1. WHEN: 
   1. Our regular meetings will be held the first Thursday of each month
   2. at 7:30 p.m. 
2. WHERE:
   1. at Northwest Bible Fellowship,
   2. 96th & Grand Ave.

• EACH MEETING IS ON THURSDAY EVENING

• Feb. 6,
• Mar. 6,
• Apr. 3,
• May 1. 

 

 

 

I am sending this message out to as many homeschool groups for which I could find an address or an email contact.

Spelling Bee

The A.V. Sorensen branch of the Omaha Public Library is hosting a homeschool spelling bee for children upper elementary (about 4th or 5th grade) through 8th grade.  It will be held Tuesday, February 18 at 1 p.m. at the A.V. Sorensen Community Center, 4808 Cass Street.  Any child (8th grade or under) who has not already qualified for a county spelling bee is welcome to participate.  Words will be taken from the Paideia, available from the Omaha World-Herald, and from Webster's Dictionary.  1st and 2nd place winners of this bee have the opportunity to advance to the Douglas County Spelling Bee on February 22.  Pre-registration is greatly appreciated, but not required.  Participants are requested to arrive at 12:45 p.m. to sign in.  There is no cost to participate.  Please contact Sandra Larsen at 558-5409, e-mail sjlarsen2000@aol.com OR call the A.V. Sorensen Library at 444-5274.

The deadline for this year’s Junior Duck Stamp Contest is quickly approaching. Entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2003. In case you are not familiar with the contest, this is a nationwide contest with a contest held at the state level. The Best of Show winner from each state will participate in the national contest in Washington DC. The contest is open to all students in grades K-12. The entries are divided into four grade groups (K-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12) with ribbons awarded for three first place, three second place, three third place and sixteen honorable mention entries in each group. The Best of Show is selected from the first place entries. The first, second and third place winners receive a prize for their efforts, usually art supplies. Every student who participates receives a certificate. We hold an awards ceremony in May for all winners.

The contest began in 1990 and is modeled after the adult Federal Duck Stamp Program. Both programs create a design for a stamp with the intent of raising an awareness and appreciation of wildlife. The Junior Duck Stamp Program received a long awaited boost this year when the U.S. Postal Service began advertising and selling the stamp in its philatelic catalog.

There is a wealth of information about the contest that is available on the Internet. The address for the Federal Duck Stamp site is http://duckstamps.fws.gov. From that site you can download the 2003 Junior Duck Stamp brochure, the 2003 Junior Duck Stamp Centennial curriculum, and the standard Junior Duck Stamp Curriculum. There is another website at www.calwaterfowl.org that has information and many links to other sites. If you do not have access to the Internet, please let me know and I will send information to you.

This year the National Wildlife Refuge System is celebrating its centennial. We would love to have a huge increase in participation for the contest. This means to us that the word is getting out about the refuge system and conservation. If you could get this information out to those in your group, either by word of mouth or newsletter format, it would be greatly appreciated. If you would like more information or if you have questions, please let me know. Thank you very much!

Here's a fun online quiz about the Chronicles of Narnia...

Which Chronicles of Narnia book are you?

 

Mike:Deep in our hearts, we all look to find and fulfill a life purpose bigger than ourselves. In his book, The Call, author Os Guinness says there are three reasons why American culture, especially, is searching for special significance in a calling

• First, the search for purpose in life is one of the deepest issues of our experience as human beings.
• Second, the expectation that we should all be living purposeful lives is boosted by the many opportunities and choices modern society offers
• And third, contemporary Western civilization is perhaps the first society in the history of mankind to have no agreed-upon answer to the purpose of life. Most of our non-Christian friends and neighbors believe in relative truth, rather than in God's absolute truth in the Scripture. "Thankfully," says Guinness, Christians know that our calling is "the truth that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is lived out as a response to His summons and in His service." Homeschoolers must be sure this principle is instilled in their children. If the next generation of young people has a firm sense of their calling the way God sees our callings, they will have a decided vocational advantage in our relativistic society. And until next time, I'm Mike Smith.
  How can the Home School Legal Defense Association help you? To find out, contact us and ask for a free copy of Homeschooling: Start Here—answers to your questions about homeschooling. We'll also show how we can help you 365 days a year. If you'd like to receive Home School Heartbeat's daily email transcript, simply sign up when you visit our website at homeschoolheartbeat.com. That's homeschoolheartbeat.com. Reprinted with permission of Home School Legal Defense Association. Copyright HSLDA 2002.