Touch-a-Truck: Saturday, 9/15/2012

The Kimberton Fire Company is hosting a Touch-a-Truck event at the fire house grounds on Saturday, 9/15/2012 from 10AM - 3PM. According to their facebook page kids will be able to climb on & touch lots of big trucks, and they say there will be food, games, and plenty of activities. Check their website if you need directions!

Butterfly Celebration: Saturday, 8/25/2012

Saturday, August 25th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Butterfly Celebration

Upper Schuylkill Valley Park. 610-948-5170

Come and help us celebrate this fabulous little insect, the butterfly. This program will include information on tagging, feeding and raising butterflies. There will be hands-on activities for the kids and much more. If the weather allows, we will be releasing the tagged monarchs so they can begin their migration south. All ages; suggested donation $4 per person; weather permitting; all activities will be outdoors.

Hay Creek Festival Student Day: Friday, 9/7/2012

Hay Creek Festival - “Experience Early American Life at Historic Joanna Furnace” Friday September 7 is Student Day at the Hay Creek Festival off of Route 10 near Morgantown. Children get in free and teachers, chaperones, and homeschooling parents just pay a $7 entry fee each. Prices are normally $10/adult and $2/children ages 6-12 (I guess children 13+ are adults?) so this is a great deal, especially if you have a large family!

According to the site,

I am the only person I know who has never taken their family to this festival and everyone I know has really enjoyed it. We intended to go last year but Hurricane Irene and her little pal Tropical Storm Lee foiled our plans. We'll try to make it this year!

You will need to fill out a registration form here and bring it with you to the gate. Checks should be made out to the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association, but the site says they also take cash or credit cards at the gate. Attractions are open from 10AM - 5PM. I believe parking is a ways from the event, so they have a shuttle that will run from 7AM to 6PM.

The site also mentions an educational guide that will be posted mid-August, but I did not see it yet. I'll be checking back for it and if it's there I'll post the link!

Homeschool Week at Cherry Crest Farm: 9/17-9/21/2012

The week of September 17th is Homeschool Week at Cherry Crest Farm in Lancaster, PA.

As they describe on their website:

Home School families are invited to visit Cherry Crest Adventure Farm from September 17-21 for Homeschool Week.

Bring your family or homeschool co-op to experience the fun and educational components of our farm at your leisure. Venture into our 5 acre corn maze for an unique adventure. Explore the Farm Animal Center, hold a baby chick in our Farm Education Center and relax on our educational Farm Tour Wagon Ride. During this special week a Butter Making Lesson will be available. Students will learn how to make their own butter, as well as facts about dairy cows and the production of milk. A Corn Lesson, where they will learn all about all the products that are made out of corn will also be available. Students will make putty out of corn products as part of the lesson. Not all lessons available everyday.

For this week only, home school families will be admitted at the school field trip rate of $9.00 per person. There is no need to pre-register, simply visit our farm between September 17-21 and tell our admissions staff that your family is here for Homeschool Week. This discounted admission rate is good for this week only and WILL NOT apply to any other week's visit. Plan ahead and pick a raindate within this week as well!

Added bonus for 2012: If you visit on Friday, September 21st you are eligible to stay into the evening for our first flashlight maze of the fall season at no additional cost!
Check our calendar page for daily hours of operation. Please check our homepage if weather is questionable. In the event of rain, we will announce our closing on our website.
If you have any questions, please call our office at (717) 687-6843 or (866) 546-1799.

We've done the flashlight corn maze before and it's so much fun! Be sure to check it out!

Apologia Yahoo! Group - Lots of Free Resources

We are using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Zoology 2 - Swimming Creatures (affectionately called Zoo2 around here) and I just printed out several vocabulary & review worksheets posted in the Yahoo! group here.

It's free to join with your Yahoo! ID and the author, Jeannie Fulbright, posts pretty much every day. I've never seen a question asked of her that she did not respond to within a day or so (usually almost immediately!).

If you join the group, click on the 'files' link and you will find folders for each of the elementary Apologia levels chock full of useful stuff -- book lists, lesson plans, review sheets, tests. It's really a great resource and I'm thankful for all those who contributed their files. It's a big help to me!

NY Times Best-Selling Author Tom Lichtenheld in Haverford on Monday, 7/23/12

I haven't been to Children's Book World in Haverford yet, but it is high on my list of places to check out! Still, I wanted to post about this Monday's author event.

NY Times best-selling author Tom Lichtenheld will be there on Monday July 23 at 4:30pm. According to CBW's website, "Tom has a fabulous drawing activity for kids to participate in as well as fun giveaways, stories, and snacks."

His books include Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, Shark vs. Train, and his latest, E-Mergency!

OH! I just realized he is the illustrator for some of Amy Krause Rosenthal's books! I'm thinking Monday's the day we'll check out Children's Book World!

Alpha Omega Publications one-day 20% off sale, Monday, 7/23/2012

Monday, July 23rd, Alpha Omega is offering 20% off site-wide and free shipping on an order of $35+. Order online at AOP's website here.

Reviving my abandoned blog!

OK - I am frustrated I let this blog go for so long, but I am going to try to post regularly again. "Try" being the operative word!