buy your CD for $45.  This may be a great idea for Easter pictures (she usually has live bunnies) or family picture updates.  If you can’t make this meeting, Debbie will be available before the February and March meetings to take photos.  If you bought a yearbook, you definitely want to have your kids in it.

How to add a recipe

For this month’s meeting we are featuring easy, family-tested recipes.

You can submit your recipes directly to the website.

The first thing you need to do is register to the site.  Directions for registering.

After you are registered, go to the log in page.  The address is www.gwche.org/wp-admin If you don’t remember this address, you can scroll down any page at www.gwche.org on the right side to the “For Those Who Post” section.  Click the Log In link.

Use the log in information you just entered.  You’ll then come to the Dashboard.  On the left side click the link for Posts.  Then click Add New

You’ll then get a page that looks like this.  

At the very top there is a place for the title.  Put the name of your recipe then a dash and your name there.

If your screen only has one row of tools in the toolbar like this:

Then you’ll need to click the one that says “Show/Hide Kitchen Sink” when you hover over it.  Then you will get two rows of tools.

Click into the main text area under the toolbars.  This is where you type your recipe.  Make sure the Visual tab on the right is active.

Unless you know HTML then you can click the other tab.  If your recipe is already typed in Word, then it is important to not copy and paste directly into this box.  Word will add all kinds of nasty code that will make everything look funny.  So you’ll need to copy your text first then click on the button in the toolbar with the “W” Word symbol.  This is the Paste from Word button.  You’ll get a popup box and this is where you paste your recipe.

After you have pasted it in then click insert.  You can use some of the formatting options (bold, italics, bullets, etc) on the toolbar now.

If you would like to add any photos of the cooking process or your finished product that is very easy to do.

First click into your post where you want the photo to  be.  The photo will appear where ever the cursor is.

Just above the toolbars there is an Upload/Insert section.  Click the first icon (Upload images) and then you can browse to the image location on your computer and upload the photo.

On the upload screen, make sure you click the From Computer tab and then click Select Files to browse for the photos on your computer.

Once the photo is uploaded there are several options.

Change the name of the title to something we can understand.  Use lower case and no spaces in the name.

tuna-casserole-mary-brown is a good example of how to name your photo.

Click the File URL button.  Then decide if you want your photo to be left, center or right.  Center is usually the best option.  Medium is usually the best option for the image size.

Then click Insert into Post.

After the recipe is the way you want it, look to the right side of the screen for Categories.

Scroll down and check the “Recipes for Quick Cooking” category.

Then click Submit for Review.

At this point, your recipe will be saved.  If you need to save it while you are working on it, you can click “Save Draft” and come back to it later.  You can also click the “Preview” button to see what it will look like when it is posted.

Now send an email to webmaster@gwche.org with Quick Cooking in the subject line.  We’ll proofread your recipe and then publish it to the website.  This step is important because we don’t want to publish your recipe until you are ready.  We can see when you have a post in progress but since you might still want to work on it, we won’t proofread and publish it till you ask us to.

You can still make changes to your recipes after they have been published.  Just log back in to your account, make the changes, and then email webmaster@gwche.org to get the changes published.

If you have any questions or technical problems, please email webmaster@gwche.org.

GWCHE History Fair

  • Highland Baptist Church
  • November 19, 2009
  • 6:30-8:30 pm
  • Register 6:15 pm
  • Sign up Deadline: November 1, 2009

Guest Speakers:

  • Jerry Jones – History Professor
  • Stephen Sloan – History Professor
  • Corina Kaul – Information on National Finalist History Fair

Every Participant will Receive:

GWCHE History Fair Certificate and Ribbon
Gift Certificates to:

Shipley Donuts
Drawings
Taco Casa
McAlister
Pizzas Hut
Mazzios

There is a list on the website of everyone who has signed up so far.

http://gwche.org/2009/10/13/history-fair-participants/

Look over the list and make sure you are on the list for the History Fair. This list will be kept updated.  So check back to make sure your information is correct.

Send me a quick email to let me know your subjects by November 1, 2009.

All Junior and High School Students (5th – 12th graders) who would like their entries to be judged will be in a drawing for a 20.00 Casa Ole gift card. This is for the judged entries only.

In addition to the receiving the GWCHE Certificate and Ribbon and the gift certificates that each participant receives, those whose entries are judged also receive:

An opportunity to enter the Casa Ole drawing
1st, 2nd, 3rd  place ribbons

More information with ideas for history fair projects is in this article.

Sarah Lucas
History Fair Coordinator
historyfair@gwche.org