Apples of Gold Home School News

Edifying Homeschoolers Along the Way

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Volume 16  - 8/26/10                                                                                                                                  

Welcome to

Apples of Gold Home School News!

Where you'll find the latest news on activities, updates to events and resources, and ideas to enlarge your homeschool experience.   

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Be Sure and Check the Fantastic Links Page

We just added a NEW SITE to the fantastic links page. Fit Douglas County is an entire physical activity guide to all places and things fit & physical in Douglas County. Listed you will find area health centers, tennis courts, swimming, parks & trails, bowling alleys, golf courses, canoeing & kayaking, dance, and more. Also provided are links to all seasonal youth programs, from alpine ski clubs to martial arts. Fantastic Links: http://www.applesofgoldnews.com/apps/links/  Fit Douglas County: http://www.fitdouglascounty.com

Homeschool Picnic

Homeschoolers in the Douglas County Wis. area are invited to kick off the fall with a picnic on Thursday, September 9th at the Maple Park, on Hwy. F, north off Hwy 2 in Maple. Start time is 10:00, or whenever you can come. Stay as long as you want. Bring along lawn chairs and a sack lunch. Besides playground equipment, the park also has a tennis and basketball court.

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Want to encourage a budding writer?

 

www.aNOVELWritingSite.com  

FREE writing lesson every week

by professional inspirational novelists

who are also experienced homeschool teachers

 

Blog format allows students to interact with others

 

Annual Student Writing Competition

 

GREAT WAY TO ENHANCE YOUR HOMESCHOOL WRITING CLASSES

  

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe today!

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Constitution Day Poster Contest

All Kindergarten-12th grade students are invited to participate in the 2010 Constitution Day Poster Contest.  Entrants must create a poster that demonstrates how the freedoms embodied in the U.S. Constitution affect their daily lives.  Entries will be judged on both artistic merit and relevance to the U.S. Constitution.  Entries must be postmarked or uploaded by October 1, 2010.  For more information, visit www.ConstitutionFacts.com.

Homeschoolers have been among the previous winners in this national contest!

Catch a promotional video for the Contest on Blip.tv: http://blip.tv/file/3956980  and on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6ktjFSivM, both produced by the Johnson County Library (KS).

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New Site to Share and Exchange Curriculum for Free

There is a new website called Curriculum Share that launched recently, intended to build a homeschooling community where homeschoolers can get free curriculum. In just over 2 weeks they've had almost 1,000 members already sharing their curriculum with other homeschoolers.

Many homeschoolers are one income or low income families, and we struggle with the cost of living, let alone curriculum. With this in mind, the site founders have created a place for homeschoolers where quality educational materials are free of cost. Members of Curriculum Share become part of a community that works together to make sure all of our children receive the best education their parents can give. Curriculum Share is about cutting costs, not corners. You will pay only the cost of shipping agreed upon by you and the person you are getting your homeschool curriculum from.

You can visit the website at www.curriculumshare.com

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Homeschool Science Academy Research Paper Contest
For Students Age 11-18 (as of October 1, 2010)
(student's age will be considered in judging)

Your Research Paper Should Directly or Indirectly Answer the Question:

How Does Human Anatomy and/or Physiology
Support the Biblical Account of the Creation of Humans?

1st Place Prize: Dell Inspiron 17 inch Laptop Computer
2nd Place Prize: Dell Inspiron 15 inch Laptop Computer
3rd Place Prize: Dell Inspiron 14 inch Laptop Computer
4th - 10th Place Prizes: $25 Amazon Gift Certificates

For full details, guidelines, and registration go to:
http://www.homeschoolscienceacademy.com/contest.htm

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Cable  Natural History Museum

Cable, WI -- has an outstanding calendar of events and exploration for families all year round. Apples of Gold will be adding this site to the Fantastic sites page.

 http://www.cablemuseum.org/index.html.

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I N T E R C O L L E G I A T E S T U D I E S I N S T I T U T E

Scholarship Essay Competition

for High School Students

"Religious Freedom and American Culture: The Place of Religious Minorities"

Essayists are asked to make reference to the life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and consider the applicability of his experience to religious minorities in America today. What accounts for the American experience of maintaining both religious diversity and relative social harmony? How do the experiences of religious minorities in the founding era of the American Republic help us to think about the place of suspect religious minorities in America today?

Every Registrant receives a FREE copy of:

American Cicero:

The Life of Charles Carroll

Prizes

1st Prize: $1,000 Scholarship + ISI Books

2nd Prize: $500 Scholarship + ISI Books

3rd Prize: $250 Scholarship+ ISI Books

INTERCOLLEGIATE STUDIES INSTITUTE

Religious Freedom and American Culture: The Place of Religious Minorities

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute

2010-2011 Scholarship Essay Competition for High School Students

Contest Description

Religious pluralism and the accommodation of religious minorities are celebrated hallmarks of the American political order. Precisely what accounts for the successful and peaceable American experience with religious pluralism, however, remains a matter of controversy and debate. Advocates of what Richard John Neuhaus famously described as the "Naked Public Square" suggest that strict separation, even exclusion, of religiously informed convictions from public life accounts for that outcome. Others propose, to the contrary, that the American constitutional order provides "articles of peace" (in John Courtney Murray’s formulation) that carve out room for diverse religious convictions in public life—and that this receptivity to faith has been essential to the exceptional American experience with religious freedom.

As President Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence with the Baptists of Danbury, CT, reminds us, disputes about American religious freedom, and religious minorities, are as old as the country itself. Perhaps no American of the Founding generation embodies those tensions more clearly than Charles Carroll of Carrollton. An illegitimate son, publicly unrecognized by his father, Carroll became one of the better educated and wealthiest of the Founding Fathers. The only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll’s stewardship of his great wealth, as well as his participation in founding-era politics were informed by his Catholic faith.

In the interest of examining the tradition of religious freedom, this contest invites essayists to explore the place of religious minorities in American society and the conditions for their influential participation in public life.

Essay Question

Essayists are asked to make reference to the life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and consider the applicability of his experience to religious minorities, especially suspect religious minorities, in America today. What accounts for the American experience of maintaining both religious diversity and relative social harmony? How do the experiences of religious minorities in the founding era of the American Republic help us to think about the place of religious minorities in America today?

Essays are to be between 1,200 and 1,500 words long. Essays will be judged on the basis of scholarship, imagination, and quality of writing.

Contest Rules and Guidelines

Participation in the competition is free and includes a complimentary copy of Dr. Bradley Birzer’s book,"American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll". In order to receive the book, all students must register by Friday, December 3, 2010 by emailing essaycontest@isi.org with complete registration information including full name, email address, mailing address, phone number, high school, and year of high school graduation. All essays must be emailed or postmarked by Friday,

February 18, 2011.

Prizes

1st Place: $1,000 + Set of ISI Books on "Order and Liberty at the Founding"

2nd Place: $500 + Set of ISI Books on "Order and Liberty at the Founding"

3rd Place: $250 + Set of ISI Books on "Order and Liberty at the Founding"

Please visit http://essaycontest.isi.org for more information

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Edgewater Resort in Duluth offering Discounts to Homeschoolers

The Edgewater Resort & Waterpark Hotel & Conference Center in Duluth offers a great discount to home school families.

50% off any room Sunday-Thursday/September-June

25% off any room Friday and Saturday

25% off any room for the months of July and August.

Just ask for the homeschool discount.

They also offer a program called Tiki Tots. Families are able to come to from 8am-Noon and utilize the park for a low cost.

Contact Lisa Filzen at 218-625-2608 or call toll free 1-800-777-7925 and ask for reservations.

New Logo

FREE online education

http://www.free-ed.net  (Free Education) is a site that provides over 300 online courses in a wide variety of disciplines, from math to photography, all for FREE. Mostly college level courses, they do not offer credit or certification, but could be a valuable asset used as an alternative high school curriculum, for enhancing a resume, or to investigate college interests before enrolling in an institution. Here, in part, is the mission of Free-Ed as stated on the website: "Free-Ed.Net is committed to providing an online "school" where users from around the world can study, take courses, and participate in online community learning activities at no cost."

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Want to find more events going on in the Superior region? Go the the "fantastic links" page and visit the official Superior, Wisconsin web site.

Thanks for stopping by Apples of Gold News.

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Faith, Fiction, Family

Join Others in 24-Hour Prayer

Living Waters Healing Network is a grassroots organization committed to prayer and the study prayer. There are two ways of getting involved in our organization. First you can use our at-cost curriculum designed to help you study and set up a prayer session in the home on a daily or weekly basis.This curriculum will be available by August 1. Second, you can sign up for a session in our master calendar of prayer on a weekly or daily basis. We eventually wish to have a 24-7 prayer blanket from rural areas and small towns that may not have churches planning to do this in their area and have staff manning those time periods to pray with you and answer questions.Contact us in the following ways: Phone: 715-441-1385 - Email: livingwatershealingnetwork@gmail.com -Website: http://www.livingwatershealingnetwork.com . Please email your interest in curriculum as soon as possible, so we can plan for one print-run.

Host A Foreign Exchange Student?

Pacific Intercultural Exchange is searching for Christian families who want to promote peace making by hosting an exchange student from a predominantly Muslim country. Our students are all 15-17 years old, speak English, have medical insurance, and their own spending money. Many of our students have been awarded scholarships through the US State Department and would not otherwise be able to spend an academic school year studying in the US. Students arrive in August and stay through June while they attend the local public high school. Students are placed throughout Minnesota in rural areas, suburban and urban areas. Our host families come from many backgrounds, but they share the love of learning, tolerance, and patience. If you would like more information about the program, please call Mary Armstrong at 952-236-0745/email: maryarmstrong@pieusa.org/website: www.pieusa.org

Former Homeschooler Selling Family Business

Fresh Flower Freeze-Drying Business For Sale - Alone, or with Home/Building. Contact http://www.mpefloral.com Mary Peshman, Memories Preserved Ent. Inc., N5881 Hwy 57 Hilbert, WI 54129 -- 920-849-3664